Surprised no one has picked up on this yet

"Brian O'Rourke, the managing director of the UK National Stud in Newmarket believes that commercial pressures tend to favour the breeding of speed.

"Back in the 1970s most horses that would win the Derby would go for the Gold Cup which is two and a half miles as opposed to a mile and a half," he told BBC News".

You'd think he'd know his 1970s' Derby winners, wouldn't you?
 
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Len Madeiros said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33239531

Although I did note that someone said that Derby winners from the 70s went on to run in the [Ascot] Gold Cup over 2.5 miles. Really? That sounds like and is balls, so how much more of the article is balls?
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Yes, that quote is certainly nonsense, perhaps they meant the 1870s.

The general conclusion of the research is that since the 1970s horses have got faster over sprint distances by an average of about one second, but have not got noticeably faster over middle or longer distances. Given that the 1970s was the decade when the first racecourses started to introduce electronic timing, and that hand times are generally around one second slower than electronic times, there is an obvious question to put about the research before going any further.
 
On the "surprised no one's picked up on it yet" theme, TRF has a post saying that Racing UK have changed transponders so the picture delay has increased to 1.4 secs affecting in running players[FONT=Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif].


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Are there really In-Running bettors still operating off-course? :blink:

Would have thought the dedicated and successful ones were all now in the wifi-enabled booths at certain racecourses or in the hotel bedrooms of the Holiday Inn overlooking the track at Wolverhampton. :)
 
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