judgeing pace

[megagyger]

for ex. an 8 horse race with 4 prominent runners and 4 hold up, how do you know if the race will be run at a strong pace? also if it says on past form that the horse chased leaders/ up with pace, does that mean that they are neither front runners or hold up merchants and it woudn't matter what pace the race went at. one more question, say a horse had a bad draw in a race but was a hold up horse, would the draw not really affect them? thanks for whoever helps

[Trotter]

Re: judgeing pace

for ex. an 8 horse race with 4 prominent runners and 4 hold up, how do you know if the race will be run at a strong pace? also if it says on past form that the horse chased leaders/ up with pace, does that mean that they are neither front runners or hold up merchants and it woudn't matter what pace the race went at. one more question, say a horse had a bad draw in a race but was a hold up horse, would the draw not really affect them? thanks for whoever helps

Well..........you don't know in advance how the race will be run. You just have to use your study of the runners to have your best guess and then look at each horse's chance in the light of how you think it might be run It is extremely satisfying when you select a horse on the basis of how you think the race will go and it works out exactly to plan Of course the race won't always play out as you expect - that's racing for you ! I generally think 'prominent runners' would be horses who run behind the pacesetters by choice, ie they are capable of moving up to the front but the jockey chooses not to because he's saving something for a sprint. These would often be horses that 'travel well' ie are going easily and not being shoved along to retain a place. I think of this a positive. I think of 'chased leaders' as being a horse who's being ridden along to stay behind the leaders, ie he's going as fast as he can to retain his position but can't catch the leaders. i'd view this as a negative comment because he's unlikely to be able to quicken up in a sprint finish Of course, there'll be examples of both run styles who win and both who lose, I'm thinking in general I certainly view a bad draw as less of a problem to a hold up horse particularly over longer trips