The speed angle

[scotty657]

Wondering if anyone can help me here. The other day I was talking to a fella who's always in the bookies, absolutely fanatical about the horses. Told me if Mukhmal broke well it would romp home in the Lily Agnes and explained why this was. The day he won his first race, the time was only half a second slower than the listed event that took place just after. Anyway the speed side of it is something I've never really worked on a lot but it certainly interests me. I noticed at the bottom of result cards on the RP sites it will say '1m 40.37s (slow by 3.57s)' or similar. Is this 3.57s slower than the average time set under these conditions? Just about every result shows up as slow so surely not? And is there any good sites you guys would recommend for speed figures and the sort, other than the RP one?

[Trotter]

Re: The speed angle

I noticed at the bottom of result cards on the RP sites it will say '1m 40.37s (slow by 3.57s)' or similar. Is this 3.57s slower than the average time set under these conditions? Just about every result shows up as slow so surely not?

What that means is that the race was run 3.57 seconds slower than the standard time for that distance at that track The racing post and many other organisations and individuals compile a list of standard times for each distance at each track...........ideally the standard time should reflect what the same horse would run over each trip at each track if he ran to his ability I think for Flat races the Post use a horse rated 100 carrying 9 stone The difference in standard times therefore is a numerical description of the difference of tracks For example the five furlongs at Epsom is pretty much downhill all the way and the Post reckon that a 100 rated horse carrying 9 stone should cover that 5 furlongs in 54.90 seconds The five furlongs at Pontefract is largely uphill and the same horse would be expected by the Post to cover that 5 furlongs in 61.80 seconds So now you can compare actual performances on totally different tracks by comparing what times horses run against a standard which has been equalised for all tracks and trips