Sectional Timing

[Ron]

I've often posted some sectional timings from Simon Rowlands of Timeform (in fact he informed me that he was actually a freelance employed by Timeform for the specific purpose of Sectional Timings). I see his work has been introduced in the ATR race results analysis. Have a look. It is excellent for Sectional Timing enthusiasts. I don't know for how long this has been available; just came across it by accident tonight

Purely for example, looking at the 12.45 Redcar tomorrow. If you look at Funkadelic's only run and click on Sectional Times it gives the sectional times for each runner . If you look at Sectional Tools it gives the sectional speeds of each horse. Looking at Funkadelic you will see that at one point he was travelling at a faster speed than any other horse in the race achieved at any time during the race.

I'm sure those with the time could make great use of these tools. Have fun

PS There is a realy good guide to the usage of this data here

 

[QuarterMoonII]

The main problem for sectional timing over here is that most of the time this relies on hand-held timing as the horses are not required to carry the microchip technology as a matter of course.

Over in America (where the sport is much more betting dependent), most courses do require the use of technology for sectional timing, so stopwatch followers are much better served than the old days of a guy standing trackside with a stopwatch.

Obviously Timeform is appropriately named because Phil Bull first advocated this type of analysis; of course, history is no guarantee of future returns otherwise there would be no bookies!

 

[Ron]

I think it's a bit more sophisticated than that nowadays QM. http://www.totalperformancedata.com/

 

[QuarterMoonII]

I think it's a bit more sophisticated than that nowadays QM. http://www.totalperformancedata.com/

I have seen that plenty of times where they show you on screen which horse is leading, second, etc. and they have that in French racing as well as over here and America (and I saw it 20 years ago at Happy Valley in Hong Kong); however, just as for accurate sectional timing, it requires them to put tracking technology on the horses.

It is not done at every track all of the time. In the UK it tends to be just the big meetings. When it comes to Royal Ascot and one of the big two year old races, there will be no sectional timings available for some horse that has run once in a midweek maiden at Bath or Catterick.

 

[Ron]

Fair enough but it's definitely becoming more precise. Maybe we, as punters (although I'm not strictly a punter), aren't too interested in those performances at the lower end of the scale, at least for now?