Racing Strategy

[Eric]

Interesting info ...

Outside Post Positions and Running Wide: What's the Cost? For the (theoretical) answer and a look at these variables from a mathematical perspective, complete with diagrams, take a peek at the following URL:

http://www.horse-science.com/Distances.htm

[Carl]

Good link Eric, thanks.

I liked this statement from the site, have never heard it before (Carl code for "I don't know if it is true or not".)
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"In summary:

The absolute distance penalty of an outside running position is the same regardless of tightness of turn, but the speed difference needed to stay in position is greater on a tighter racetrack turn."
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[Glen]

I've read this before and it sound mathematically sound. But I don't think it works in real life. In one of KM newsletters he indicated how at most tracks the inside post is bad for early speed in sprints. Often you will see the inside horse start off a step or two behind the field in the initail break. Perhaps being pinched back or something. And how the outside post horse has more room to break freely...I think this is true at some tracks...However in routes, inside post rule!

[delayjf]

I'd have to agree with Glen, especially as it applies to horses coming from off the pace. Anytime I see my betting interest behind horses on the rail I cringe. To many times I've had horses have to wait to get clear sometimes for a quarter of a mile while horses on the outside are able to start their moves and get a jump on the horse stuck on the rail. When they hit the stretch the inside horse now has to make up the distance/time he lost waiting for a hole to develop, assuming the horse has the guts to shoot through the hole, which some horse don't.
I also agree that at most tracks the rail is not the best part of the track to be on, but rather the middle 3/4 paths. I believe this is due to the angled stretch which allows dirt to drift towards the rail and the fact that the tractors that groom the track after every race tend to drive over the same sections of the track each time, packing the dirt underneath. Day in and day out, this has to have some affect. I realize there are exceptions to the above scenario, but generally I think it's true.
delayjf