- This topic has 15 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 4 months ago by
.
- Posts
I appreciate there are some racecourse where available space and other considerations dictates that you can’t have the exact distance a race but how is the 2:57 at Salisbury listed as 6F 213 yds!
The course quite clearly has plenty of room being that this particular start is actually on the (relatively) straight mile course itself, so why not move the stalls back the 7 yards so it is officially the 7F race that it is meant to be and the commentator called it as.
I know it is a rather petty gripe in the scheme of things that racing has to deal with but I really don’t understand why wherever possible the stalls can’t be placed at the spot of the correct race distance.
Sorry I just had to get that off my chest – it has always been a bug bear of mine and seeing the Salisbury race just now while I am on the RF site reminded me to post on it.
Personally, I’d rather courses kept stalls where they’ve always been, so race times can be compared more easily.
Value Is EverythingWhen I was a young adult, race distances and extended race distances never changed and I knew them all off by heart.
Even John Randall at the Racing Post complimented me on my knowledge in that sphere and, trust me, there is no tougher audience on this planet.
(That said, he couldn’t resist making it a back-handed compliment by venturing the opinion it was the ONLY sphere where I reigned supreme!)
Anyway, all this 6f219yds malarkey gets right on my proverbials too.
Leave the stalls where they are to keep me and GT happy and just call it 7f – even if it isn’t!
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I am sure there are some tracks where distances are just over, such as 7 furlongs and 2 yards.
Then there is the issue of rail movements, which can change the official race distance by a significant margin.
Personally, I rather like how our race distances are measured in miles, furlongs and yards. Much better than boring metres.
No, that would not please me.
I want to know to the nearest yard.
If an official race distance is only approximate then racecourses may feel it does not matter if moving the start without telling punters. Distances could be a lot different than the official.Before race distances changed to be more accurate I suspected some racecourses changed their start position from meeting to meeting if not day to day.
If an official 7f distance was one day 10 yards shorter and another day 10 yards further it makes a difference to who wins.
Value Is EverythingYeah miles and furlongs is traditional and should never be changed because when I see the race quoted in metres I then go in my head well you ignore all the zeros shown and then divide that remaining number in half to get to the number of furlongs…..a real pain in the Arsenal that I can well do without.
If they can’t get it exact due to course design then I would be fully on board for calling 6F 213 yards just 7F (i.e. rounding up or down accordingly)….so then at least the Tingle Creek will go backing to being quoted as a 2m race rather than its current 1m 7½F nonsense.
I’m all for exact measurements and preferably in SI units which are a thing of beauty. It was nearly 300 outside today.
To continue the Hobnob theme, imagine if Mr McVitie sold you a pack of 18 and told you there’s ‘about 20’ in there. There’d be uproar!
I am with you LD73 never change our distances to metres.
To me 1600 metres is 8 furlongs but if we want to be precise it is 7f 210yards and if you are GT that makes a lot of difference.
It had always puzzled me why in athletics they do not run 1600m instead of 1500m I guess the times for 1600m would have been compared to the old mile distance and that would not be correct.
My solution posted less than a yard back.
“Don’t look at it Ethel !’
…satisfies both the iconoclasts and the hair splitters. It has turned into quite a combative thread.
‘Cannon to the left of them
Cannon to the right’The bullets for the machine guns used in American combat planes of WW2 and since were in chains twenty-seven feet in length. Thus if a pilot was able to fire all his bullets off at one target he was said to have given his adversary ‘the full nine yards’.
I believe distances on the railways are still measured in Miles and Chains; the British Chain that is – 1 Cricket Pitch or 22 Yards
“It’s many a chain from Euston to Old Oak Common” the recurring nightmare of HS2 bean counters
Miles, Furlongs, Chains, Yards, Feet, Inches: all very prosaic but jolly nice
“I believe distances on the railways are still measured in Miles and Chains”.
If any fellow railway enthusiasts are here, I will be visiting Headbolt Lane – Britain’s newest railway station – later today. It only opened yesterday.
I do have to travel through it anyway to get to where my parents live but I will be interested to see what it is like. There has been talk about building a station there for about 50 years and it has finally happened.
CAS,
The stalls for the ‘7F’ races at Salisbury would be on a strip of uneven ground if they moved the start back 7 yards. There’s a little ridge that runs across the track there – you can see the dip in the rails just behind the stalls on any 7F replay.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.