Track Biases

[alan1]

I’m interested in making a list of which flat courses favour certain type of runners, for instance Chester appears to favour horses that race prominantly etc.

I remember reading something a few years ago which ranked courses in this way but I can’t remember what it was. Anybody any ideas?

[seabird]

If my memory is any good, I believe our friend, apracing, covered this issue in one of his excellent books.

Colin

[apracing]

Definitely not me – I think that list was in Nick Mordin’s first book.

Try Google books and you might find it amongst the free sample pages.

[Glenn]

It was definitely Nick Mordin. I believe the speed figure compiler’s bible Mordin on Time is what you are looking for.

[davidbrady]

Timeform has free maps of each course with a blurb about each one which sometimes contains items such as that which you are looking for

For example, here is the info on Chester

"Chester is a left-handed, circular course, only a few yards over a mile round, the smallest circuit of any flat-race course in Great Britain. It is quite flat and on the turn almost throughout, and the run-in is less. Apart from extreme distance events, such as the Chester Cup and other two-and-a-quarter-mile races, the course is against the long-striding, resolute galloper and greatly favours the handy type."

It is free to register on http://www.timeform.com and you then click on Free Refernce on the RHS of the home page and the options for both NH & Flat courses appears there

[alan1]

Thanks a lot thats very useful

[Hugh Taylor]

I usually sift through the previous year’s record for each Flat course prior to the start of each new season (haven’t done so yet for last year), and I would advise caution with any advice that goes back a few years, as, like draw biases, pace biases change considerably over the years.

Around five years ago, the two courses that stood out, and by some way, were the round courses at Ripon and Hamilton. Unfortunately I think we gave the game away about Ripon on the original at the races channel; I remember being on the "Four Facts" shift and highlighting the % of front-runners that made all on the round track. This was on a high-profile Saturday (it might have been Great St Wilfrid day) and the winner made all in nearly every race on the round course. A couple of weeks later, a feature/interview on Sir Mark Prescott appeared in which he commented on media outlets giving away some of the information he used to exploit, and used the front-running at Ripon scenario as an example. The upshot of this was that in every race at 1m+ at Ripon thereafter, at least 2 or 3 jockeys seemed intent on making the running, and unsurprisingly hold-up horses started doing better than before.

Hamilton remains fairly advantageous for front-runners on the round course, and Sir Mark obviously still sees it as a signficant advantage to make the running there. Last year he saddled eight horses on the round course, and seven of them made the running, with the eighth sitting on the leader’s quarters early on (four of those eight won).

From memory, Folkestone had a very high percentage of winners making all last year, I think Leicester did so too (what these two have in common with Ripon are the undulations, which I always feel help handy types). Newbury always seems to be at the bottom of the list with regards to number of horses making all, though you have to take into account competitiveness of the racing and, especially, field size.

[seabird]

My apologies, Alan, my memory is getting worse, obviously.

Colin

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