York – why the advantage on / near the rail?

[Gingertipster]

Why has there seemed to be an advantage racing near the rail?
Can understand if it’s just for a day, but not for the whole week.
Usually York is one of the fairest courses in the country.

It’s not something I can ever remember happening this century.

So why? Surely must be a reason.

Could it be York watered with an extremely strong cross wind. With less water getting on the inner?

Value Is Everything

[nwalton]

years ago Ginger they used to have the joggers path over by far rail (which i am sure you will remember) that truely was a golden highway

[LD73]

Ginge – that sounds plausible but I do have another thought and it really has only come about from megoing onto YouTube and rewatching a lot of previous York’s Ebor Festival race going back to the 90s and the 80s in come cases.

What was quite striking was the fact that very rarely did the races on the round course ever stray from coming off the far rail whereas know regardless of ground conditions the always seem to fan out and come predominantly down the middle of the course. Could it be that the move from the far rails means that the ground along there doesn’t get used as much as in the past and it is in fact the ground up the middle of the course that gets more wear and tear?

[St Paddy]

I agree LD63 – coming up the middle of the course is a relatively recent tactic at York unless the ground is soft.

I can’t understand why a jockey on a horse that leads into the straight and thinks they have a chance of staying in front would move off the rail unless there’s a very pronounced going bias. Doing so makes it much easier for horses behind to find a way through and avoid interference. Surely, from a race riding point of view, a front runner with a chance wants to make life as difficult as possible tactically for those behind (within the rules, of course). There have been plenty of instances in recent years of runners whip would have been in unpromising situations in behind on the rail if the leader had stuck to the rail in fact getting a dream run when things open out. I know that people talk about it being fair for everyone etc but that’s not really the point of race riding tactics.

[St Paddy]

And apologies for the typo – I meant LD73 of course.

[LD73]

Not a problem St Paddy – agreed, if you are in front and stick to the far rail, you know your rivals have to all come around you to challenge (and thus may get in each others ways or are forced much wider to get a clear run) instead of coming on either side of you if you came up the middle.

Ryan’s ride on Content a prime example – had she had to come around the whole of the field up the middle of the course (on the less favoured ground) instead of saving ground and coming up the far rail, the result of the race may have been different.

I can fully understand coming down the middle if the ground was soft and they had been racing up the far side constantly for the first few days but it seems very strange to do it on good to firm ground.

[St Paddy]

Absolutely agree – that was one ride in particular this week that I was thinking of.

[Author]

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