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I disagree with Hugh Taylor for the following reason. When he says "a recent example of a horse quickening up" what I think he means to say is " a recent example of a horse running their fastest furlong at the end of a race"
…A vital fact that time-merchants appear to miss is surely that the sectionals produced are those of the leader throughout the race. I would like to see the winner’s individual sectionals given (and all the other runners come to that), to give a more accurate impression of where the horses actually quickened/slowed.
To answer your first point, well, no, that’s not what I meant to say. As the speed in mph clearly shows, Srikuantan went faster the further the race proceeded, bar the final furlong (where he was slightly eased in the final four or five strides).
Also, the sectionals I quoted were those of Srikuantan himself, not the leader. It’s only in the fractional times (which are what are shown in the RP) that the leader’s times only are shown.
A recent example of a horse quickening up was Sri Kuantan at Lingfield over 1m2f on 26th January, but that was clearly as a result of a very steady early pace, even by the normal standards of Lingfield 1m2f races. His average speed per furlong in mph was 29.15, 31.89, 31.98, 34.07, 34.75, 34.75, 36.59, 40.11, 40.43, and 40.32.
Dansant was another example in the Winter Derby trial; his last five furlong sectionals were run at average mph of 34.97, 37.34, 39.37, 40.83 and 41.55
Clearly the visual impression was not false in either of those two cases, but all this proves is that any horse, or indeed healthy human, is capable of "quickening" if the pace up to that point has been slow enough. However, in practice it doesn’t happen very often as few tracks see such a quantity of slowly-run races as Lingfield. We shouldn’t be surprised that Mark Johnston’s horses don’t have a very good record on Lingfield’s AW track, as no track in the country lends itself less well to tactics of outgalloping/running the finish out of rivals (compare with Ascot, for instance).
