Utterly Ridiculous!

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Hibby
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Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2018 10:14 am

Halliday wrote:
Sat Nov 03, 2018 10:36 pm
oliver123 wrote:
Fri Nov 02, 2018 3:02 pm
I could not believe my eyes this afternoon. It was the 2:50 at Newmarket. The race was a 2m handicap. And guess what? They put the bloody horses in starting stalls. Oi, for f*ck's sake it's a 2-mile race! Total bonkers! I mean who is gonna get an advantage with a normal free start in a 2m race? Answer? Nobody :roll: Is this the directions of that f*cking patronising racing authority the BHA?

Your comment is “ utterly ridiculous “ ...

Believe it or not draw advantage and track position does matter in the longer distance races at many tracks on the Flat Chester cup being an obvious example, but the draw has paid a key role in races like the Northumberland plate and the Cesarewitch over the years .

Think Salisbury has a distance race which is a flag start, and on soft ground riders try and get track position and or jump the start to gain an advantage .

From the BHA...

As races are shorter on the Flat, it’s important that the participants begin in as straight a line as possible. For longer races (and that includes some long Flat races as well as all Jump races), riders often want to take up a tactical position that they believe offers their horse its best chance to perform well. For some, that might mean going out in front, whilst for others it might mean taking a lead from another horse or dropping in at the back of the field.
I agree with this, the OP show a total lack of knwledge of how hores racing is set up in the UK, generally all racing run under the "flat code" has starting stalls to ensure a "level break" as the distances are shorter, indeed the maximum distance run on the flat is 2m (if there is a longer race I havent heard of it).

Under NH rules the minimum distance is generally the same 2m (ok, some are 1m7f & xxx yards) and the need for a totally level start simply is not the same as jockeys have time to sort themselves out, get the early position the like and run a more tactical race, bearing in mind the longest race over NH rules is upwards of 4 and a half miles!

To add to tracks where even at longer distances draw can play a part I would say Beverley is another, although they have done some work there in recent years to lessen this although the straight course is still very biased.... For those who havent been to beverley, on one side the track is relatively flat but about halfway across the track slopes away so those on the wrong side of the draw end up basically running across the side of a hill or having to cut across it to get to the flatter bit. Draw bias in flat racing has always fascinated me as has C/D form, take today's racing, Plumpton is a very tight track, only about a mile round with an uphill finish, very much a courses for horses who have performed well there before.
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ANGELS15
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Actually Hibby there are a few flat races longer than 2m. The Queen Alexandria stakes at Royal Ascot is just over 2m 6f. However througout the calendar there's the odd 2m 4f, 2m 2f. Pontefract also stages a 2m 5f+ race plus a few over 2m.
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Derek27
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Location: UK

The main difference between the start of flat and NH races isn't so much the race distance but the fact that NH horses have a hurdle or fence to jump shortly after the start, and that drastically limits the speed they can start at and the advantage of a fast start. I think Goodwood may still use a flag start for 2.5 miles (the Goodwood Cup used to be 2m 5f) and it really doesn't matter over that sort of distance, but I think that's really for convenience, because the stalls would have to be removed quickly after start.
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