Early Speed In Harness Racing

[Sea Biscuit]

Lately there is some talk about early speed in harness racing especially in the thread PIPS started by Lottakash. I agree wholeheartedly on this issue. Talk about early speed in harness racing is nothing new. Al Stanley in his book "Stanley Law" published way back in the 70s talked a lot about early speed. Most of the other books I have read spend a chapter or two on the significance of early speed in harness racing. Ask any stud farm owner and he will tell you that the stud owners extoll the virtues of the horses by advertising in the print and internet media about the capabilities of the horses by their early speed because it fetches a better stud price.

Perhaps you know this perhaps you don't. Have you ever wondered why this is so. Why is early speed so important in harness racing?. The answer is a simply one. Horses on the rail tavel the least distance in a race. By comparision a horse parked out in the two path for a full mile travels some 60 extra feet in the race. In a game where the the margin of victory between the first and the second horse can be as narrow as a hair width, 60 feet seems an aweful lot of distance and it is. Ask any t-bred handicapper how he feels when he sees his horse parked out in the 4 or 5 path the whole of the distance. Am I glad I am not a T-Bred capper. In harness racing you rarely see a horse in the three path before the top of the stretch when they fan out making their moves 3 or 4 wide.

That is one of the main reasons why top drivers gun their charges to the top so that they can save ground in the race. Plus good drivers also have an extra advantage of controlling the pace. If he can get away with easy front end fractions he has the best of both the worlds.

Have fun at the races.

[mrroyboy]

You are right about early speed being important. But when horsemen talk about "early speed" they mean horses who mature quickly and show speed early in their careers. They don't mean horses that can go to the front because most of their young horses haven't raced yet.

Early speed is still important to us handicappers as defined by LottaKash

[TimesTheyRAChangin]

Actually that term & variations of it,has meant different things over the years:

1)A horse with early speed in a race.
2)A horse that is fast in the a.m.,but can't run a lick in the aft./evening.
3)A horse with exceptional 2 & 3 year old speed that just tapers off drastically.
4)A horse that tears up the track in the first part of the year,but then runs lacklustre for the remainder.
More?

[Stick]

At the Big M last meet, the top 4 horses at the half won 70% and the top 4 horses at the 3rd quarter call won 81% of the races.I'm sure the stats would be even more powerful at other tracks.

[mrroyboy]

Oh Sure

Early speed in racing is very important for handicapping purposes. I mean horses that go to the front.

[Sea Biscuit]

Here are some Mohawk stats copied and pasted from Aug 30 program

Mohawk Winning Trips
May 1 to August 25, 2008. Includes 982 races. Table shows the
position of the winner at 1/2 and 3/4 points. Percentages not indicated for
4th through 11th as all races had full fields.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1/2 335 146 111 106 106 80 63 27 9 3 0
% 34.1 14.9 11.3
3/4 394 177 101 124 67 60 29 25 6 3 0
% 40.1 18.0 10.3

[mrroyboy]

Right

All you have to do is figure which will be on the lead. Piece of Cake!!!LOL

[am1947]

[QUOTE=Sea Biscuit] By comparision a horse parked out in the two path for a full mile travels some 60 extra feet in the race. In a game where the the margin of victory between the first and the second horse can be as narrow as a hair width, 60 feet seems an aweful lot of distance and it is.

I believe the distance is the same on a straight a way. In the turns is where it is different. So the worst distance lost is on a 1/2 ( 4 turns)
5/8 ( 3 turns) and mile (2 turns).

AM in the PM

[sonnyp]

i trained harness horses many years and thorobreds for a few. in both breeds, the ability to exhibit early speed in a race is paramount to success. there are two major classifications of racehorse regardless of breed, offensive and defensive. when the man says "go" truly offensive horses dictate the terms of the race to the others. they take control and dictate how the race will unfold. stanley dancer revolutionized harness racing by "leaving", going to the front with most of his horses on the half mile tracks in new york in the 60's and 70's. this led to his becoming leading trainer and driver.

once the offensive horse has taken control,it's a matter of how much energy he has used to take that control and how much of a breather those following will allow him to take.

the only prerace instructions i would ever give a driver or rider were my opinion as to whether the horse he was about to control was "good" and if i believed we could win. to win a race the rider must at some point in that race make a winning, offensive move. for instance in harness racing it might be leaving from an outside post. if the offensive move proves a success you usually win, however if it fails you usually don't run second or third, you finish back. second and third are for the defensive horses that just suck along and get the scraps that are left after the true combatants decide the race. i've never felt it a good idea to combine the two on board favorites in bets, especially when their racing styles are similar, because their effort in the race will tend to cancel one out.

getting back to the original theme of this thread, the more speed a horse has and the more times it can be called on during the course of a race ( "moves") is directly proportional to the quality of the horse and his ability to win races.

when considering buying or claiming a horse i advised owners to look for the kind that all the other drivers or riders in a race would be reacting to what our horse was doing.

[botster]

Early Speed is essential in harness racing.As sonnyp explained when claiming one you need to find one that has it,when betting, the one that has shown it with some regularity, or most recently, are the better betting prospects.

Smart drivers will know to leave when their horses are sharp.I have seen many do this over the years.If not to the top, to at least get in the top three leaving out of there.The key is finding these spots, horses that have only moderate gate speed will be overlooked by the betting public in these situations.

The day of sitting back second over, or further back, and wanting to win is long gone...Speed has taken over the game.