Quote:
Originally Posted by classhandicapper
Having sectional times can only help, but turf paces tend to be relatively slow and the horses full of run late. It's my experience that small variations in pace from average on turf have less of an impact than on dirt. When the conditions get extreme enough to actually impact the result, you can usually see it in the race flow of the race. That's probably why there was never a huge call for sectional times in Europe. They have value, just not as much as on dirt.
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They may be even more valuable on turf. Final times and speed figures vary more on turf than on dirt, mainly due to variations in pace. That's why sectional times are crucial in turf races to explain and adjust for the pace and it's effect on final times.
Rightly or wrongly, Europeans value finishing ability more than having early speed, which is why they are less interested in pace. Even when the English Timeform does sectional timing, its only for the last 3 furlongs. That doesn't make the early pace less important, just a reflection of what they value and how they run their races. The services that do more complete sectional timing and pace analysis are beginning to show their added value in the U.K. They are also important in showing the importance of pace patterns on all surfaces, which is only recently being studied, and someday even quantified, as in cj's study. One needs all the sectional splits to do this. While I first discovered the value of using pace patterns in dirt races, I find this analysis just as useful in turf races.
