About

Welcome to The Hare and the Tortoise, a unique way of comparing the performances of jumps horses using sectional times and a clear, visual output.

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The effectiveness of the use of times in horse racing is often fiercely debated. Times are often used to draw incorrect conclusions, particularly when viewing overall times in isolation. Ratings such as Racing Post Topspeed, which are solely a measure of overall time, are almost totally useless. Many factors are needed to be considered to effectively analysis the time performance of a horse. This website aims to achieve just that.

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For maximum effectiveness, we only compare horses that have ran on the same card, either over hurdles or over fences. The obstacle-to-obstacle (sectional) time of the winning horse of each race is recorded. The times are then modified, where necessary, to allow for factors such as any extra distance ran and extra weight carried. This allows for direct comparison between each race. The output is plotted on a chart, by comparing the position of each horse relative to the average time taken to run each section.

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By doing this, we are able to learn the pace of each race, such as points where they may have gone too quickly or too slowly, and make clear conclusions as to the quality of the form, relative to the other races ran on that card. An example is provided below:

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The example is for chases ran over Boxing Day 2023, including the King George and Kauto Star Chase. We can see that the King George (Bravemansgame and Hewick) was ran very slowly up to around the 10th fence, with Bravemansgame 22 lengths behind Il Est Francais and 10 lengths behind Blow Your Wad. There was a sudden injection of pace in the King George from 4 out to 2 out, but we can also see Bravemansgame was unable to sustain this pace, whereas Hewick ran on at a steady pace.

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