A Question Of Time

Being a follower of mathematics and science rather than the arts it is probably no surprise that I am quite keen on time when studying horse racing form.

However timing of races is also one of my great bugbears. On the flat it is not an issue as with 99.5% of races an official electronically recorded time is given by the judge.

Occasionally the dreaded announcement “no official time was taken for the race” is heard and this results in inevitable groans in the press room as bags are explored and stop-watches pulled out so the race can be hand timed from the TV replay.

Yet in National Hunt racing time seems to be irrelevant as no official times are issued.

The times issued by the Press Association (PA) or included in the Racing post and Form Book are all hand times taken by race readers.

But how much credence can be given to these times and are punters getting an accurate picture of what the times really are?

The first point to note is, due to an attempt to cut back on costs, the PA race-readers work from home, so all the times they use come from the TV.

On course, most NH races are timed using binoculars and with a stop watch or even a mobile phone.

Now even timing on course is fraught with difficulties. Sometimes the start is unsighted from the stands - or someone decides to park an ambulance in direct line of sight.

Or, as happened to me in the last race at Cheltenham on Saturday, someone moves their head in front of my bins just as the tape went up.

Even seeing the tape can be difficult – most courses have bright orange tapes which are clear to see, but some courses have a light coloured tape which can be very hard to see, especially in murky conditions.

At Cheltenham and Aintree they still use the old fashioned starting gates with a single strand which can also be difficult to spot, although they do, thankfully put an orange marker at one end of the tape to assist those of us timing the race.

The other problem of hand timing on course is actually getting in line with the finishing post. At Towcester, for example, the press room is just under half a furlong from the line, whereas at Huntingdon it is well after the line.

On course it is not a case of timing the start through bins then the finish from the TV because you then have to factor in any delay in the pictures.

So you can see it is actually very difficult to get an accurate hand timing for races.  

Often there are two or three of us timing races on course, yet it is very rare for us all to agree a time, even to 1/10th of a second.

These are the race times for Cheltenham on Saturday, PA times will be from TV the other two were taken on course:

Race	PA Time	RP Time	My Time
12:55	4’ 08.7”	4’ 08.84”	4’ 08.9”
13:30	5’ 24.5”	5’ 25.36”	5’ 25.1”
14:05	5’ 15.6”	5’ 15.42”	5’ 15.4”
14:35	6’ 32.3”	6’ 32.44”	6’ 32.4”
15:10	5’ 02.7”	5’ 02.00”	5’ 02.8”
15:40	5’ 57.9”	5’ 59.90”	5’ 58.0”
16:15	4’ 06.7”	4’ 06.80”	No time taken

The first point to note is the Racing Post / Raceform times are shown to 1/100^th of a second, which is utterly meaningless when talking hand recorded times.

It is interesting to note there are a also couple of ricks in the timings - my time in the 13:30 and the RP time in the 15:10 are two that stand out.

These Cheltenham  time comparisons are actually pretty good - there have been a few examples where there has been a two or three second difference between the PA and RP times.

So be very wary of times in NH races and bear in mind in the UK they are all hand timed.

The Irish always produce official times for both flat and National Hunt races - surely it cannot be beyond the wit of man for official times to be produced for NH races.

So come on Racing For Change how about getting some official times for all races?