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Old 10-14-2018, 04:23 AM   #2
For The Lead
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 1,292
Quote:
Originally Posted by navyvet1994 View Post
I see 7f and 8f races and wonder. Would you use a 7f or 8f as a line? Looking at FTL readings it's brought up that you can allow a one furlong shift in a line. But &f is a sprint and 8F is a route. Do any of you recommend that?
Consider this.

A 7f race starts from a chute on the backstretch. The horses run almost a half mile down the backstretch straightaway to the first turn. They run around one turn to the finish.
Most one mile oval tracks start their 8f races in the front stretch near the first turn. The horses run around a turn in the opening quarter of a mile (rather than on a straightaway) and then down the back stretch for another quarter of a mile before reaching a half mile then around a second turn to the finish.
These are hardly comparable distances as far as where the horses are running on the track.
There are a few tracks that run an 8f race out of a chute on the backstretch. Belmont and Arlington Park are just two of the very few tracks that do this. Now, consider how much of that 8f race is run on a straightaway. Compare that to how far horses run on a straightaway in a 7f race.

Further;
In a 7f race the commonly used times are at the quarter mile mark, the half mile mark and the finish.
In an 8f race the commonly used times are the half mile mark, the three quarter mile mark and the finish.
Again, hardly comparably, especially when where the horses are on the track is taken into consideration.

There are those who will contend that adjustments can be made. Given the information above, I am not in that camp. Although there is only one eight of a mile difference between them 7f is a sprint and 8f is a route.
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