The second item in today’s newsletter is SA racing intellect Jay August’s analysis of the sectional timing of the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas and it provides excellent insight into what separates Charles Dickens from the mere mortals.
The turbo booster Charles Dickens switched on at the 600m mark and maintained all the way to the 100m mark is graphically displayed.
Racing fans seem to enjoy the 400m to finish statistic shown in the Computaform.
However, it is likely meaningless unless the other sections in the race can be viewed.
This is seen in the Cape Guineas where Charles Dickens produces a phenomenal 22,60 seconds 600m to 200m time.
His 400m to finish time was a fast 23,67 seconds, but after that acceleration from the 600m, and considering he had the race in the bag, he understandably slowed in the final 100m.
In all races the horses are actually at their slowest at the end and it is just an optical illusion that gives the impression that those who are passing horses in the final stages are “flying.”
The LQP of 2022 did not have any sectional timing recordings, but an interesting point is that it was run in the third fastest official time time in Queen’s Plate/King’s Plate history … and Jet dark won it by 2,25 lengths despite losing a couple of lengths at the start.
The official time of the race was 96.56 seconds, compared to Charles Dicken’s Hollywoodbets cape Guineas time of 97.69 seconds.
Jet Dark’s 400m to finish time was 23,8 seconds, compared to Charles Dicken’s 23,7 seconds.
However, as opposed to Charles Dickens who won the race chiefly through his superior 600m to 400m section, Jet Dark only displayed his superiority in the final 100m, at least from a visual perspective.
Kommetdieding was behind him at the 600m mark, joins him at the 400m and stays with him until about the 150m mark at which point Jet Dark starts edging ahead.
Jet Dark then puts in what looks visually to be a phenomenal, world class burst in the final 100 metres.
The sectional timing of that race would have been of great value as a comparison to the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas.
A Hollywoodbets/Gold Circle initiative plans to have sectional timing up and running at all Hollywoodbets race tracks and it is sure going to be a useful addition to form analysis.
