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Sectional Times Policy
Harness & Greyhounds
JayJay
7,630 posts
This haphazardly applied and hardly justifiable policy, which is a tax on owners of slow horses, is starting to unravel. Some get fined, some don't, some tracks it is applied, some tracks it isn't, weather and wind sometimes is taken into account, slow sections within lead times get ignored, a quarter of 35.2 (a mile rate of 2.20.8) results in a "talking to"?, low class horses (and I say that without offense, I have owned plenty) are particularly vulnerable as per 4 driver fines at Bunbury last Friday at an "R" meeting.
Owners ask their drivers to drive their horse to finish in its best possible placing, Ryan Warwick did that perfectly on Friday night with Our Sequel, I doubt it could have won without an easy section, yet the driver (owner?) gets fined. I won a race at GP with a particularly ordinary horse, one much derided......the drive was magnificent, it included a slow quarter without which the horse could not possibly have won. I was delighted, the driver got fined, it was a low staked race.....I gratefully paid the "tax''. What other sport do we tie a rope around the leg of our star performers and fine them for excellence? By all means, if they go so slow or slow the pace excessively causing problems back in the filed or similar, then most definitely apply sanctions but in it's current form, this policy is in my view a blight on the industry.
Comments
Doesn’t exist but per say a ,
CO minimal allowed sectional 32 Seconds
Fast Class minimal allowed sectional 30 Seconds
Is there a table explaining what is mininimum sectional allowed for each class of horse ?
Maybe the Stewards can take turns as a Pacemaker up front leading the field
be worth it for entertainment value alone .
JayJay likes this post.
Understand there are horses that can’t do so but the drivers knows full what they are doing.
Yes it is impossible to negotiate the different circumstances but I prefer the rule from a betting/viewing point of view.
Maybe it should be applied to GP only and from a certain grade up.
Important to remember a qtr a GP in 32 is a Qtr in 34 on any other track.
sonny likes this post.
freodockers likes this post.
But what if the leader of each lap receives a $500 Lap incentive to connections & $250 to the
Reinswoman /Reinsmam wouldn’t this give incentive to always run uptempo / breakneck racing
it wouldn’t be boring racing especially in the lower class fields.
Markovina likes this post.
Sit / Kick Brigade every possible?
Get everyone talking about the Trots again and it wouldn’t be from the Carnage if Policed
In a Severe Penalty Scenario for causing any form of interference or Safety Issue.
But to issue a fine for .1 of a second in a country meet, Race 7 mind you beggars belief.
The stewards should be fined for stupidity.
2.1 Those drivers who lead the race shall be deemed responsible for adhering to the required sectional times under Rule 162(1)(y), which reads – A driver shall not fail to adhere to the minimum time standards for sections of a race.
2.2 The policy will apply to horses that lead for the entire quarter. If a horse takes the lead during a quarter from another runner, the driver of the horse leading at the end of such quarter would not be penalised if the sectional time is outside the allowed time.
2.3 The sectional times policy will be enforced on a quarter by quarter basis with main focus on the first two quarters of the last mile with the maximum sectional times for any quarter being:
Markovina likes this post.