Field Sizes

[goldilocks]

Surely it is time to limit the numbers starting in standing starts,both the DG Jones trot and the Akaroa cup at the Mot have had two many horses trying to be lined up, took 13 minutes to get them away  yesterday. Any thoughts?

[mikeynz]

35 minutes ago, goldilocks said:

Surely it is time to limit the numbers starting in standing starts,both the DG Jones trot and the Akaroa cup at the Mot have had two many horses trying to be lined up, took 13 minutes to get them away  yesterday. Any thoughts?

Never a problem in the North Island.

[Nowornever]

2 hours ago, goldilocks said:

Surely it is time to limit the numbers starting in standing starts,both the DG Jones trot and the Akaroa cup at the Mot have had two many horses trying to be lined up, took 13 minutes to get them away  yesterday. Any thoughts?

I personally love the big numbers and wish there were 24 in a race like the old days. You will notice the Trifecta pool in that race got up over 27K the highest of the days New Zealand racing including gallops.

If there were only 14 in the race the pool would have been only three quarters of that. 

The race was a good watch and the winning horse came from near last on the turn so I say the more horses the merrier.

[hesi]

I read some data somewhere years ago, admittedly it was for thoroughbreds, that 14 is the optimum number to maximise wagering.

That was totalisator, so not sure if that applies to fixed odds

[the galah]

5 hours ago, goldilocks said:

Surely it is time to limit the numbers starting in standing starts,both the DG Jones trot and the Akaroa cup at the Mot have had two many horses trying to be lined up, took 13 minutes to get them away  yesterday. Any thoughts?

theres too much congestion when you have horses off marks spaced only 10 metres apart.

it would be ok if there was only one line of horses on those marks,but often there are 2 lines, or horses off ur as well.

It appears the problem is compounded  by the track not being as wide as some tracks as evidenced by the lower number of horses they can fit onto a front line at motukarara.

And while i haven't taken much notice of how they parade pre start,i assume they do the same as they do every other race where they have 2 circles off each mark.. Well as i've pointed out many times,the 2 circle formation has its negatives and one is when they turn in the congestion is greater and when you have horses starting on marks 10 metres apart,congestion is even greater..

but would having a smaller field size have helped congestion yesterday.

Well if they had reduced yesterdays field size to 15 instead of the 17 they had,how would that have helped?

Because the 2 less horses who would have been eliminated would have been the only 2 who started off the front and it could be argued that wouldn't have changed anything whatsoever for the better congestion wise, for those behind them,as it wasn't the 2 front line markers causing any of that.

personally i thinkif you look at the way the starter does those starts,they are a bit of a debacle. The horses off the ur are starting behind the horses who are supposed to be starting 10m behind them,you have starters assistants running interference to those who start on marks behind where the starters assistants are. It shouldn't have to be for a horse and driver to guess which way a starters assistant is going to move in front of them,after the start ,like happened yesterday. 

so whats the answer.

well,they need to have a greater distance between the marks the horses start from. i.e. 15 metres instead of 10 metres. If they do that they would just have to have a front line,a 15m line and a 30 metre line,instead of a front,10m,20m and 30m.And why not have a pbd  in a stand to have the horses who were higher assessed,drawn the second line off the 15m and 30m.If they are to keep the marks 10m apart they need to parade them differently in a 1 circle formation for combined marks. They did a 1 circle formation for decades so it should be no biggie. 

2 hours ago, Nowornever said:

I personally love the big numbers and wish there were 24 in a race like the old days. You will notice the Trifecta pool in that race got up over 27K the highest of the days New Zealand racing including gallops.

If there were only 14 in the race the pool would have been only three quarters of that. 

The race was a good watch and the winning horse came from near last on the turn so I say the more horses the merrier.

as to the trifecta pool The figure you give is a huge pool by normal starndards.as you say,the big field must have helped,but also as i've pointed out before,when there are delays to a start,all pools will increase. And when there are significant delays,there can be significant increases in tote pool size. Thats why that fella from the usa said ,the simplest way to increase turnovers is crib an extra minute before they start to line them up. He said when the meadowlands changed to start there races at the carded time,it was one of the worst financial decisions they had made.i know over here they have that many races on trackside,but as i've said before,even changing the starting procedure to say have a flashinglight come on when the all clear comes through then have them do not 1,but 2 rounds before they come in,is a way of increasing turnover while still getting the trackside coverage.i don't know why they don't do something as simple as that.the worst thing any meeting can di to keep turnover down is have then coming up behind the mobile when they are only jst ticking on 0 seconds to the start time. Places like southland could improve their turnover if they just put another starter in charge who wasn't as strict on starting on time.

Edited 17 hours ago by the galah