12 second furlongs , 24 48 ,112, 136 are nice splits for horses going around a mile . the sprinters go much faster , they will run 21 or 22 opening 1/4 and a 45 half the brilliant ones can go in 108 and change . That help any?
Alot depends on the class and the distance. Most sprinters can go out there in 22 and change but the cheaper ones don't keep up that pace and might do 47 4/5 for the 1/2 and then fade to 1:01 2/5 on the way to 6f in 1:14 flat. Good horses can keep sharper pace meaning 46 or so on to a sub 1:00 5f furlongs. Very good ones might improve on that and get 5 in 58 on the way to 6f.
At routes the pace is generally alot slower as routers distribute their energy more evenly.
Horses generally turn slower than they go straight so where the turns come up impacts pace. One turn miles (like at Laurel, Aqueduct, Belmont and Churchill) usually have fast early paces relative to the distance because of the long straightaway.
Getting a bit deep into the topic, TB races are not technically timed from a standing start. The "start" point is actually soome distance from the gate. The amount of "runup" to the start impacts the opening 1/4 time. The longer the run up, the faster the time as the horses have attained top speed by the time they pass the start line. Short runups mean slower first 1/4 times as they are closer to the standing start. because of the configurations being different, each track has different run up distances for each race. Official result charts usually mention the run up distance.
Last edited by Linny; Nov. 29, 2011 at 11:34 PM.
Resident racing historian ~~~ Re-riders Clique
Founder of the Mighty Thoroughbred Clique
Turf races it's not unusual to see slower early fractions and faster later fractions. Top turf horses horses in the world can close in splits approaching 10 sec for final 1/8.
Track configuration will have a bearing also. A one turn mile will often have faster early fractions than a two turn mile, for obvious reasons.
Something to keep in mind for foreign shippers is that races overseas are timed from a standing start and hence will have slower overall race times and what seem like peculiarly slow first 1/4 times by American standards.
In the big, classic races (Belmont excluded) look for a :23-:24, :47-48, 1:11. Faster than that and they'll probably going too fast up front setting it up for a closer. Slower and look for whoever's in front to up a helluva fight when the real running starts.