Harness Racing Information

Some brief information on harness racing follows along with links to racing information on this and the www.harness.org.au site.

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PACER/TROTTER DIFFERENCE

Pacers move both legs on the same side forward in unison. Most wear hopples - straps connecting front and rear legs on the same side. Hopples help the horse keep stride without limiting speed. Trotters move left front and right rear legs forward almost simultaneously, then follow suit with right front and left rear.

Usually trotters do not wear hopples, so tend to go off stride in inexperienced or trying to trot too fast. This is called 'breaking.'

The tendency to trot or pace is inbred, but the ability to maintain gait at high speed over a distance takes years of intensive training.

Trotters, and even moreso pacers, wear many items of harness.

TIMES INFORMATION

LEAD TIME

The Lead Time is the time it takes for the horse to travel from the start of the race to the beginning of the last mile. When it comes to the finish of the race, if it was a slow Lead Time the horses at the front may be advantaged, however, if it was a fast Lead Time, horses from the rear of the field may be at an advantage as they did not contest the early speed in the race.A fast Lead Time for Harold Park for a 2160m event is 39 seconds or better whilst a slow Lead Time is 41 seconds or slower. For a 1760m race, a fast Lead Time at Harold Park would be 9.7 seconds or better, while a slow Lead Time is 9.9 seconds or slower.

SECTIONAL TIME

There are four (4) Sectional Times in every race which are made up of the four quarters of the last 1609m. An exceptional set of sectionals are all below 30 seconds, however, an acceptable set of sectionals would read - 30.5, 31.0, 29.5, 29.5 equalling the last mile in 2:00.5.

OVERALL TIME

This is the time taken to complete the distance of the race. A time below 2:00 is acceptable for a 1609m race, while below 2:11 is acceptable for 1760m and below 2:41 for a 2160m event.

MILE RATE

This is a calculation applied to all distances so as to give a comparison to a mile.