Horses running "wide"

it is not strange at all. you have a lot "wider" tracks, it is easy to run there inside.
in amerika it is not alway good to run inside, because you cannot gallop full power there. try it yourself.

i made a race witrh my son on a bicycle in a circle: even when i was inside, it was impossible for me to get full speed.

in amerika horsescomin from the outside loose first a lot of ground but then on the straight they are for a moment quite faster than the inside horses

anyway the best position is neither the inside nor the outside – 2!

The lack of false rails and the short straights both hinder horses running near the rail behind the leaders. Going around on the outside becomes a viable and/or vital option if you want to have a chance of winning. Our jocks seldom have to resort to it.

I have noticed that jocks returning to South Africa after stints abroad do use that technique a bit more. I think I recall Lloyd and Delpech circling the field wide on the Greyville bend to good effect.

Overall though, I think those points cover it. Over here, horses can sit behind the leaders and take the gap down the false rail, or go straight ahead when gaps open up for them as other horses take that route, or just wait for a chance because of the long straights. There's little need to go wide in most cases.

Mauritius - the straight from the home turn is a steep uphill. TV does not show that too well. If you stand on the track at the winning post and look back to the turn, one realize why horses can come from behind on such a short run in.

The point that I make - In RSA the jockeys let the horses drop the bit when they enter the turn, and get the horses to take the bit when they come out of the turn.

UK racing - the horses seem to keep the bit around the turns - guess different riding styles.
Rather dangerous (border on stupidity) to ride (jump up and down) on a horse that has dropped the bit.

Mark has done his 5 years - let him give an opinion wrt RSA horses that drop the bit and take the bit again when entering the straight.

To only look at graded races like the july, met and november handicap does not make sense. Those races should be eliminated from this debate.

Reason - horses in these races are finely tuned.
Finely tuned - as no testing takes place on horses in these races.
Samples - are collected but not tested.
Reason - sponsor does not want bad publicity

Finely tuned - can be translated as - 100% fit - 100% blood -
100% blood - chemically engineered (potassium injections etc)

Chemically engineered horses - zombie - does not drop the bit - kicks again from 400 meter

Champions that lack potassium will look like winners, travel like winners until 400 from home and then hit a brick wall.
Testing will find nothing wrong with this horse.

Many a champion fav has been run, after having taken the blood by 9 am of the morning of the race - trainer saw potassium levels are low - fav unplaced - 3 years ago - emarald cup weekend - PA paid +R500 - won almost R200K - knew of 2 odds on fav that were low on potassium - both finished last

The point - leave the graded races out of the debate as they have different rules.

Looking at normal races - dropping the bit into the turn - let Mark explain?

....potassium shots.....why not just give them a bannana smoothie......my grade 8 chemisitry experiment showed that potassium is a highly unstable oxidizing agent so potassium has to be a precusor in a chemical formula as it cannot exist alone.....but since this is about wide horses no matter what they have been supercharged with .....yes better horses have been known to travel the extra distance between 2 points and gone on to win..... but generally when horses travel wide the jock is unable to out pace the pack inorder to get to the front and is thrown out on the bend....I see no reason on the less tighter tracks and over ground a jock cannot hold up a horse at the back of a pack and then make a move once in the straight......

If West End sits and waits for the cut off?

Kimberley is not your ideal track to use as an example, but a fair share of horses race wide into last turn ( obviously to avoid kick back ) & go on to win. many horses STOP when they get sand in their faces, & quite often the jock has to switch, go around or wider to avoid kick back.

I personally think that on the SAND track, one still can race wide & go onto win..... it depends on the horse of course....... ALIMONY came from how many lengths back to win the Emerald ? he may not have raced wide..... but he came back from 20L at least.

I agree Elvis, but some may say that sand (dirt in the US) is more energy sapping than grass.....but yet on grass the horses cannot race wide?
There are race tracks in the US that have inner grass tracks and the horses race EXACTLY the same way as they would on sand. They race wide and still win.

This whole thing is a complete mystery to me...........

Thanks for the input!