The Going

dvdfan

Im baffled why more accurate stats about the going are not produced. Giving the importance of this (must be the most important thing to consider after form when choosing a horse) why is there not stats released every hour or two about the going.

Also how is the going determined is it merely by putting a stick into the ground and the ground assessed by how easy the stick pushes in or is there a more tech savy way, either way if the race courses dont bother or whoever is responsible why hasnt a third party taken charge of this, even if they supplied this info for free on a website they would surely make money off this through sponsership and google advertising etc

Would be a nice job though travelling to meetings and taking going measurements every hour, i just need a few volunteers and we can have the website up and running and making a fortune in no time, but seriously i would love to know how the going is assessed and on that note has anyone any feedback on the ground at bangor on dee, i have a horse running and the going is important, is there any websites that provide a recent weather update to see if it has rained or not??

dvdfan

Just to add only a week or two ago a certain racecourse (cant remember which) announced that the going was good to firm only for the jockeys to claim after the first race that is was good or good to soft after the first race, the racecourse never changed the going and remained as good to firm when it was clearly soft and so the official going became good to firm so when someone reviews the form they are getting a very unnacurate view

wb

I gotta agree here. The going is pretty much guesswork. The jockeys will often disagree with the officials and vice versa.

I think we need the digital going sticks that are used in france. They are very accurate and don't cause any problems there. Then, a scale of 1-10 could be used for ground going.

Going plays a HUGE part in the race, and in this day and age, we should not have to rely on a few guesses.

scojones

According to the lads on sportslive, they already use the digital going sticks in the UK and Ireland.

The problem I have is sites like the racing post do not update their going status.

wb

sjones wrote:

The problem I have is sites like the racing post do not update their going status.

Yeah, I e-mailed ATR and asked where is the most up to date guide, and they reccommended the Sporting Life website.

wb

Found out what the french going stick is called. It's a Pentrometer.

This is from the Channel 4 site:

Going - The official description of the state of the ground. Can range from Heavy to Hard with variants in between. The Going is often the cause for much dispute in racing between course officials and trainers. A device called a Pentrometer is used in France to give a numbered reading and although it is used at a minority of British racecourses, the good, old, trusty stick remains the preferred tool for the job!

masterK

Agreed with all that has been said. Turftrax are probably the best source for going information, espcecially for major courses.
http://www.turftrax.com/html/courseconditions/index.asp

I was trying to find the going for Salisbury on the web on Friday after the first race, the Racing Post said it was good, the Sporting Life good to firm and ceefax good to soft. It's a nightmare trying to find which is correct. I usually find ceefax the most accurate.

To further the problem, many course clerks on flat courses hate to the word soft in the going, so even if the ground is clearly good to soft they will still insist it is good. It's amazing the amount of times the official going is inaccurate.

dvdfan

Interesting, does turftrax do their own testing of the surface and if so how often do they update???

masterK

They do their own testing on a lot of the courses, if you have a look Newbury today, they have a diagram of the course with the going on each section highlighted. The seem to update about 3 times a day.

I find however with the smaller meetings that they are not always quick to update.

kincsem

You will almost always get an Epsom Derby going description with the word "good" in it (good/firm, good, good/soft). It is politics. It is what the course want.

In the 1990s at The Curragh the going description was often changed after the first race on the advice of the senior jockeys. That was probably an accurate way to decide.

If you are looking at this after the race then race times compared to standard times are the best guide, although this does not account for things like head-winds.

If you want to know before the race then I would not rely on the official description. The weather in the weeks leading up to the meeting would be a better guide. You also need to know if there was rain if the course drain / drys quickly or not.