Rail Position and Distance Travelled

[Sparky12]

Hi All

I'm new to Oz and in particular to Brisbane Racing. I've a quick and (I suspect) stupid query regarding rail positions which seem to change weekly at Doomben. What impact, if any, does the rail position have on distance travelled in a race?

I assume the starting barrier is moved in line with rail position to make distance travelled equal under all rail positions? Any thoughts would be much appreciated and apologies in advance if I've completely missed the point here - I'm used to 5f and 6f sprints up straight courses back home!

Many thanks

[jfc]

Based on comments from Ken Callender when he hosted the 2KY sanitised talk-back:

Apparently it is a massive undertaking to change the rail at Randwick. After which the track is re-surveyed and starting positions changed so that the distances are precise.

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However some tracks apparently leave the barriers unchanged and instead alter the distance.

For example I note that Cheltenham recently had distances of 2250, 2265 and 2271.

[Sparky12]

Many thanks JFC.

I suspect Doomben does the same as Cheltenham. Looking at archived results for Doomben on Qld Racing's website shows there's 1010m, 1020 and 1030m sprints - Qld Racing also has details of rail positions for each meet and they all differed on the relevant dates. I was thinking of calculating speed ratings for Doomben/Eagle Farm races and this complicates things a bit.

Not all distances (eg:1350m) appear to change - I'll do some analysis for Brissy tracks and maybe report back if I haven't lost the will to live by then....