Just another point on your comments regarding what jockey's say about barriers. One of the things that has always amazed me is how LITTLE jockeys apparantly understand about the mathematics behind racing, in particular geometry. It seems to me that for a lot of them a basic course in geometry and a few hours spent watching race replays with a good analyst would help their racecraft a huge amount.

Anyway how about a quick quiz to illustrate just one point. Lets say horse A is starting from barrier 1 and horse B is starting from a barrier 20 metres further out. The first turn is 200 metres from the starting point. Lets say horse B runs in a straight line for the turn and crosses the field to get to the rail at the start of the turn. How much further has it had to run than Horse A that was on the rail the whole time????

Back later with the answer.

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"Computers can do that????" - Homer Simpson