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Quote:

Originally Posted by evajb001

Does/Has anyone used the sectional time and average speed data supplied as part of the form by one of the main aus horse racing websites. Their web address starts with P and rhymes with hunters?

I hadn't taken much notice of it before but saw it on the weekend and looks like it has the potential to be useful? particularly for speed mapping and/or determining if a horse has the ability to maintain or increase speed even after settling forward in the race.

I understand many use sectional data and that its difficult to obtain and calculate yourself unless you pay for the data, however the figures shown on the 'hunters' website seems useful on the surface.

So i'm interested if anyone uses it as part of their process and/or does anyone scrape this info into excel via web queries?

Hi evajb001

You need to adopt caution when using these types of figures as they have been produced using the average of a horses time through a particular section. If for example a horse has had 10 runs and they have gone hard early in say half of those then those races (making up 50% of the sample) then they are going to show it has run slow final sectionals. On the flip side if 5 of the runs that are used are based on slow early sectionals then it skews that part of the overall sample buy showing that it has fast closing sectionals. The problem and therefore the reality is that this will most likely lead you down the wrong path if relying on them.

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your view, good quality sectional data requires a significant investment. Personally we invest a substantial 5 figure sum purchasing sectional data from what is essentially a closed shop and 6 figures when it comes to obtaining all the data that we require. Obviously though we feel that the benefits that we get from doing so justify the expense.