Dear Woof43,

I have allocated many hours of grey matter processing time to the topic of sectional times and your clue is a gem in itself (I already knew that but had overlooked the importance) as is the gem I gleaned from a comment made by Osulldj when he reminded me that at the start if "leaders" are at wide barriers where there is a short run to the first turn they may be disadvantaged by not being able to get accross to the rails if reasonable "On Pace" runners are drawn inside them. "Back" runners and slow starters will not be disadvantaged in this way...

There's still lots of thinking to be done but I know I'm getting closer... When I was talking about the length of a race I have observed that the ground staff don't always position the starting gates in the right place. Taking into account the false rail they could be 25m or so out... One day when I was at Randwick they started a race at the 2400M mark and I was at the rails to watch proceedings. The barriers were 3-4 m away from the rails and were not even at 90 degrees.. The attendants fiddled around with the tractor but had to stop when the first horses arrived.. The race started with the barriers in a "She'll be right, mate" type of position....

As much as we want to accurately define everything we still have to allow for the human factor...

With the sportscolours.com.au figures, the technology they use is similiar to the chips we used to tie into our shoelaces
when I was running... I understand how it all works and the sensors are embedded in the ground so their position is constant, it's just the start that moves about a little.

Still we can only process the figures we are given, so we have to make some assumpions and give some leeway. Like the length of a horse for example...

Kind Regards

OzPunter