<h2>What Are Sectional Times In Horse Racing?</h2> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em>Oh, the Owner told Clarence the clocker</em></p> <p><em>The clocker told jockey McGee</em></p> <p><em>The jockey, of course, passed it on to the horse</em></p> <p><em>And the horse told me.</em></p> <p>For those old enough to remember, that’s the second verse of Bing Crosby’s hit song of 1949, The Horse Told Me.</p> <p>Oh, if only horses could talk.</p> <p>Unfortunately, they can’t, which is why punters and racing fans have for a couple of centuries searched for the reasons that makes thoroughbreds run and for how far and fast … apart from their inherent instinct to do so.</p> <p>For as long as horses have raced and clocks ticked, the importance of measuring the speed of a horse, either in training or in a race, has been pivotal to finding a future winner.</p> <p>Luckily the days of hiding behind bushes in the early morning mist with a clock in hand as thoroughbreds thunder by have long gone, replaced by modern technology and brilliant vision.</p> <p>The pace of a race has long been a jockeys’ domain, but these days the sectional times of a race can tell the true story – win, lose or draw.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h2>Understanding Sectional Times in Horse Racing</h2> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>So how do sectional times in horse racing work and what makes them such a buzz word?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>What are Sectional Times?</strong></p> <p>Understanding sectional times has become an important tool in any punters’ armory.</p> <p>In training horses gallop to even time – 15 seconds to the 200 metres – but quicken at the end of a gallop to what is the average race speed of 12 seconds per 200 metres, or faster. The great Black Caviar could carve out midrace 200-metre sectional time splits in 10 seconds, and sometimes quicker, breaking the hearts of those chasing her.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>How are Sectional Times Collated?</h3> <p>As mentioned before modern technology has a huge part to play, effectively eliminating your grandfathers neck strapped stop watch. GPS chips and high tech data are fed through algorithms and out comes the sectional times direct to your screen.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Why are Sectional Times In Horse Racing Important?</h3> <p>The best jockeys have what is termed, “a clock in their head”, in that they can judge pace and leave energy for a horse to finish off the race at optimum speed. Sydney rider Tim Clark is widely regarded as the master on a leader in Australian racing. He sets a pace his horse can sustain, sometimes making it impossible for horses back in the field to get close when the field swings into the home straight.</p> <p>In general terms, a horse covers six lengths in one second at full speed. In simple terms, if leaders can dictate a pace that allows them to finish off their last 400m in under 23 seconds, it is virtually impossible for a rival to come from further back than six lengths and win. Only superior athletes, such as Chautauqua and Super Impose, can run blistering sectional times from the back of the field on a regular basis.</p> <p>However, the harder the leaders go in a fast run three-quarters of a race, carving out 200-metres sectional times of under 10.5 seconds in a sprint race and under 12 seconds in a middle-distance racing, the more likely a horse from the back will run over the top of them when they tire.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h2>How Accurate are Sectional Times?</h2> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Fortunately, modern sectional times don’t rely on the vagaries of the manual application of clicking a thumb on a stopwatch.&nbsp;</p> <p>At all metropolitan tracks and most of the leading provincial tracks, the sectional times are supplied by companies that use GPS technology, by inserting a chip into the saddlecloth of each runner. There is a breakdown of the times that every horse has run for each 200-metre section of the race.</p> <p>The sectional times for metro racing are displayed on the TV screens as the race is progressing, and for most meetings are available soon after a race through the websites that controlling body in each racing jurisdiction.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>If any of the above terms confused you then you can read our <a href="https://www.sportsbet.com.au/huddle/punter-iq/guide/australian-horse-racing-terminology">Australian Horse Racing Terms &amp; Terminology Guide</a> or<strong>&nbsp;</strong>are interested in a bet, <a href="https://www.sportsbet.com.au/huddle/punter-iq/guide/how-to-bet-on-horses-a-horse-racing-betting-guide">click here</a> for our guide on How To Bet On Horse Racing.</p>