The importance of times and why they are vastly underappreciated

Betting on Racing is an app-exclusive daily punting guide from three of the Racing Post's most renowned experts: Tom Segal, Paul Kealy and David Jennings. A new instalment will be published every weekday for the next three weeks.

It took me longer than it should have to come round to the importance of times in the winner-finding process.

They certainly shouldn't be regarded as the be-all and end-all given the variance in ground conditions at different tracks and the pace of each race, but they are undoubtedly helpful in identifying horses who are a lot better than they would appear at first glance. In simplistic terms every horse can run slowly but only a few can run very fast – and times tell us that.

No-one watches any other race in any other sport, whether it be cars, humans or boats, without the times being at the forefront of the analysis. That is still not the case in horseracing with most professionals still more comfortable talking about collateral formlines, trainer form and the like.

All these things are important, but the times are proof as to whether a horse can run fast and has above-average ability and I still believe they are underappreciated among racing folk. 

Once again, I will refer to watching the heats of the Olympics as a kid because it was pretty obvious that the times identified the class of the field. The comparisons between races were easy and obvious and, while it is a lot more complicated on the racetrack, it's not exactly rocket science.

Sir Gerhard: ran faster when carrying more weight than Honeysuckle at the Dublin Racing FestivalCredit: Patrick McCann

The best and most famous example was Kingman's debut as a juvenile when his sectionals were better than the Group 2 on the same day. He simply had to be top class to do what he did. More recently, Sir Gerhard ran faster when carrying more weight than Honeysuckle at the Dublin Racing Festival. It simply had to be a top-class performance.

The big problem is not many people have the time to analyse the times themselves, but simply by using comparison-per-furlong data on the Racing Post website can give you a way in. Timing races yourself, if you think you've spotted one, is not beyond the wit of man.

The biggest complication for times followers is trying to work out the most efficient way to run a race. Most casual observers often say that following the best pace in a big-field handicap is the key, but that may not be the most efficient way to run the race if the horse you fancy is going too fast too soon and not conserving their energy the best way.

That is where sectionals come in because with them we can determine the horse who distributed their energy most efficiently, and they will highlight the horses who can do extraordinary things.

A good recent example is Highfield Princess, who had questions to answer when she dropped back to five furlongs for the Nunthorpe at York in August. However, anyone who studied her time and sectionals performance in the Duke of York (6f) earlier in the season would have had those fears allayed in an instant.

Monday: Paul Kealy's form study tips

Read more in our Betting on Racing series:

David Jennings: dispelling the myths - don't always believe what you hear   

Paul Kealy: don't be scared of big market drifters - and be prepared to go in again   

Tom Segal: why ante-post betting has never been more attractive