Australian punters have access to data services we can only dream about

There are many factors that influence a horse race: the horse and jockey, obviously, but also the trainer, the pace the race has been run at, sectional timings, the course and the weather. Having the data for as much of this as possible allows people to form better and more informed opinions; everything should be done to achieve this and engage a wider audience.

Last week the Australian Turf Club launched an innovation which will supply live weather, wind and track data for punters and participants. This is a new digital service and it is hosted by the Australian Turf Club and tripleSdata. The data provided includes wind speed and direction, rainfall, humidity, air temperatures, soil compression and water content.

It is well known the ground plays a big part in how well a horse performs. What is less known is the impact of the wind. Obviously a headwind will slow a horse down, and a tail wind will have the opposite effect, but the reality is it is much more complicated than that.