The sectionals inside a race

A whole-race figure treats every part of a race as the same. Sectionals do not: they time the parts separately, and they routinely rank two runners the opposite way from the figure over the full distance.

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Sample spec

Sample race: 6f, 71.40 s
First 3f: 33.60 s
Last 3f: 37.80 s
Standard closing 3f: 36.90 s

the stringThe finishing position of the last six runs, newest first. On the samples it carries 48 of 48 positions and 0 of 48 margins, distances, grounds or field sizes.

the markThe official rating, set so a field of similar marks finishes close together on paper. On the samples it moved on four of six runs, for a net change of 8 lb.

the allowanceThe correction applied to a standard time for the ground. On the samples the going allowance is worth 19.2 points at six furlongs, against 2.4 points for the whole weight spread.

Direct answerA sectional is the time for part of a race, usually the first and last three furlongs. It shows whether a runner was fast throughout or fast at one end. In the sample race the winner was 7.0 points clear over the whole trip, while the third-placed runner was 2.0 points faster over the closing three furlongs, because the winner had gone off too quickly.

Sample C's race is used again here, this time split in half. The winner's total was 71.40 seconds and the sample's standard closing split is 36.90. A figure over the whole race and a figure over the closing section disagree about which of the two runners was better, and both are correct.

33.60 s

37.80 s

first 3f 33.60 slast 3f 37.80 stotal 71.40 sstandard closing 3f 36.90 s

Sample C split in half - two answers from one racewinner 33.60 + 37.80 = 71.40 s third 34.40 + 37.60 = 72.00 s the whole-race figure winner 85.6 third 78.6 gap 7.0 points to the winner the closing-section figure, against the standard 36.90 s winner closed in 37.80, which is 0.90 s slow third closed in 37.60, which is 0.70 s slow 0.20 s x 10 points a second = 2.0 points to the third where the race was decided first 3f: winner 33.60, third 34.40 the third lost 0.80 s before the closing section began 0.80 s x 10 = 8.0 points, which is why it finished behind so the same two runners rank over the whole race winner by 7.0 over the closing 3f third by 2.0 and the reason is a 8.0 point deficit in the first 3f

A closing-sectional figure is not a better figure than a whole-race figure, and it is not a worse one. It answers a different question: not who was fastest over the trip, but who was fastest at the end of it. A site that publishes one and calls it the figure is publishing a choice, and the choice is the finding.

Why two figures from one race can disagree

Three things follow. The first is that pace is a property of the race, so a slow closing split can be caused by the leader rather than by the runner being measured. The second is that a runner's own best closing split often comes from a race it lost, because a race run slowly early leaves more in the tank. The third is that a pace map - who led, who was restrained - is the input that makes the sectionals readable, and it is almost never on the card.

Ask which section the figure covers before comparing two runners.
Read a fast closing split against the pace of the race, not in isolation.
Look for a standard split to compare against; without one, a sectional is just a time.
Treat a slow first section as a cause and a slow closing section as an effect; they are not symmetric.
Remember that the whole-race figure is an average of both sections, which is what makes it stable and what makes it blunt.

Where to go next

The ground the time was run onthe other correction a time needs The runs behind the figuresix runs and a 16.9 point range What a figure cannot saywhere the arithmetic stops