Tuesday, 20th October 2026
In ATC today….
The data was readily available….
…. but it wasn’t published at the earliest opportunity….
…. and racing authorities need to up their game….
Read on….
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Excellent Believe won his race on the far side of the track in Saturday’s Balmoral Handicap at Ascot – almost 2 lengths in advance of nearest pursuer, Whip Cracker….
Trouble is he was well in arrears to the nine horses that beat him home on the stand side of the track – horses drawn in stalls 13, 16, 21, 23, 12, 15, 22, 18 & 19….
The first thing I said in my write-up for the race on Friday morning is that I didn’t know whether a starting stall of 5 would be an advantage or a disadvantage….
…. and when interviewed on ITV Racing ahead of the race, Excellent Believe’s trainer Stephen Thorne was quick to tell viewers that he didn’t know either….
…. even though – by that time – it was a known fact that the stands side of the track was riding quicker than the far side….
How did we know that?
Simple – the Going Stick figures for all parts of the track were published on ‘the Going’ page of the Ascot racecourse website….
The measurements – published at 08.15 on Saturday morning – were recorded as follows….
From the mile start to the 3f pole….
…. and from the 3f pole to the finish….
The higher the figure on any part of the track, the quicker the ground….
…. and the figures reveal that the ground was quickest on the stand side at all points down the mile stretch….
By the time they were loading the horses into the stalls on Saturday afternoon, I knew my man was up against it and unlikely to prevail from where he was situated on the track….
…. and I resigned myself to my fate….
As a week-in-week-out racing punter you kind of get used to these types of scenarios….
…. when crucial information comes too late to be of any use in betting decisions – sometimes only coming to light after a race has been run….
…. but some instances are harder to swallow than others – and Saturday is a case in point….
Now, you could make the argument that I go in too early with my picks….
…. and that I forfeit my right to complain if or when fresh data or information appears in the period between my money going down and the off….
But there are good reasons why I go in early – outlined here….
…. it’s a policy that’s seen me beat SP with 62.5% of my last 1000 selections….
…. and I stick to my belief that the best way to get a value price about a ‘live’ contender in the big handicaps is to go in early rather than wait for the market to become more and more price efficient the closer we get to the off….
In fact, if I were going to make tweaks to my methodology – I’d be going in earlier still rather than later….
…. but that’s a topic of discussion for another day….
The point I want to make today is that on Friday morning punters need not have been in the dark about how different parts of the track were riding….
A Going Stick reading became a requirement of the Rules of Racing in January 2009….
…. and racecourses must make the data available at the declaration stage and again on race day – alongside the Clerk of Course’s official going description….
Ascot did do the bare basics of what’s required – providing a general Going Stick reading for both the straight track and the round course….
…. but no breakdown of data across the track was provided (the figures were not available on the BHA website on Friday morning either)….
If you’ve got the information to hand (or the capacity to produce and provide that data) – and that was/is certainly the case at Ascot….
….. then why not go the extra mile for punters and the markets and the racing media and get the data readings into the public domain at the earliest opportunity….
…. and then keep the readings updated in the run-up to the race….
What possible reason could there be for not doing that?
Perhaps it was just a simple oversight….
…. perhaps it wasn’t considered a priority….
…. perhaps there’s a dismissive attitude at work regarding punters that manifests as a form of contempt….
All I can tell you is that if some poor sap tries to walk through the wrong gate at Ascot….
…. wearing the wrong cravat….
…. or sporting a top hat tilted at a socially inappropriate angle….
…. every man jack on the Ascot payroll is swiftly on hand to eject the undesirable from the track….
If only the same energy and enthusiasm could be mustered to provide the poor old punter – we only help fund the game, after all – with a bit of basic information that gives him a fighting chance on the betting front….
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That’s all for now. Back tomorrow….
Meantime contact me at: nick.pullen@spapublishinggroup.co.uk
Stay tuned….
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