Velocity

Velocity is the rate per unit of time at which an object moves in a specified direction. In the old days baseball fans would say a pitcher had good speed. Today, he has good velocity. When a state trooper gives you a speeding ticket, it could just as well be called a velocity ticket. Velocity simply measures distance over time, whether it be seventy miles per hour, sixty kilometers per day or fifty-five feet per second.

Feet per second (ft/sec) is the velocity measure we use in constructing our figures. Let's go back to the first quarter of our imaginary race (see Inside Track article on Pace in the left sidebar) where the early leader ( Horse A ) ran the first quarter in 22.7 seconds. His first quarter velocity in feet per second equals 1320 ft ( the distance of a quarter mile ) divided by 22.7 seconds which equals 58.150 ft/sec. Remember that this is his average velocity during the first quarter. At certain points in the quarter, he is running faster than this and at other times, slower. As he leaps out of the gate from a standing start, the horse first overcomes inertia and then accelerates dramatically to reach full racing speed after about an eighth of mile.

For those of you with a mathematical bent, we could calculate his speed at any given point in the quarter (instantaneous velocity) by using differential calculus, if this acceleration were constant. But the acceleration is not constant. Sooner or later the horse levels off, and usually begins to decelerate later in the race. When the horse hits the turn, new factors come into play. How tight is the turn? How steeply is it banked? Does the animal's normal motion and physique allow it to negotiate different types of turns with the same agility? These are all difficult variables to accurately quantify, and anyone who tells you they can reduce all of this to one perfect "energy number", probably has some swamp land in Florida for sale.

What we can do is use the available data to produce reliable figures that allow us to make valid judgements concerning a horse's current condition. We know that chart-callers have a tough job and sometimes make mistakes. For that reason, our data is confirmed by multiple sources, including personal observation at some tracks.

These raw velocity figures are the building blocks for our numbers, which are also adjusted for wind, turns and daily track variant. The key difference between Equiform's pace figures and most of the others is that our figures are based on actual velocity, not fractional par times or projected fractional par times.