It is important to anticipate how a race will play out before making a serious wager. By examining the past performances, you can tell which of the horses are speed horses, which come from mid pack, and which are closers. This plays a very important role in how the race will evolve.

 

A horse with “early speed” is one who will go to the lead right out of the gate and either set or press the pace. These horses often manage to win, either by simply being faster than their opponents or finding a speed-favoring track where they can cruise to an uncontested lead, then victory. It is difficult to win on the lead, however, when several other horses want the lead. If too many horses go to the front out of the gate, it is called a “speed duel” and there is no other path to the wire. The horses must run all out for the whole race and will likely tire and fall behind.

 

A horse that races behind the early speed is said to run in “mid pack” or be a “stalker.” Stalkers are the horses directly behind the leaders and mid pack horses are behind them. By being close enough to the lead that they don’t have a lot of ground to make up, but also by being far enough back that they don’t get tired too early, these horses win most often.

 

A closer is a horse who runs way back behind the field, dropping many lengths behind the lead horse and then makes one sustained run in the final stage of the race in an effort to grab victory. The most difficult aspect of closers’ late kick is that they tend to run into traffic problems as the horses in front of them slow and tire. A good jockey can keep the horse out of traffic and weave through the field to the wire.

 

Post position contributes to how the race develops, too. If a speed horse is in the first stall, closest to the inner rail, that horse absolutely must break fastest from the gate before the horses to his outside push him back and take the rail for themselves in order to win. At the same time, if a horse is that is inclined to run in the lead or mid pack, but the horse is on the far outside, it has to break quickly and angle over to the rail so it doesn’t have to run an extra distance of ground on the outside.