10 - Racing Lines
In this section, I explain how to read the greyhound formlines to find the correct racing line of a greyhound and will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of these race routes.
Greyhound Racing Lines
Greyhound Predictor allows you to select a Standard Racing Line or to Define your Own and offers an amazing 16,384 individual racing lines! All combinations of the following four track positions can be entered and simulated:-
Rails - All runners racing on the inside of a track are known as "railers" and have the distinct advantage of running the shortest route around a circuit. The ability for any 'inside tracker' to hold the rails position in a race, is extremely important as these "paint scrapers" frequently avoid trouble, by slipping through along this inside racing line and hence benefit when other dogs are crowded (crd) or badly baulked (b blk) to their outside. However, unlike other racing paths 'tight railers' may not always maintain their maximum racing speeds around the bends, due to the acuteness of this particular running line!
Middle - Greyhounds 'moving off' the inside rail and running a middle course around a track are better placed to maintain their maximum speeds throughout a race, although middle track running dogs run a little further in distance, than inside runners and are generally considered 'easy to pass' as they allow chasing dogs, plenty of 'racing room' to overtake or pass them both on the inside or outside of the racetrack!
Wide - Dogs running a wide course are usually favoured by wet racing conditions and usually benefit in races when trouble occurs involving the inside runners. However, these wide running dogs race on the outer racing line of a track and therefore, run a little further in distance compared to 'inside' and 'middle' running greyhounds and for this reason generally lose a little ground around the bends!
Very Wide - Some greyhounds naturally run a very wide racing line! This is always considered an 'inferior racing-line' as these racers will obviously lose many lengths around the corners and run much further in distance compared to other racing routes. However, very wide runners are also favoured by wet racetrack conditions and usually avoid trouble in a race, by taking this extremely wide route, although occasionally they do end up racing on the wrong side of an outside hare rail!
All greyhounds chasing artificial hares or mechanical lures generally follow their own natural running paths, although this always depends on whether their following an inside or outside running hare? In American and Australian greyhound racing tracks, an inside hare rail is generally used and therefore, the dogs tend to run much closer to the rails.
Alternatively, the vast majority of racing in the U.K. takes place behind an outside hare and therefore, dogs generally run further out in the middle to wide areas of the racetrack. This can be most noticeable watching greyhounds racing out of the turns and running along the straights!
Now check your racing newspaper.
To find out the correct racing line of a greyhound you will need to look at the raceform remarks! These comments are located to the right of the winners or seconds name which can be found directly underneath the owners name in UK race programmes or the breeding lines in racing papers.
In English greyhound racing form the following abbreviations relate to racing lines:- Rails = rls, Rails to Middle = rls-mid, Middle to Rails = mid-rls, Middle = mid, Middle to Wide = mid-w, Wide = w, Very Wide = vw.
Now select Standard Racing Line or Define Own.
If you select a Standard Racing Line then a standard race line for each trap position will be highlighted on the Track Screen and will display the default racing line for each trap or post position.
If you select to Define Own the Track Screen will highlight each position and ask you to choose any combination of either rails, middle, wide or very wide racing lines for the following seven Greyhound Predictor Track Positions:-
- Position at Entrance to Bend 1?
- Position at Apex of Bend 1 and 2?
- Position at Exit of Bend 2?
- Position at end of Backstraight?
- Position at Apex of Bend 3 and 4?
- Position at Exit of Bend 4?
- Position at Finishing line?
You have now completed all the form data required for Trap Number 1. If you have made any mistakes when entering the greyhound statistics, 'Greyhound Predictor' lets you go back and select any question again, in order to alter any 'stat' that may need to be changed!
The 'Race Simulator' requires you to enter this dog into the traps, to do this simply highlight Enter at the bottom of the Stat Screen and Press Spacebar to load the dog in. Once you have repeated this procedure for all the remaining trap runners, and the last dog's been entered, you will start to see the track appear!
Next Page: Race and Conclusion
