MY CALL: THE IMPORTANCE OF RACE TEMPO AND ITS RELEVANCE TO THE RACE RESULT

By David Fowler | Tuesday, September 15, 2020

David Fowler is the principal thoroughbred caller for Radio TAB. David, who is a keen form student and punter, has enjoyed a lifetime involvement in the racing media. His personal blog, ‘My Call’, appears exclusively on HRO.

To say the tempo, or lack of it, is relevant to a race result can never be underestimated.

Yet many will dismiss or downplay it in their first look analysis to either criticize a performance or flatter a theory.

Simply … times, and the breakdown of those times, don’t lie.

When Rothfire scooted over 600m on the Eagle Farm course proper in 32 seconds in a track gallop, many dismissed the time as fanciful.

It wasn’t. It was the sign of a winning gallop which was franked in his Run To The Rose triumph on the weekend.
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Tempo played an integral role in three of the most discussed races on the weekend and can tell us a lot for the future.

Tempo, or in this case lack of it, played a key role in the defeat of Alligator Blood on Saturday.

It was never going to be an easy assignment first-up over 1110m with 61kg, but strong hope was given with so many speedsters in the race.

Alas, no pace war happened when The Odyssey jumped brilliantly and his potential speed rivals settled meekly behind.

The running order was settled far earlier than most anticipated.

And here’s the rub with the tempo. The Odyssey “ambled” through the first 510m in 30.42 before ramping it up to a 33.22 last 600m.

Alligator Blood was putting in big strides late in the piece and delivered a personal 32.8 but it was almost mathematically impossible for him to win.

The lack of tempo won the day in sealing his defeat.

For comparison, the 1110m race Just Orm won at Doomben three weeks earlier, the first 510m was run in 29.56, almost a second quicker and the sprint home was 34.31 which was just over a second slower.

The times of 1:03.64 (The Oddysey) and 1:03.87 (Just Orm) were quite similar but, in stark contrast, the respective breakdowns were not.

Alligator Blood can be forgiven.
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As can The Run To The Rose favourite Farnan at Rosehill.

The Golden Slipper winner went out powerfully in a 34.21 first 600m which consisted of two sub 11-second sections.

It’s very rare for a horse to burn the candle at both ends.

He was probably too fresh, too keen and got tired late.

Compare this to his dominant Golden Slipper and Todman wins as a two-year-old at the same track and trip.

He enjoyed running far more benevolent splits of 35.58 (Todman) and 35.87 (Golden Slipper) before carving out low 34’s for the last half of the race.

Tempo was his friend not foe in both assignments.

Farnan can be forgiven.
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Yet, on the other hand, sometimes tempo can flatter a performance and this theory could be tested out with Russian Camelot who ran second in the Makybe Diva at Flemington.

First and foremost, Russian Camelot is an outstanding prospect and it’s difficult to hard mark a horse who travelled four-wide first-up and was narrowly beaten.

But tempo played a part in running such a brave race.

The first 1000 metres was covered in 63.04, pedestrian to say the least at Group One level.

This enabled the sprint home to be in a quick 33.29.

So, while he was wide, he was conserving energy with the moderate sections being run.

Russian Camelot was excellent, but it was not gang-busting like many gushed post-race.

The bottom line is every race run can be served by analysis and 99 times out of 100, tempo will play a significant hand.

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