Handicap Races - Help?

It's lengths - calculated as 0.08 seconds per length

handicap race: a handicap race is designed to bring together greyhounds of differing ability so that each has an equal chance of winning. The traps are staggered so that the slower dogs receive a start of a number of metres. The dog or dogs receiving no advantage are said to be running off scratch (q.v.).

Daveg, at the end of races, are sprint dogs and marathon dogs still running at 0.8secs per length?

That's how times are calculated, woody. 0.8 a metre and 0.6 a yard as it once was = a length.

0.8 seconds per length would make for very long races, Woody. The idea of lengths doesn't matter - every dog is timed, and the lengths calculated from the actual time, not vice versa. If a distance is given as 2 lengths, then what it really means is one dog was 0.16 seconds behind the other. The difference could be measured in cubits or hands for what it's worth.

More surprising to me is how tracks are always a factor of .1 seconds away from Normal - I'd love to know how RMs are confident a track is -20 and not -18 or -22.

Fractions not easy to assess sometimes and what's a good time 480m at one track may not be quite so good at another

Woody

I think daveg was referring to the fact that you had the decimal point in the wrong place.

To clarify the point.

As a general rule in determining short distances: 0.08 secs = 1 length, 0.04 secs = 1/2 length, 0.03 secs = a neck, 0.02 secs = head and 0.01 secs = short head. Although the actual time it takes a dog to run a length may be fractionally quicker 0.0676 secs = 1 length.

Sure pi must enter the equation somewhere?!

correct sparrow, that is the scale used over here

bowlarks of course