RP Standard times/ Going

Anyone?

Once movable running rails were introduced, I think it became impossible to use standard times to gauge the going. It's called the "going" allowance, but it's really an expression of going, rails movements and wind speed/direction. I don't think it's possible to extract any more than a very broad interpretation of the going out of that lot. Certainly not enough to distinguish g/s from soft, for instance.

Thanks scream. You're probably correct. I hadn't thought of wind speed/direction and then of course

there's the Clerk Of The Course's going description which is often subjective. However from every

negative in this game there comes a positive, so I can attach far less importance to times.

Well, times (or, more accurately, the speed figures derived from them) are a vital piece of the jigsaw - one of the best signals going that a piece of form might be less reliable than it appears to be at first glance.

They can also give a hint that the going MIGHT have been softer or faster than the official description. You just can't use them as a stand-alone means of precisely determining the going.

Remember that when it comes to calculating speed figures, the accuracy of going descriptions is irrelevant. Anyone who thinks you calculate speed figures from the going allowance has simply never calculated speed figures. You calculate the speed figures first, and from those figures calculate a going allowance, if you can be bothered.