Draw biases

By Declan Rix

The strong recent draw bias at race tracks like Lingfield, Newcastle and Windsor has generated some debate of late. From a punting perspective this draw bias can be punting gold as it can eliminate hours of form-study, especially with big-field races, before the draw biases are recognised by the masses. Take Newcastle as an example. The Tyneside track’s 26th June meeting saw horses drawn high dominate the meeting on the straight course with horses drawn low not even getting competitive. That afternoon there were five races on the straight mile. Four of those races were won by horses drawn in the top three stalls, closest to the stands rail and all four were front-runners. The other race was won by a horse that sat just in behind the speed and he managed to win by a neck from a front-runner who was drawn high. Similar stories and statistics applied to Windsor and Lingfield in recent months and punters have been enjoying a purple patch.

So who are the chief sufferers in these scenarios? Owners and trainers, mainly. Plenty of time, money and energy goes into preparing these animals for competition, in the hope they can go on and fulfill their potential. But when racing at the above tracks, horses are sometimes beaten before they even step into a horse box because of the draw. I’m sure it is tempting to pull a horse out of a race when he has a poor draw once all horses have been declared. It is an issue that needs to be addressed.

By Declan Rix