Pace and Trot

[sweetybt]

Hi,

Thanks to swine flu I had some time to look at the Oz markets last week.

I have a couple of questions regarding Pace and Trot racing. Firstly what is the difference? I presume both are some kind of harness racing?

Secondly, as I was listening to the races on skyradio it seemed that a certain amount of jostling for postion takes place before the official start of the race. So are people watching the pictures hoovering money on horses in the best position?

At what point are these markets suspended? As the horse crosses the start line or a few seconds before, during the pre race jostling.

There also seem to be a lot of odds on favourites in these races? How come?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

sweets

[billyford1]

I can answer one part of your question for you.
A trotter as the name suggests will trot as fast as he can without breaking into a canter, to do this his limbs will move diagonally i.e his left front leg will move forward at the same time as his right hind.
The difference with a pacer is that they are trained to move the opposite i.e his left front leg will move forward at the same time as his left hind leg and vice versa.
That is the best way i can explain it.

[sweetybt]

Thanks for that Billy.

So I just need to know how the market suspension works.

cheers

[billyford1]

I'm not an expert on this type of racing but having watched a number of these races i can tell you that they operate a 'running' start behind a vechile with a barrier attached hence the 'josling' for position before the off.
The race then starts as the vechile passes the start line.