Horse Betting Tips: Separating Pace from Speed

The concept of pace versus speed in horse racing can be a complicated subject since each affects the other and neither can stand completely alone. However, to look at and consider each of these two factors closely is an important horse betting tip that many horseplayers will give. Therefore, it is important to understand each of the factors and how they relate together in order to help you understand and select which horses may win in a given race.

Definitions for Pace & Speed

Pace is most accurately defined as the overall speed at which a race was run. This applies to the overall speed of all of the horses running in a given race. When discussing the pace of a race in relation to horse betting tips and tricks for selecting winning horses, it is important to look at the pace of the early, middle, and late fractions of a race.

On the other hand, speed is the actual rate of motion at which each individual horse travels during a race. Put simply, a horse must be inherently fast enough or have enough speed in order to win a race. A particular horse's speed can vary from race to race and this is often influenced by many different factors. To see our horse racing tips about how the concept of speed should apply to horse handicapping and making your winning selections, see our article about Is Speed the Most Important Factor? You can also see our horse racing picks for today to see how this concept has helped us to determine our top winning horse race wagers for today.

Tips To Use Pace in Your Horse Betting Strategy

When using pace for handicapping a race, most horseplayers will give the horse betting tip that you should place a number, or a pace figure, to describe how fast the pace each of the internal fractions of a race was. These handicappers then believe that a horse exiting a faster paced race can be "forgiven" for a poor finish since the competition was greater, and therefore, they will upgrade a horses chances in the next race. Likewise, they offer the horse betting tip that for horses exiting a slower paced race, you should down grade their chances to win the following race.

At Horse Race Handicappers, we believe that the true horse betting tips that you should apply when using pace as part of your handicapping strategy are actually opposite of these traditional beliefs. Our reasoning behind this is that horses exiting fast paced races are likely to have used more of their energy during the race while horses exiting slower paced races may have been able to conserve some energy as the race was less taxing on the horse. Therefore, we will say that if any adjustment should be made based on the pace of a previous race, it should be to down grade a horse racing today that previously ran in a faster paced race and upgrade a horse's chances of winning if it previously ran in a slower paced race.

Learn More Horse Betting Tips

To learn more about how we use this horse betting tip and our many other tips and tricks when handicapping horse racing in order to make our winning selections, see our What We Do & How We Do It page. You can also see how our horse betting tips will work for you by purchasing any of our horse racing picks packages in order to have access to our top wagers for today's races.