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Cheltenham Betting: Sectional timings should not be ignored in your punting plans

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Simon Rowlands explains how the stopwatch can aid your preparations for the Gold Cup, Champion Chase and more...

Sectional timing analysis paid off at Wolverhampton last week, with Smirfys Systems beating Avoca Dancer and Glenridding being denied in his hat-trick bid.

The former result was gratifying, and Avoca Dancer - who was ridden with little enterprise - remains one to be interested in, but I think I might have got a bit lucky with Glenridding.

I opposed the James Given-trained horse because he had got soft leads in his recent races and done nothing in them to suggest that he was significantly better than when last running in a truly run race at the course over Christmas, when he'd won a maiden in workmanlike fashion. Saturday's race suggested otherwise.

There's plenty of evidence of how a horse can go about recording a good time at Wolverhampton. To keep it simple, it needs to run its last two furlongs at a slightly quicker speed than its overall speed. Over an extended mile at Wolverhampton, an optimum sectional for the last two furlongs results in a finishing speed of about 101.5% of the horse's overall speed.

It should be remembered that a horse's overall speed will involve a standing start and going round bends, and that all courses are slightly different. For instance, the optimum finishing speed over a mile at Kempton is about 101%, at Lingfield it is nearly 103%, and at Southwell (where there is a longer straight and a more testing surface) it is about 97%.

Glenridding came home in under 96% - the slowest figure of all the principals in his race - which shows that he went off fast and that he deserves extra credit in terms of his overall race time. The fact that the time of that race was a good one in any case - Timeform rated him 81, for both form and time - speaks highly for the gelding. If he's an 81 horse judged on overall race time, then I'd suggest he's nearer a 90 horse judged on sectionals.

Trial and error has shown that a sectional taken at the two-furlong marker on the Flat is the best if you wish to concentrate on just one figure. Ideally, you should take all sectionals into account, though the calculations start to get very lengthy if you do. A race has often just begun to develop at the two pole and you usually get meaningful information from comparing such a sectional with the overall time.

Over jumps it is a different kettle of fish. As mentioned last week, fences and hurdles give very good markers at which to take sectional times of your own. In my experience, it pays to take sectionals around four furlongs from the finish, which is usually at the third-last but can sometimes (such as on the 17 furlongs hurdle course at Cheltenham) be at the second-last.

Sectionals over jumps are somewhat compromised by the difficulty of taking accurate overall race times and then making sense of them. It is not a great deal of use to "know" that a horse is about 10lb better than the overall race time but not to know for sure what the overall race time signifies. It can take a lot of work.

Nonetheless, it can be helpful, for instance, to know that a horse "should" get to the third-last in the Champion Hurdle in just over 75% of its overall race time, that it is nearer 76% for the same juncture in the Champion Chase, and that it is slightly over 85% for the Gold Cup.

Armed with this knowledge, it would have been clear just how slowly run the 2005 Champion Hurdle won by Hardy Eustace was, just what a tactical and speed-favouring affair Kauto Star's Gold Cup was and just how efficiently Best Mate's first two Gold Cups were run.

That may seem all very academic now, but at the time it was not, and arguably Kauto Star still has questions to answer about his stamina in a Gold Cup run at a truer pace, as most Gold Cups are and as this one surely will be.

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I am undoubtedly pushing my luck in trying to emulate last week's success, but two recent sectional eye-catchers turn up in the same race (the 20:20) at Kempton on Wednesday night.

Red Rudy and Cool Sands both managed to run decent times while finishing strongly last time and are handicapped to go close. Preference is for the former, who went into the notebook when third over course and distance last time in a key sectional race. Cool Sands seems to have lost the winning touch but could well reward place support.