Sectional timing — the measurement of a horse’s time between each furlong post — transforms racing results from a finishing-order record into a pace profile. For analysts, it is the difference between knowing a horse won and knowing how it won: whether it led throughout, was covered up early and finished strongly, or set a pace that collapsed in the final stages.
Coverage in the HRDB UK Dataset
HRDB’s UK sectional data currently covers major courses participating in the Racing Post / Timeform sectional timing programme, available from 2017 onwards. The dataset includes split times at each furlong interval from start to finish, normalised to a consistent format across all participating courses and calendar years.
Practical Analysis Applications
- Pace classification — Identify whether a race was run as a true pace, slow early or strong gallop, independently of the going condition.
- Stamina assessment — Compare a horse’s early fraction speed to its late fraction to quantify how far it can genuinely sustain pace.
- Going sensitivity — Sectional times normalised against course records provide a more accurate going impact measure than qualitative going codes alone.
- Jockey tactics — Track how specific jockeys position horses in running across different race types, inferred from sectional position data.
How to Access It
Sectional data is included in our UK historical export packages and available via the API for recent meetings. Schema documentation covers the exact fields, time encoding format and available course coverage. View the UK export options or check API coverage for real-time sectional feeds.
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