Horse racing is an age-old tradition, and so inevitably you end up with a lot of confusing jargon and terminology.
It can be really difficult to keep up with it all when you’re first getting started, and I know I certainly struggled at first.
While out at the races with a friend the other day who’s just getting interested in horse racing, he had a lot of questions for me about the terminology he was hearing.
One particular point of confusion for him was what’s known as ‘post time’, so I’ve done my best here to collate the details on that question.
So, what does post time in horse racing mean?
Post time in horse racing is simply the designated starting time of a horse race. Whenever someone refers to the post time, they just mean that that is the time that the race is slated to start. The post in horse racing is simply the starting position of all horses.
So, post time is certainly one the easier ones to get your head around.
It’s meaning is quite simple.
Nonetheless, there are some interesting and important details to be aware of, about where the term comes from and other things.
So let’s look into it.
Table of Contents
What is the post in horse racing?
Simply put, the post in horse racing is the position of stall in the starting gate from which a horse starts the race.
If you think of it as a literal post in the ground then the terminology starts to make some sense.
Posts have always been necessary with horses around, as something to hitch them to.
Posts in horse racing include the small gate, which helps to keep the horse still before the race starts.
The post position is the horse that has the greatest advantage in terms of the shape of the race.
Like in formula 1, certain horses will start at different points of the track.
Sometimes this is done to even odds for a horse that is at a greater disadvantage, or to give a greater advantage to a horse who won a previous race.
So, post time in particular then, how is that different?
What is post time?
Post time is really no more complicated than being the designated time a certain race starts.
It is called post time, again, because of the fact that at this point, all horses will be lined up at their posts.
So, for example, if a race was set to start at 3pm, that would be a post time of 3pm.
The announcer might say something like ‘the race is scheduled for 3pm post time’.
That’s really all you need to know about the term post time.
The post, as a place, is where the race starts, and as a time, when it starts.
The other way we hear the term ‘post’ used in horse racing is when it comes to ‘post position’.
Let’s look at what that is, and why it’s important.
How important is post position in horse racing?
Post position can have a couple of meanings.
In the simplest sense, it’s just the position of the stall in the starting gate from which the horse starts the race.
It’s where its ‘posts’ are.
In some races, however, we have what’s known as the shape of the race, where post position is a special advantage bestowed on some horses.
The simplest way to explain it is that in some races, a horse that is seen to be at a disadvantage will be placed at a starting point further ahead the racetrack in order to account for this disadvantage.
Sometimes, on the other hand, though this is rarer, horses will be placed further ahead in an analogue to ‘poll position’; as a reward for winning past races.
How these positions are determined is often different, so let’s look at a few different methods.
How is post position determined in horse racing?
In the vast majority of cases, the horse’s starting stall is simply selected randomly.
Indeed, for the most part, it doesn’t even matter as all stalls start from the same point.
It’s not really analogous to, say, the way that athletes on the outer edge of an Olympic running track start further ahead to account for the extra distance.
Horse races are not run on tracks, but simply in one wide lane.
In some rarer cases, horses are given a starting position that’s further ahead to account for a disadvantage, which is ruled on by the racing authority.
For the most part, though, the selection of where a horse starts a race is simply random, and has no real bearing on the outcome of the race.
Post, then, really just means upfront.
The start of the race.
The post position would be equal to the poll position in car racing.
Post time, by extension, is the starting time of the race based on when the horses will leave their ‘posts’.
As I said, horse racing is a very old tradition, and one that isn’t completely free of jargon wielding experts; however, hopefully this article has cleared up the ‘post’ for you.
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