Thorobred fans - race won at...?

[kunilou]

Like the vast majority of Americans, my interest in racing awakens at the Kentucky Derby and goes back into a coma after the Belmont stakes. But I do realize that only rarely does a horse lead the field from start to finish.

So is there a conventional wisdom that there's actually some point in a race that actually sorts the winners from the losers? Would it be the first turn, backstretch, final turn, home stretch, etc.? Or are horses and racing just too varied to make a generalization like that?

[DSYoungEsq]

Yes.

[RealityChuck]

The finish line.

Horses win wire-to-wire all the time (Bold Forbes, for instance, won the Derby that way).

In general, you either have the speed horses (who go out in the lead and win that way) or the come-from-behind horses (who wait until the home stretch to make their move).

You can determine some things before the end of the race. A speed horse is usually done if other horses are catching up to him. A come-from-behind horse is usually out of it if he can't get among the leaders at the top of the stretch. So you can tell if a particular horse is out of it in a particular race. But even then, there are often several other horses who have a chance.

In most races, it's determined somewhere in the home stretch, but it's not certain until the horse crosses the finish line.