THE OTHER WAY TO RUN AROUND A TRACK
Entries are being accepted Tuesday for a novelty in North American horse racing, a rare series of up to 40 clockwise races starting Friday at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto. There is no single reason why most horse races go counter-clockwise, as do most human races. As Jim Lawson, the CEO of Woodbine Entertainment Group, put it, “Some of it’s just because.” But like other rotating phenomena from merry-go-rounds to spiral staircases, there is no shortage of folk tales and wild speculations. The National Post’s Joseph Brean took some of the theories for a spin.
Q Why do horse races go counter-clockwise?
A Many don’t. Clockwise races are common in Europe, but in North America they are almost unheard of, except as promotional novelties. You have to go back as far as Man O’ War winning clockwise at Belmont in 1920 to find the last major equine example. There have also been clockwise human races in modern Olympics, but eventually you have to pick a standard.
Q OK, so why do MOST races go counter-clockwise?
A Depends who you ask. Historians like to point out that early American races went counter-clockwise as a protest against Britain’s clockwise races, like the famous Ascot. Some look back as far as ancient Rome, where hippodromes seem to have been set up for counterclockwise races, with the finish line at the end of the straightaway. Less plausibly, people observe that the Coriolis effect, which makes storms spin counterclockwise north of the equator, would give a small benefit to counter-clockwise racers. Physiology of the heart also comes up, which has also been identified as a far-fetched reason why merry-go-rounds go counterclockwise — basically to prevent fainting. Lawson, in jest, offered the theory from baseball and golf that there is something about the rightward twist of the human body that is stronger, and leads to more great lefthanded hitters and drivers.
Q Does rotational direction matter to running speed?
A Not really. In training runs over the past few weeks, horses at Woodbine have been going as fast clockwise as they were the other way, with the winners covering five furlongs in about a minute. But it does matter in the turns, where the trick is to lead with their right leg instead of the more usual left, which is probably harder for jockeys to manage than it is for horses to do. Lawson compared it to learning to skate, in which most people first learn to cross over with just one leg, usually the right, as most pleasure skating loops also go counter-clockwise. “Just think if you kept running one way all the time, you’d get better at one way versus the other,” he said.
Q Is it dangerous?
A Sure. Horse racing is dangerous, and this adds an extra quirk. An extreme illustration of this happened in 1985, when a trainer was galloping a thoroughbred called Slugger Lee clockwise around a track in British Columbia, in an effort to slow him down. The horse had just switched his leading leg, as if anticipating a turn, when he suddenly and unexpectedly veered left. He ran into a pile of wood chips, dug in is hoofs, and tried to jump over, causing the trainer to be thrown to the ground, leaving her a paraplegic. At Woodbine, Lawson said he has made safety and training a priority. “The interesting thing about this E.P. Taylor turf course here is it does have a little bit of a hairpin turn as it comes into the stretch, and that’s maybe a little bit of a challenge,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s a challenge for the horses, but for the jockeys, and so we’re giving the jockeys lots of opportunities to get used to doing it.”
Q What is in it for Woodbine?
A Mainly they get to use a stretch of their turf track that rarely gets used, while also offering their audience something a little different. “We’re not unlike other sports that are worried about not enough goals in hockey or not enough scoring in football, and maybe changing the rules a little bit to try and get some more excitement,” Lawson said. “I think falls into the category of, ‘Hey, why not?’ ”
JUST THINK IF YOU KEPT RUNNING ONE WAY ALL THE TIME, YOU’D GET BETTER AT ONE WAY.