busted their asses...

[wesw]

well, I was talking about the gait of the other horses secretariat was running against, his stride looked a LOT longer to me.
I ll take a look at the side by side.

I don t recall either driver even using the whip, but I m probably wrong about that...

[Guinevere]

Yes, yes, I know rubato, the difference between "gate" and "gait" -- chalk it up to stupid iPhone autocorrect and me not wearing my glasses this morning. One of these days I'll learn.

Wes, a wiki entry on horse's *gait* under gallop states:

According to Equix, who analyzed the biometrics of racing thoroughbreds, the average racing colt has a stride length of 24.6 feet (7.5 m); that of Secretariat, for instance, was 24.8 feet (7.6 m), which was probably part of his success.

Speed in any racer with legs is based on gait plus turnover (time to complete a full stride). If you watch the Secretariat clip when he is running close to Sham in the second quarter of the race you can tell his turnover is slightly faster than Sham's too. That plus the slightly longer gait = fast fast horse!

[rubato]

No need to be defensive. I was just looking out for M and BSG, alternative spelling has had such a bad effect on them lately.


yrs,
rubato

[wesw]

yep guin, I saw the part you mean where secretariat just accelerates and he shows his power, but if you look at the second half of the back stretch, there is a part where he really stretches his legs after achieving top speed, he looks like a cheetah then and his stride is much longer than it is at other points in the race. the other horse that is with him has a quicker turnover at that point but he can t match the stride length at all

[MajGenl.Meade]

No need to be defensive. I was just looking out for M and BSG, alternative spelling has had such a bad effect on them lately.


yrs,
rubato

[BoSoxGal]

I don t recall either driver even using the whip, but I m probably wrong about that...

Yes, you are. Watch the race again.