ON the subject of race times and distances at Fairyhouse, a discrepancy came to light with chases there on Sunday.

The start of the two-mile, four-furlong contest won by Coney Island came about 4.7 furlongs before the winning post, which implies that a circuit was about 15.3 furlongs in length. That means the start for the three-mile, five-furlong handicap won by Forever Gold should have been about 1.6 furlongs after the winning post, but it was a long way short of that, as can be proved by timing the runners passing that point at racing speed at halfway.

I would estimate that the longer race was run over about 190 yards further than advertised, always assuming the two-mile, four-furlong start was in the right place.

It would certainly go a long way to explaining why the runners in the marathon took such an inordinately long time (well over two and a half minutes) to run the “nine furlongs” from their start to the start of the novices’ race. Treating the longer race as nearer three miles, six furlongs in length does not make Forever Gold’s time especially good (timefigure of 107) but it seems far more plausible than a timefigure of 60 which the lowliest of performers should be able to achieve with ease.

Sadly, this sort of situation is not a one-off in Irish racing, which still refuses to take race distance measurement as seriously as does its British counterpart.

Meanwhile, Coney Island’s timefigure was a highly respectable 148 (Anibale Fly 146 and Alpha Des Obeaux 143), despite an undemanding gallop; the winner’s speed from three out was 109.2% of his average race speed, where 101.4% would be par.