YOU may have got the message over the last five years or so of my writing on these pages that confidence in time analysis is enhanced by having other races over the same course and distance on the same card with which to compare the specific race that is under scrutiny. That particularly applies to National Hunt racing.

Despite the efforts of clerks, in Britain at least, the reported effects of rail movements can be imprecise, while there is no reason to assume that the speed of the surface will be consistent throughout a track. In those respects (and a few others), time analysis often remains open to a fair degree of interpretation.