ANYONE who has taken time analysis remotely seriously will know that it can seem like a constant battle to get accurate information from which to derive meaningful conclusions. That battle can be against human sloppiness – such as is at the root of wrong race distances in Britain (and almost certainly in Ireland, too) – and it can be against malfunctioning technology.

Both were in evidence in the last week, in which Haydock unilaterally chose to alter race distances by significant amounts at short notice, and during which sectional timing had to be ditched at the 11th hour on All-Weather Finals Day at Lingfield, reportedly because a power cut meant the transponders carried by individual horses could not be charged.