Variety seems to be the big casualty of the evolution of open racing in the last 20 years.
The graphs below show the variety of open race distances in three snapshots between 1998 and 2018.
In terms of early pace, not much has changed. Twenty years ago there were fewer races under 305m, but more over the ‘short four bends’.
There has been a near 9% increase in races between 451-499m, which extends to 17.5% if you extend the middle distance range up to 600m.
The big losses are among the stayers (above 600m) which now account for less than 12% of all flat open racing, down from nearly 26%. Hurdle opportunities have also almost halved.
