Townsville on 25 October: winners sped up their legs late, and She's A Beauty did it best in seventh

Race five at Townsville on Sunday came down to two horses finishing in two different ways.

Rock The Sunrise, Horse Truth's sealed selection, held its stride late better than any of the seven runners. In the run home its stride was a little longer than in the middle of the race. Most strides shorten late. Brave Agenda beat it. Brave Agenda's stride did something else. Its legs sped up. It lifted its stride rate late better than any horse in the race, and its cadence in the run home was noticeably quicker than in the middle.

One horse found more ground with each stride. The other found more strides. On Sunday the quicker legs won.

Two ways to finish

A horse covers ground with two things. One is how far each stride carries it. The other is how many strides it takes each second. Horse Truth measures both from the race tracking data, for every runner, in the middle of the race and again in the run home.

Strides shorten as a horse tires. The good finishers lose least, or make up for it. Some keep their stride long. Others turn their legs over faster.

A result shows neither. Two horses can run the same last 400 metres in completely different ways, and the way a horse finishes says a lot about what it will want next time.

The pattern across the day

Brave Agenda was not alone. Three of Sunday's nine winners carry a similar line in their Horse Truth reads.

Blazing Future won the first. It lifted its stride rate late better than any of the eleven runners. Its read calls it an early speed horse, up near the front early in two of its last three runs. Its file rests on two rated runs, so Horse Truth calls it an early look.

Ask Me Mate won the seventh. It lifted its stride rate late second best of the ten runners. Its running profile is speed all the way, near the front early in four of its last six runs and a top three last 400 metres in four.

Brave Agenda completes the set. Its page also reads early speed, up near the front early in four of its last six runs. All three carry an early speed profile, and all three quickened their legs late on Sunday.

A speed horse that holds its stride is doing well. One whose cadence rises in the run home is still finding speed while the rest hang on. On Sunday at Townsville that was the winning shape.

The one that did it best ran seventh

She's A Beauty is the horse to remember from the day.

It ran seventh in race eight as Horse Truth's sealed selection. On the result alone that is a plain miss. The tracking tells a different story. She's A Beauty lifted its stride rate late better than any of the twelve runners, with its cadence noticeably quicker in the run home than in the middle. It also ran the second fastest last 400 metres in the race.

It was finishing harder than anything in the field and still ran seventh. The tracking cannot say why the finish came too late, and Horse Truth will not guess. It does show a horse that was not going backwards.

The wider read agrees. Its page reads a fast horse with its form building, quick on the clock with its class still to be proven against better company. Its best rated run came at 1400 metres, and the read rests on twelve rated runs. A rising form trend plus the strongest late finish in a field of twelve is a run that the bare result hides.

Where the reads missed

Horse Truth's sealed selections won four of the nine races and ran in the first three in five. Blazing Future, Vincentvangee, Ask Me Mate and Cifonelli won. The misses are on the record beside the hits.

Nottington Prince was the clearest miss in the tracking, seventh in race six. It held its stride late second best of the seven runners, yet its stride in the run home was still a lot shorter than in the middle of the race. Its race day signal says its form turned down. Against its field it ran clearly below its previous three runs, which had been flat or rising. Its page now reads a class horse with its form falling, on sixteen rated runs.

Bank Interest ran ninth in race two. Its read rests on a single rated run, and its page calls it a false figure horse, one whose numbers flatter what it does against rivals. A thin file and that warning sat on the same page, and the result fits both.

Strategic Gold ran fourth in race four. Horse Truth holds one official result for it, from Sunday, and too few timed runs to rate it. The model sealed it with very little measured evidence.

The class horses that won below their best

Two winners carry a falling form trend on their pages. Horse Truth reads both Cifonelli and Ask Me Mate as class horses racing below their best.

Cifonelli won the last. It is a long strider, its stride among the longest third of its field in six of its last six runs, and a sustained finisher. A form trend is built from a run of races and turns slowly, so one win does not reverse it.

What to take from Sunday

A finishing order flattens every horse into a number. Horse Truth's tracking keeps the shape of the finish, whether a horse stretched out or sped up, and whether it was still finishing at the line.

At Townsville the quick legs won three races. The quickest legs of all belonged to She's A Beauty, in seventh.

Every sealed selection from Sunday is on the public record. The horse pages for She's A Beauty and Brave Agenda carry the lines that tell the rest of the story.