What is Pacing?

Pacing is one of two widespread forms of 'harness racing', a type of race in which the horse does not carry the jockey on its back but pulls him in a light two-wheeled cart. The horse is harnessed in front of the racing cart, the 'sulky', the method from which this kind of racing derives its name. The two main forms of harness racing are 'pacing' and 'trotting', which are differentiated by the gaits the horses adopt for the race.

A pacing horse uses its legs in a lateral pair, moving the right front and right hind leg forward in unison. The horse must maintain the pacing motion throughout the race. If the horse gets overexcited and breaks from its stride into a gallop it is immediately disqualified, making pacing races a trial for the horses control and discipline. The pacing style of running causes the rider to be rocked from side to side, making the ride on a fast pacing horse very uncomfortable. A standard race with a pacing horse would be nigh impossible; in front of a sulky however, the pacing horse is ideal.

Horses competing in harness races are referred to as 'standardbreds' to set them apart from their 'thoroughbred' colleagues used for flat and jump races. The standardbred horse is bred and trained exclusively for the sport of harness racing. It is slightly smaller than the thoroughbred and blessed with even better stamina.

To meet racing standard, a pacing horse had to be able to complete a one mile run in two minutes 30 seconds or less. A mile is the standard distance for a pacing race, usually run in two laps on a half mile course. Naturally this standard minimum speed has, through improved breeding and heightened performance of the horses, long lost any real meaning. These days the time of a pacing horse around a one mile track can break one minute 50 seconds. Interestingly, the standardbred horse gets his name from the normed distance of the harness race. As all track and speed records are based on the 'standard' distance of a one mile race, it seemed only logical to call the animal bred for the purpose of achieving these standard records the standardbred.

A harness race includes no more than 14 horses, to keep the risk of accidents on a track crowded with horses and sulkies relatively low. Other than in flat or jump racing, the minimum age for a harness racing jockey is set at a very young 13 years; often justified with the relative safety provided by the structure or the sulky in case of an accident, as well as the unlikelihood of the jockey being unseated by his horse.

There are two ways to start a harness race: a standing start and a mobile start.

The standing start is used in handicap races, in which the horse is not handicapped by added weight but by being places a longer distance behind the official starting line, each horse's individual starting point is marked with elastic tapes stretched across the track. As the name suggests, the horse stands still until the race begins.

A mobile start has no fixed standard release point. The horses follow at a slow pace behind a moving vehicle, the so-called mobile, fitted with gates which reach across the track. At the start of the race the mobile speeds away and folds in the gates to make way for the horses.

In Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and North America, harness races are held for pacing horses as well as trotters; on the European continent however, all harness races are conducted by trotting horses. Pacing races are particularly popular in North America, where pacing accounts for 80% to 90% of harness races, almost entirely eliminating the trotter from the sport. The reason for this extreme preference lies in the reliability of the pacing horse. A pacing horse is faster than the trotter and less likely to break stride, making it a favourite with the bettors.

The betting system on harness races is the same which applies to flat and jump races.