Here's a visual for you. Ever watch the TB's come out of the starting gate? The back legs dig in first, pushing the front ends up into the air. Noses to the sky - no steering, because you can't use rear impulsion to steer. Then suddenly the front ends come down, the horse digs in with the front legs, and the steering comes back and the speed suddenly increases. They usually all do it simultaneously. Without that ability to dig in, using their lower front end structure, they would continue careening all over the track bouncing into each other till they got to the finish line.

For distance races, if they use sprint speed I'd be interested in the racing times of horses built uphill. I guess if they were all equally uphill it would be a fair race, but I'd sure like to stick a downhill built one in there and then run for the betting window

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Last Edited By: Apples Mar 8 08 4:54 PM. Edited 1 times.