Understanding a wind vane
 

I'll use the wind vane I have for AQU ...



This sh!t is incredibly annoying and confusing for me.

What does the red arrow in the above wind vane mean? I'm confused by it because it's in different places for wind vanes of different tracks.

Also - I assume a wind listed as 'N at 20MPH' is going from the North to the South at 20 miles per hour?

I would have thought the opposite - but looking back several years in chart books - when the wind is 'N-NW at 20 MPH or more' are days when a backstretch headwind is most obvious.

You get a 30 MPH N-NW wind - and you start seeing the opening quarter of 6f races on the Inner going in 23.80 and 24.20 - while the opening quarters of 8.5f races are going in 22.90 and 23.20 on the same card.

Mike Welsch has uncovered a different track bias almost every single day this meet at GP. He's blaming the wind for a lot of them. I've done a lot of trip notes and don't agree with him - but still, it would be nice if I could at least try and account for the wind.

It is my understanding that the N is fixed North and the red travels via the direction the wind is blowing. That is how the vanes I use for work report anyway. "dimehole" haha.

So, basically, in the pictures of the track wind vanes ... the red arrow is worthless? ... the sole point of them is just to show which way is North - or in the cases like Santa Anita, Oaklawn, and Fair Grounds which way is West?

I guess in the AQU one above - it's easy to tell North and South apart - but how do you tell East and West apart?

These are the type of questions best left to the gang of eggheads at Pace Advantage I suppose.

Anyway - the wind at AQU today was "S at 13 mph" - or, a 13MPH backstretch tailwind.

The wind aided opening quarter in all six 6f races went in 22 and change - the wind hindered opening quarter in the three 8f races went in 23.57, 25.08, and 26.26.

Sky Hosoya - who set a brutally fast pace in the Grade 1 Spinaway this summer - ran a crazy fast opening quarter in the first and should never ever attempt to route again.

Gulfstream is the exact same thing as AQU - a wind from the South is a tail wind down the backstretch. Still - knowing the cross-winds is just as important as knowing the line-winds because horses race around turns. Google isn't helping me with this. Did everyone else also not pay attention in 5th grade?

Stick to making videos Savantore!

I found it.

Dave Liftin Nov 7th 2002

The winds that day: W 12-25 MPH and the middle fractions of some six furlong races were very slow.

That means an Eastern wind should produce strong middle fractions into the far turn and slow ones into the 1st turn.

Because I figured out one track - I've figured out everyone that I have a wind vane picture for. Thank the friggen lord.

This was pretty close to what happened today. You had a 31 MPH NW wind. Eight years ago or so - they braved through some Saturday cards at AQU Inner with published winds of 30 MPH or more and in even colder weather than that. Jocks don't have the heart they once did.

It's almost like some tracks look for an excuse to not run races sometimes.

If the jockeys don't want to ride - what are you going to do - put monkeys up? Let them chase a rabbit lure?