It's about time
May 8th 2008 06:00
I base my horse racing business (Speedratings) on the accuracy and fact of time. For a jockey time is measured with precision, each duration given due respect, remembered and revered. Time must be consistent, constant, sixty seconds to the minute, sixty minutes to the hour, and fifteen seconds to the furlong. Even time (every time). A jockey wins or loses according to the accuracy of the clock inside his head. Time as a tool, never merely token or toy.
In the 1970’s in the United States Andrew Beyer designed a way of allocating a figure to the performance of a racehorse: the Beyer Speed Figure. All variables of distance covered, difference of track and racing conditions, all encapsulated into a figure. Time as a tool. Time as truth. It is a major component of most form guides produced in America.
I am unsure then if it is surprising, or to be expected, that one of my favourite novels is Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. A major theme of the book is time. It is the story of Billy Pilgrim, who has “come unstuck in time”. Billy Pilgrim travels through his life and time both on Earth and the planet Tralfamadore. Sometimes at his beginning, other times at or near his end. He may be caught in war in the city of Dresden, or in a Tralfamadorian zoo with his companion, a pornographic movie star. One minute with his wedding cake, the next instant caked in mud and blood in a war time trench.
The Tralfamadorians (who have kidnapped him) see in four dimensions: the fourth dimension being time. Tralfamadorians know every moment of their lives and believe that they cannot change anything of their fate (freewill is another major theme). But they can choose to focus on any moment of their life as they wish.
Kurt Vonnegut chose not to expand on the prospect of horse racing on Tralfamadore. That is not surprising. But then again, Dick Francis at no time made mention of the planet Tralfamadore in any of his many novels set in the world of racing. These storytellers don’t exist in the same breath or context, yet they are linked by time. Sometimes (some time) a jockey may be so ‘in the moment’, so in unison with his horse and so sure of the accuracy of the clock in his head, that time will appear to do his bidding. Time will slow. Time will accelerate. (note this same effect when a tennis player is playing ‘in the zone’ and a tennis ball will slow to capture on the criss-cross strings of the racquet, then accelerate away at pleasure and pace)
It was very appropriate that I was rereading Slaughterhouse Five for the first time since my teens when Kurt Vonnegut died last year (April 11, 2007). A second time for me. A last and final time for Kurt. So it goes.
Time is an amazing measure. I use it to find winning racehorses. But on Tralfamadore...
trackwork in even time
In the 1970’s in the United States Andrew Beyer designed a way of allocating a figure to the performance of a racehorse: the Beyer Speed Figure. All variables of distance covered, difference of track and racing conditions, all encapsulated into a figure. Time as a tool. Time as truth. It is a major component of most form guides produced in America.
I am unsure then if it is surprising, or to be expected, that one of my favourite novels is Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. A major theme of the book is time. It is the story of Billy Pilgrim, who has “come unstuck in time”. Billy Pilgrim travels through his life and time both on Earth and the planet Tralfamadore. Sometimes at his beginning, other times at or near his end. He may be caught in war in the city of Dresden, or in a Tralfamadorian zoo with his companion, a pornographic movie star. One minute with his wedding cake, the next instant caked in mud and blood in a war time trench.
The Tralfamadorians (who have kidnapped him) see in four dimensions: the fourth dimension being time. Tralfamadorians know every moment of their lives and believe that they cannot change anything of their fate (freewill is another major theme). But they can choose to focus on any moment of their life as they wish.
Kurt Vonnegut chose not to expand on the prospect of horse racing on Tralfamadore. That is not surprising. But then again, Dick Francis at no time made mention of the planet Tralfamadore in any of his many novels set in the world of racing. These storytellers don’t exist in the same breath or context, yet they are linked by time. Sometimes (some time) a jockey may be so ‘in the moment’, so in unison with his horse and so sure of the accuracy of the clock in his head, that time will appear to do his bidding. Time will slow. Time will accelerate. (note this same effect when a tennis player is playing ‘in the zone’ and a tennis ball will slow to capture on the criss-cross strings of the racquet, then accelerate away at pleasure and pace)
It was very appropriate that I was rereading Slaughterhouse Five for the first time since my teens when Kurt Vonnegut died last year (April 11, 2007). A second time for me. A last and final time for Kurt. So it goes.
Time is an amazing measure. I use it to find winning racehorses. But on Tralfamadore...
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