Every racetrack makes a race unfold in its own way. Ascot's stiff six furlongs grinds finishers down; Lingfield's all-weather six is run at a far more even tempo. Knowing which shape a track asks for — and which horses already race that way — has always been one of the harder reads in the form book. Pace Curves, new in the Sectional Profile tab, puts it on the racecard.
The par line
Open any racecard, choose Sectional Profile, and below the runner table you'll find the new section. The dashed line is the par: how that course and distance is typically run, section by section. It's built from the horses that finished in the first three, in truly-run races only — the crawl-and-sprint tactical affairs are filtered out, so the shape reflects how the track actually rides.
The vertical scale is each runner's speed against its own race average: one hundred is average, higher is faster. Because every line is measured that same self-contained way, shapes can be compared directly across courses, going and class. Curves are anchored at the winning post, so a five-furlong curve and a six-furlong curve line up over their closing stages.
The badges keep it honest
Every line shows how many races sit behind it. The par loads at today's going and class first; when that exact combination is too thin to trust, the chart widens the filters step by step and says so — class widened, going widened, all going blended. Fast and Good ground produce near-identical shapes, so merging those costs little; genuinely soft ground steepens the late fade and is never quietly blended in.
Overlay a runner, or another track
Two natural moves. Add a second course and distance to compare shapes: if a speedy sort keeps getting found out on a stiff finish, this is where you see the track it would rather be racing on. Or pick a runner from today's field and tick any of its recent races — a horse whose lines keep tracking today's par is doing exactly what this track asks. A winning line toggle adds the winners-only version of the par: how the horses that actually win there spend their effort.
Course stride fingerprint
Below the curves sits the course stride fingerprint. The shaded band is the typical stride length recorded at that track over these trips, with every runner's own career average plotted against it. A runner well outside the band has an action quite unlike the typical stride there. Hollow dots mark runners with fewer than four measured runs — too little to lean on, and the chart says so.
One honest caveat
Shape fit is a lens, not a verdict. A horse can match today's curve stride for stride and still be outclassed, and stride data describes how a horse and a track move rather than predicting winners on its own. Read both alongside class, form and the rest of the card.
Availability
Pace Curves and the course stride fingerprint are part of the Sectional Profile tab, available with Proform Premium plus the Sectionals add-on, and currently in beta. Sectional coverage is British racing from 2018 — there is no Irish coverage. There's a full guide in the help section, and a Share Feedback button in the tab itself.
