Maybe this has been answered in the past, but why is it that the horse numbers do not match up with the post position of the horse? Also, does the post position have any real impact on results?

Do you mean the horse number and starting stall number?

Yea, I guess my confusion comes in because in the US the horse's saddlecloth number represents the stall that he is going to race from, and that isn't the case in the UK and elsewhere.

yes......that is the case in Australia as well. Maybe the mods can do something for the American players?

Horse's are drawn allotted stall numbers in the uk its a way to make a level playing field to have the top weight or horses 1 being drawn to have stall 1 all the time would be unfair if that course has a draw bias has the UK racing is mostly on the turf and certain courses when the going is soft or firm the draw will play a big part in the outcome I am surprised that the usa is different I would expect on certain courses in the usa which horse gets nearest the rail will have a advantage.

Gray

Simpleminds - I too, am surprised that the barrier draw mirrors the saddle clothe number in the States. Could the USA be the only country to do this? I am almost certain that in Asia they have random barrier allotment.

In the US system I believe the post positions are determined by a random draw. Whatever horse is picked first goes into stall 1, and so on. The saddlecloth the horse wears will then reflect the post position. The post position can change every race and the cloth number will change every race. Hope that makes sense.

I see - so it is all decided after the handicapper has done his or her work.

Never understood why this was the case, either, since I'm an American and have been playing the game since the SO2 days. Figured it was a UK thing, though. Would be nice to see a toggle where we can choose to have the horses start as they are now or start in the stall that matches their saddle cloth, though.

Does explain why my horses often end up with the 1-3 numbers, though. That was starting to bug me recently when I started to pay attention to that in races. Rare if I get a horse with a different number.

Guess it's something to chalk up to cultural differences.

My understanding is that in America horse numbering is based on stall position, so a horse drawn in say stall 5 will be number 5 in the race.
In the UK horses are numbered by weight, i.e. the top weight is always number 1. Where horses have the same weight, they are numbered alphabetically.

Ok - so horse number 1 - stall 1, may not be the top weight?

correct. have a look at a US racecard and you will see. e.g race 2 at Delaware today (17 Aug) horse number 1 is the bottom weight and the top weights are numbers 2, 8 and 13.

http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/race ... n-claiming

I believe it is just luck of the draw. Doesn't matter what weight the horse is carrying or anything like that. Just a random draw. A few years back they added an extra step for the Kentucky Derby where the race stewards randomly drew the names of the horses and the owner (or whoever he designated to do so) then got to pick the stall that they wanted to start in. I believe they have done away with that system and just kept it as a random draw.