I don’t do figures myself and this question is not meant as a wise guy question so bear with me.

Yesterday was opening day at Belmont Park. For hypothetical purposes can we assume that the starting gate on a 6 furlong race is placed exactly at the 6 furlong pole, another words there is no run-up distance. Lets also assume at Churchill Downs they have positioned the 6 furlong gate precisely the same--no run-up distance.

If a horse breaks from the 3 hole in our 6 furlong race and runs three wide all the around at both Belmont and Churchill doesn’t the horse who ran at Belmont actually run farther.
Maybe its only ten feet, I don’t know but how does the figure account for this subtle difference in Track Configuration.

Dazed and Confused