But if the direction of racing horses was set in ancient Greece, why did all of Europe run horses clockwise for so many years? Even today, most of Europe only race their horses in a clockwise direction. England has some races that run counterclockwise and some that run clockwise. From the hippodrome races until Whitely built his track in Kentucky, horse racing was run clockwise.
Interesting fact: The word hippodrome is a Greek word that translates to a horse course. The British drive cars on the wrong side of the road, so it made me wonder if they run their racehorses in the wrong direction as well. So, I researched not only England but also other countries in Europe to find out. At some racetracks in Europe, the horses run counter-clockwise. In England, horses primarily race counter-clockwise, but in Germany and France, racetracks go both directions, and there is no national standard.
In Germany and some other European countries, they call a clockwise track a right-handed track because all turns go to the right. A left-handed track is one with turns to the left. Of course, a left-handed track would be a standard direction track in the United States. Germany seems to have an even number of tracks in each direction. In the video below, horses start in one direction, turn around, and run the opposite way; eventually, horses are running in every direction.
In England, they also have tracks designed to run in either direction. Tracks in which horses run in a counter-clockwise direction are called anti-clockwise tracks in England.
Many English courses, especially older ones, were designed around the landscape. Some have slopes and turns in various directions. England has some race tracks that are intended for horseracing in either direction.
Australia is a country steeped in horseracing tradition that drives on the wrong side of the roads, but do they race horses counter-clockwise. I needed to find out. I n Australia, horseracing tracks go either direction. Like driving on the wrong side of the road, Australia again follows the lead of its Mother country England.
However, there is a slight variance; it seems they divide the directions the horses run by the state; in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia, horses race counterclockwise direction. In Queensland and New South Wales, horses run clockwise. Cotmore, Mansfield, Notts. BECAUSE of the effect of the Earth's rotation, an athlete running anti-clockwise will have a slight advantage, resulting in a faster time. In the Southern Hemisphere, this effect is reversed but, as the sport grew up in the Northern Hemisphere, anti-clockwise races have remained, despite the international status of athletics.
Evidence of this phenomenon is that none of the current world track records have been set south of the Equator. The question is, if the World Championships are ever held in the Southern Hemisphere, would the IAAF decide that track events should be run in the opposite direction?
Peter Brown, Sheffield. THE answer involving gravitational effects was not convincing. I think the tradition goes back to the Olympic Games, circa BC. The ancient Hippodrome appears to be based on an anti-clockwise race with competitors coming up to the finishing line at the end of the straight see the booklet Olympia, Altis and Museum, by Nikolaos Yalouris, Verlag Schnell and Steiner Munchen.
Later, in Rome, the chariot races in the Circus Maximus must also have been anti-clockwise. The Circus was overlooked by the emperors on the Palatine hill, so the finishing line was on the eastern side of the north, where the spina ended see the model of ancient Rome in the Museo della Civilta Romana.
Perhaps an expert can confirm my speculation? Bernard, Gillingham, Dorset. NOW that chariot races have been mentioned, is it not possibly due to the predominant right-handedness of our species? Overtaking with a long whip in the right hand would be less likely to cause havoc by whipping the wrong horse or rider!
Roger Franklin, Stroud, Glos. ON AVERAGE athletes have stronger right legs, while horses, though leading with the left foreleg, exert greater power through the right hind leg than the left, so it is rational to require the stronger legs to cover the greater distance. This is why both infantry and cavalry commanders have always preferred, if possible, to execute encircling tactics in an anti-clockwise direction.
John Veale, Woodeaton, Oxford. THE ancient Greeks may have run anti-clockwise round their stadia, but it is a mistake to assume that the tradition was unbroken until modern times. Contemporary illustrations show that when running on tracks was revived in the nineteenth century, clockwise running was probably just as common. Oxford and Cambridge universities ran clockwise - Oxford until , Cambridge until some time later.
Ethical conundrums. This sporting life. Stage and screen. Birds and the bees. If they raced clockwise, the charioteers, all trained to hold their whip hand on the left, in honour of the first Triple Champion Zeras of Armenia who was left-handed, would often cause their whips to flay the crowd, sometimes blinding spectators and once famously cutting Emperor Nero deeply on his cheek.
The offending rider was summarily executed, in what was said to be the highlight of that afternoon's sport, but a few months later it was decreed that chariots should race anti-clockwise from then on. Gaythorne Silvester, West Dulwich I thought the reason why we run anticlockwise round the track was a more mundane, though perhaps more ancient, reason than that suggested by Gaythorne Silvester.
I was always told it was because most of us are right handed, and our right arm is the stronger. Therefore the right arm is used by the runner to drive himself forwards, while the left arm is weaker and is used as an "anchor" to keep the runner in balance.
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