Why are so many races too close to call?

What is it with all the harness racing dead heats that seem to be happening in this country?

The latest was at Cambridge on Tuesday when Power N Glory and Beta Prepare couldn’t be separated in the first of the night, the Dunstan Horse Feeds Mobile Pace.

And that got me thinking .. does it happen more these days or is it just perception because every time there is a dead heat it is a bit of a notable event and gets a bit of chatter going.

Well the answer is that dead heats are well and truly more commonplace in 2025 than they have been historically.

From August 1, 2024 there have been 13 dead heats in this country. It’s an extraordinary number. And they are happening everywhere, from Invercargill to Auckland.

There have been nine in 2025 alone.

Compare that to the six they had in the 2023-2024 season and just 3 in 2022-2023.

The highest number of dead heats in the last decade (before this year) was 7 in 2018.

And to emphasise the point even more the average since the 1999-2000 season is 3.5.

Numbers of dead heats per season (August 1 – July 31) over the last handful of years are :

2017                    2
2018                    7
2019                    6
2020                    1
2021                    5
2022                    3
2023                    3
2024                    6
2025                    13

It also begs the question – why?

Is it the programming, is it the style of racing, is it the quality of horses, is it the quality of the tracks?

Or is just a random occurrence?

Or is it all of these and more?

I don’t have the answers but it is interesting.

P.S.  thanks to Ollie Partridge the data analyst at HRNZ for his help with this!

By Brittany Graham for Harness Racing New Zealand