Since early 1992 Sportsman has been publishing sectional times in their form guide. Although this adds to the vast amount of information that we have at our disposal it does not alter the final picture. The horse that wins the race is the horse that is the fastest under the conditions prevailing on that day. You cannot alter that basic fact, no matter how hard you try, but you can maybe find a pointer to a future winner, particularly in staying races by looking at the sectional times.
Suppose you find in the race that your highly rated horse has been beaten in a time much slower that you expected. You may find that the last 1000 has been run in 58 seconds. Clearly then the first 1000 ( assuming it is a 2000 metre race) was run in a very slow 62 seconds. Your horse may have needed a fast pace to show his best. When the leaders have sprinted your horse has been flat out to keep up. On the other hand in another race the reverse may apply. Your horse is at the rear whilst the leaders set a fast pace. When the leaders tire, your horse comes home fast and wins in smart time.
In another circumstance you may find that your horse was disadvantaged in the running. He may have been interfered with or checked at a vital stage. At the finish, although beaten he may have made up many lengths from the turn. The sectional time will tell you whether he was overtaking tired horses and thus looked good or whether he was overtaking horses and was good.
So there you are. Sectional times on their own are not the guide to finding winners that they are said to be. Used in the right context they can be a guide to the actual performance of a horse in a race. A horse that can match sectional times at both ends of the race are exceptional. The smart horse Schillaci took the sprint triple crown of the Lightning, Oakleigh Plate and Newmarket in early 1992. In the Newmarket he missed the start and was 4th in the field of 12 for the 400 but was much further behind before that. The last 800 metres was run in 44.9. To win Schillaci had to run that time plus the lengths he was behind at the 200. Considering he came from behind to win the Oakleigh Plate in track record time as well you can see how outstanding he was then.
To use sectional times properly you will need to see the still pictures of the race to determine exactly where your horse was when the clock started. It would be unwise to include or eliminate a horse from your ratings solely on the sectional times.