RACING AROUND IN CIRCLES

A week or two ago, my niece dropped by and put one of our ponies on a lunge line for a workout. Having proved it helps the disposition of this particular creature to get a good workout from time to time, I’ve been working him myself every few days.

But a horse has two sides to its brain, and they don’t cross-talk. So in order to work the pony in both directions, you have to train it twice: once for the
clockwise circle, once for the counter-clockwise direction.

That raised a question in my mind: why are all our races run anti-clockwise?
Is it an agreed-upon standard or is there some physiological reason to do it
that way? Is it habit? Tradition? How did it get started?

It turns out there are more theories than proof of why we run our races that way, but it cuts across all racing disciplines: auto races, horse races, track and field events and on and on.

Back in 1780 or so, a fellow named William Whitley ran the first recognized horse races in America, up in Lincoln County, Kentucky. Whitley was very pro-Revolution, and in light of the British custom of running their races in a clockwise direction, he purposefully set his track up to run the other way. That became the American standard…except at the vaunted Belmont, where races were run clockwise until 1921.

The auto racing folks say that since the driver’s wheel is on the left side of the car in America, running counter-clockwise gives the driver a better view
of the track, that it offers more shielding from a potential collision with the wall, and that it’s conducive to the effects of centrifugal force.

But what of other venues? Dog racing, cycling, roller derby and the like?

One theory says that it’s natural, since we read from left to right – which, if you think about it, makes it really tough on the Chinese athletes, because their printed material reads right to left from top to bottom. This theory also claims that it just seems “right” for the finish of a race to approach from the left, and that it gives spectators a better view of the last moments of a race.

Another claim is that it has to do with the slight leftward tilt of the human heart, and that running clockwise aids circulation and puts less strain on the organ as it cranks along during an adrenaline-charged event. This doesn’t seem to take dog hearts, horse hearts or any other organs into account.

And then there’s them as claim it harkens back to an old pagan belief that running counter-clockwise – going “widdershins” – banishes evil spells.

Whichever hypothesis you accept, it’s worth noting that AUSCAR – the Australian version of NASCAR – is run clockwise, that some European horse tracks are set up for clockwise races, and that Formula One racing is always done in a clockwise direction.

There just doesn’t seem to be a single, solid reason for us to run our events
counter-clockwise…but we do it, and it’s become the standard for most race events world-wide.

So I still don’t know why the majority of races everywhere are run counter-clockwise. What I do know is that ten minutes with a trotting pony at the end of a thirty-foot lunge line make me dizzy as hell…and it doesn’t matter which direction he’s going.