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Chute (Racecourse)In horse racing, the term chute refers to an extended path increasing the length of a straight portion of a racecourse, particularly an oval-shaped one, allowing races of a specified distance to start at a location other than on one of the turns. For example, many racteracks in the United States are exactly one mile in circumference; often such racetracks are symmetrical ovals, with both straightaways and both turns being precisely ¼ of a mile in length. Frequently, the finish line will be positioned exactly three-quarters of the way down the stretch; in that case, the point at which the first or "clubhouse" turn joins to the backstretch would be 5½ furlongs from the finish. In order to hold races at the distance of 6 furlongs — the most common distance of American thoroughbred horse races — the backstretch is extended by an extra 1/16th of a mile. This is the most common situation where a chute is pressed into service. At some tracks, this chute is longer, so that races can be run at 7 furlongs as well. Often a chute will be placed at the top of the stretch as well, extending the length of the straightaway from the top of the stretch to the finish line from 3/16ths of a mile to ¼ of a mile, thus allowing 1¼-mile races to be run, and also make it possible for quarter horses to run races at distances of up to 440 yards. At two tracks — Hialeah Park and Santa Anita Park — the chute that begins at the top of the stretch is even longer, so that there is a distance of 3 furlongs from the beginning of the chute to the wire; so-called "baby races," or races for 2-year-olds run very early in the year, are started from this position. Many one-mile tracks have a turf (grass) course inside of the main (dirt) track, most commonly measuring 7 furlongs. This turf course will often be equipped with a chute of its own, extending diagonally from the stretch, to permit turf races to be run at the distance of 1 1/8 miles. This diagonal chute can either consist of a more-or-less straight line, or may curve significantly, in a clockwise direction. Some American racetracks have circumferences of more (or, generally in the case of minor-circuit tracks, less) than one mile; examples include Aqueduct, Arlington Park, Hollywood Park and Saratoga, all of which are 1 1/8-mile tracks, and Belmont Park, the country's largest track, with a 1½-mile circumference. The backstretch chutes at Aqueduct and Arlington Park are long enough to permit races to be run at one mile, while Saratoga's chute is shorter, extending only to 7 furlongs. Hollywood's chute formerly allowed one-mile races, but when its finish line was moved forward in the late 1980s one-mile races could no longer be accomodated, and 7½ furlongs became the longest distance that could be run out of its chute. At Belmont, the chute permits races at distances up to 1 1/8 miles to be run (formerly up to 1¼ miles, but this chute, which at one point crossed over the training track, was truncated in the late 1970s to eliminate the aforementioned cross-over, and today 1¼-mile dirt races at Belmont actually start on the clubhouse turn, the only situation where races do this at any major American track). Rarely, a "half-chute" will be employed; in this instance, the chute will branch off from a turn, usually the clubhouse turn, at the midway point of the turn, and extend to a position level with that of the homestretch, the chute thus joining to the turn at a 90-degree angle. Currently only one racetrack of note in the United States — Ellis Park in Kentucky — makes use of such a chute, starting races from it at the distance of one mile (Ellis Park is a 1 1/8-mile track). Formerly, Saratoga also had such a chute; it was known as the "Wilson Mile" chute, and like the one found at Ellis Park, it was used to start one-mile races. Use of the Wilson Mile chute was suspended in 1972; after being reinstated briefly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the chute itself was dismantled, and as a result, it is now no longer possible to run main-track (dirt) races at Saratoga at any distance longer than 7 furlongs but shorter than 1 1/8 miles.
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