Horse Race Start and Suspend Procedures

[ADDA]

Hi All,

I have a technical question relating to the way a horse race starts and stops.
I have noticed that using the excel interface in some horse races, the starting procedures seem to be different.

In some in-play races, cell E2 displays "Not in Play" and then turns straight away to "In Play" in other races, cell E2 remains "Not in Play" while cell F2 displays "Suspended" and then after a few seconds, cell F2 is cleared and cell E2 displays "In Play". what are the protocols surrounnding the starting procedures and what time length of a delay is in place before a race goes "In Play"

Are there any time delays when a race goes out of play, i.e. does the betting Suspend before the race actually ends?

How do we know which races will suspend and which races will go straight in-play?

Thank for the help.

[GaryRussell]

All races are suspending for a short time, usually less than a second before they are turned in play. It all depends on when the data is received from Betfair. At the times it appears to go in play without being suspended it just means it didn't happen to request the data at the time it was suspended. If you increase the refresh rate you should see it being suspended more frequently.

Betting shouldn't be suspended until the race ends. If it does then the operator at Betfair made a mistake which has been known to happen.