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Hell for Leather: arcade horse racing on RaceMetrics

by Simon Walton

There is a new way to spend five minutes on RaceMetrics. Hell for Leather is an arcade horse racing game built into RaceMetrics, and it is free with any RaceMetrics account.

Pick a horse from the yard

There are ten horses in the yard, and every one costs the same twenty-four stars, shared between top speed, stamina, turn of foot and handling. None of them is simply the best. A front runner needs stamina to keep going in front, a closer needs a turn of foot to use its one run, and the all-rounder, Quiet Riot, is the one to start on. Your choice changes how you have to ride, not how fast you will be.

Nine real courses, flat and fences

Six flat tracks, each a different problem: sharp and undulating Goodwood, galloping York, the steep drop at Epsom, tight Chester, the uphill finish at Sandown and the stiff climb home at Newcastle. Then three chases at Cheltenham, Kempton and Aintree. Ride at normal speed, or at double speed, which is where the game gets its name.

How to ride it

  • The green bar is your stamina. You cannot go flat out for the whole trip. Sit in behind a rival and the slipstream pays for you; lead, and you take the wind.
  • Pickups sit at every furlong pole, three lanes wide: a turn of foot, a second wind, the rails and more. You don't know what you have drawn until you have it.
  • Over fences, ask for the stride as the marker crosses the green. Meet it right and you cannot fall.
  • Barging works, but the Stewards are watching. Overdo it and they will take a place off you.

On a keyboard: W or the up arrow to push, S to ease, A and D to steer, Space to boost, E to use a pickup and F to ask at a fence. On a phone or tablet the same controls appear as buttons on screen.

A leaderboard you can trust

When you finish, the ride goes to our server, which runs the race again from your inputs and scores it itself. Only that score reaches the leaderboard. You can also race a three-race cup with a points table, chase a ghost of your own best ride on each course, and download a result card to share.

The video above shows one ride: Quiet Riot in the Cheltenham chase at double speed, last of six with four furlongs to run, clean at all five fences, and in front inside the final furlong.

Open a free RaceMetrics account and ride, or if you are already a member, play Hell for Leather now. You will also find it in the menu.

Hell for Leather is a simulation. Every horse, rider and result in the game is invented. The courses are real.