In horse racing, margin of victory is usually measured in lengths, which might seem like an imprecise measure but over time has come to be standardized as the length of a horse from nose to tail, about eight feet. Ten lengths then is 80 feet, just a couple of feet longer than a tennis court. In 2006, 80 feet was the measure of a star, a 2-year-old colt who would make history on the first Saturday in May a few months later.
