One out one back is the harness racing position one horse off the pegs and directly behind the horse parked outside the leader. It is often shortened to the one-one. The horse there races wide like the parked horse in front of it, but it has that horse to sit behind. It is also first in line for a run when the parked horse weakens or the field fans out on the home turn.
Harness racing positions tables its win rate beside the pocket's, and harness racing betting covers the draws and starts that shape who gets it.
The position, drawn in words
Picture the field down the back straight in two lines. Harness Racing Australia's (HRA's) stewards' codes for Victoria number the spots at the bell this way (checked 8 October 2026): odd numbers on the pegs, even numbers one wide, each pair level.
| Line | First | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|
| One wide | 2: outside the leader, the death seat | 4: one out one back | 6: one out two back |
| On the pegs | 1: the leader | 3: behind the leader, the pocket | 5: three back on the pegs |
So the one-out one-back horse is level with the pocket horse, one line wider, with the death seat runner directly in front of its nose.
Why drivers prize the one-out one-back
The spot gives cover without a cage. The parked horse in front does the work into the wind, and when the run home starts, the horse behind it can follow it forward or come off its back and go round, with no gap on the pegs needed.
Race 7 at Menangle on 6 October 2026, a 1,609 m mobile start, shows it working. Harness Racing NSW's GPS data and HRA's stewards' comments give:
| Spot at the 800 m and 400 m | Barrier | Extra ground covered | Own last 800 m | Finished |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leader | Fr5 | 3 m | 56.96 s | 2nd, 1.5 m |
| Outside the leader | Fr6 | 11 m | 56.78 s | 3rd, 1.5 m |
| One out one back | Fr10 | 14 m | 56.37 s | 1st |
The winner ran its last 800 m 56.96 - 56.37 = 0.59 seconds faster than the leader and 56.78 - 56.37 = 0.41 seconds faster than the parked horse. It also covered the most ground of the three, because one wide is one wide: the trail saves effort, not metres.
Across Harness Racing Australia's results for TAB meetings from 1 July to 30 September 2026, stewards recorded 3,320 runners one out one back at the bell (at Menangle, the 800 m). Of them, 338 won: 338 / 3,320 = 10.2%. Their starting odds, scaled so each race added to 100%, implied about 362 wins (10.9%), so they won 338 / 362 = 0.93 times their expected share. The harness racing positions table leaves out Menangle and counts 315 wins from 3,128, or 0.92. Runners parked outside the leader managed only 0.77.
When the spot lets a horse down
The one-out one-back horse depends on the horse in front. If the parked horse tires early, the trailer is towed back and has to go round a beaten runner at the worst moment. If the parked horse is the strongest in the race, the trailer may never get past. And when nobody sits parked, the field strings out single file and the spot does not exist.
How it shows on a speed map
On a harness racing speed map, the one-out one-back is the second spot on the outside line, and it is filled last among the front spots. Settle who leads and who sits parked, then ask which horse will follow the parked horse out: often one with fair early speed drawn just outside it, or a wide drawer like the race 7 winner from Fr10. After the race, the stewards' comments confirm it: 1 out 1 back at the bell, code 4 in Victoria's list.
Weighing the spot against the price
A speed map is a view of the race shape, not a selection. B337 is a price comparison: it draws no maps and rates no runners. The Terminal shows prices from 40+ bookmakers across racing and sports. Harness races sit on its racing board with exchange back and lay prices and price history (flucs). That shows whether the market has moved on a horse you expect to sit in the trail. Bookmaker names are trade marks of their owners. B337 is not affiliated with them.
Risk: Betting involves risk. A horse that maps to the one-out one-back can be caught wide, towed back or held up, and no running position decides a race on its own. Past results are no guarantee of future results. See responsible gambling for limits and support.