Often a second chute will be placed at the top of the stretch, extending the length of the straightaway from the top of the stretch to the finish line from 3⁄16 of a mile (300 m) to 1⁄4 mile (400 m), thus allowing 1+1⁄4-mile (2,000 m) races to be run, and also make it possible for quarter horses to run races at distances of up to 440 yards (400 m).
At two tracks, Hialeah Park and Turf Paradise, the chute that begins at the top of the stretch is even longer, so that there is a distance of 3 furlongs (600 m) 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.
This diagonal chute can either consist of a more-or-less straight line, or may curve significantly, in a counterclockwise direction.
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 (1,400 m) but shorter than 1+1⁄8 miles (1,800 m).
Added in 1953, this is a downhill turf chute consisting of a straight section, a right turn (unique in modern American horse racing), another straight section, and a long, sweeping left turn, before finally crossing over the dirt course and joining the turf oval.
At 11⁄4 miles and longer, the horses are then required to go once around Santa Anita's turf oval, which is somewhat larger and narrower than most turf courses situated inside one-mile dirt tracks (9/10ths of a mile, or 7 furlongs plus 132 feet; this is also the case at Golden Gate Fields racetrack in Albany, California).