Rarely, a "half-chute" will be employed; in this instance, the chute will branch off from a turn, usually the clubhouse turn, at the midway point of the turn, and extend to a position level with that of the homestretch, the chute thus joining to the turn at a 90-degree angle. Currently only one racetrack of note in the United States — Ellis Park Racecourse in Kentucky — makes use of such a chute, starting races from it at the distance of one mile (Ellis Park is a 1 mile [1,811 m] track). Formerly, Saratoga also had such a chute; it was known as the "Wilson Mile" chute, and like the one found at Ellis Park, it was used to start races. 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 but shorter than . The "all-weather" (dirt) track at England's Wolverhampton Racecourse has a similar chute, but it is used for 7-furlong races as the latter is a one-mile (1.6 km) track. The one-mile dirt oval at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Florida also once had a similar chute which permitted races at 7 furlongs; however, this chute extended diagonally from the backstretch and not on a 90-degree angle. In 2004 Tampa Bay Downs' backstretch chute was lengthened to 7 furlongs, whereupon the diagonal chute was decommissioned; however, remnants of it are still intact. Laurel Park in Maryland also formerly had a diagonal chute, which allowed for races at up to 1 miles.
