|
Reader question: Please explain this sentence, particularly “inside track”: They believe he has the inside track with her. My comments: In other words, they think he has a special relationship with her. Or put another way, his relationship with her is simply closer than theirs. Inside track, you see, originally refers to the innermost track in a horse race. Around curves, the inside track is shorter than tracks on the outer side. That is where the advantage lies with the inside track. In parts of the field where tracks run in straight lines, of course, the difference between the inside track and the outside tracks are nonexistent or at any rate negligible. But round the curves, the benefits of running the inside track becomes clear, that’s why horse riders or athletes running the 200-meter or 400-meter races all prefer the inside track. Gaining the inside track, in short, means gaining an advantage in a race or any competitive situation. Hence, in our example, if “he” has the inside track with her, then he is in a more advantageous position with her then “they” are. This may mean that she tells him things she doesn’t tell others. If she is the boss in an office, for example, and he has the inside track with her, then people may have to ask him to get certain sensitive information from her for them. They have to ask him to get it for them because they don’t think they can go directly to her and ask for it. She may not tell them, or may not tell them everything. | 
