Head wind battle

As we all know weight stops trains... I just watched a replay of Alfolk winning at turf today.. My question is (after hearing there was a head wind), those massive cheeck pieces, surely they must pose some sort of restriction to the horse?

Do they really hinder performance, especially when running into a head wind?, I know they on the horse to help the horses issues, but would love to know if it did in fact slow down times.....

Can’t imagine the cheek pieces would be affected much

I havent seen a replay but watching the Lebelo from the Furious stand I also thought the same that Alfolk's cheek pieces were flapping around possibly causing drag. I think Nico may have commented on that too.