i agree on high

I hope Joey (Ateam) gets a chance to post today because he had the day off and happened to be up in the Judge's Stand for the race and watched as they re-timed it to confirm the correct internal fractions. He can shed light on the process.

Man, this race proves the old truism that more track records are set by track superintendents than by superstar horses.

When Victory Gallop won the Stephen Foster I think 3 or 4 horses broke the CD track record.

The record had less to do with track maintenance and more to do with the 2 inches of rain that drowned the surface Sunday. The trainers are universally thrilled with the track super.

I wasn't criticizing him.

It rains like hell all the time at Saratoga without producing multiple track records in one race. C'mon, they can work the track to slow it down if they want to. It is not some push-button task, I grant you, but they just let that track get away from them yesterday, pure and simple.

Here's the chart for the race with the original splits and your splits (where different). Clearly, the original splits are IMPOSSIBLE --- the 3rd qtr in particular.

Your splits at least make sense.

Not only do my splits at least make sense ... but paces in 6.5f Saratoga sprints are NOTORIOUSLY fast.

For instance, take a look at the first 6.5 furlong sprint race run at Saratoga last year.

http://www.drf.com/drfNCWeeklyHorseD...80724&raceNo=7


Knights Cross and Street Magician went head to head through a 21.52 opening quarter going 6.5 furlongs ... the ended up finishing 2nd beat one length and 4th beaten one and a half lengths.

Next out King's Bishop winner Visionaire won the race in time of 1:17.15 over a track that was EXTREMELY dull compared to the one yesterday.

About half of the races run at 6.5fs at Saratoga last year saw a 21 and change opening quarter.

confirmed the correct internal fractions?

Ah, Steve, there is no way in hell those internal fractions posted in the chart are correct.

The problem with the original fractions is not the 1st qtr but the 3rd one. No way the 3rd qtr of a dirt race is FASTER than the 1st or 2nd qtrs (assuming a reasonable pace).

To put those fractions out is laughable on the part of NYRA.

The posted first quarter and second quarter fractions are both 1.30 seconds slow. The posted third quarter fraction is correct.

The 3rd quarter mile seems to fast to believe ... because they have the first two wrong by the same margin.

As long as the 3rd split is slower than first two AND doesn't have the two Captains running sub 22 seconds for it:rolleyes: , I'm fine with it.

I read in the charts that the run-up for the race is 64 feet. A few questions:

1. Is that the same as in other races?
2. Is that normal for most tracks?
3. If it's not normal, what is normal?

The runup in the Equibase chart yesterday said 40 feet, today it is 64...hmmm.

That's strange. It was yesterday on Equibase where I read 64.

The fractions - especially the opening quarter - for 6.5f races at Saratoga have come back crazy fast the last several years.

I'm sure run-up has something to do with it.

My pace figures use the half mile fraction as a pace call for sprints.

For a hypothetic that is tremendously simple to follow - lets say you have three dirt sprint races at Saratoga. One at 6fs - one at 6.5fs - and one at 7fs.

Now lets say that the pace for all three is 45.00 for a half mile.

At six furlongs - the 45.00 pacesetter would get a raw fig of 103

At 6.5 furlongs - the 45.00 pacesetter would get a raw fig of 94.75

At 7 furlongs - the 45.00 pacesetter would get a raw fig of 113.5


That means that paces at 6.5 furlongs are 8.25 points (or 0.30 seconds) faster than 6 furlong ones.

And paces at 6.5 furlongs are 18.75 points (or 0.70 seconds) faster than 7 furlong ones.

That actually makes perfect sense in regards to the run-up distances. At 6 furlongs the run-up is 40 feet, at 6.5 furlongs the run-up is 64 feet, at 7 furlongs the run-up is 32 feet. So at 6.5 furlongs the horses have had 24 more feet to accelerate to top speed before the timer starts compared to 6 furlong races and double the distance to accelerate over 7 furlong races.

How many races are even run on the Saratoga main at 6.5 furlongs? And out of that number, how many of them are run as stakes, much less with Grade 1 winners in the lineup? It would be surprising if the track record wasnt smashed yesterday given this field.

The Amsterdam had only been run twice at 6.5 furlongs and all the other stakes are for 2yos or NY Breds. So not too surprising this record would go down.

That's true. It's not surprising that the record could go down. That's why not that big a deal should be made of it. The focus of the race should be on how well Quality Road returned and how it sets him and the Capt Candyman up for their next races. The fact that it was a track record is really irrelevant, as evidenced by nearly three horses breaking the record in the same race and four going sub-1:14 4/5