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Originally Posted by pgardn
Big problem I have is how the distance covered is measured. That has to be accurate or this is a mess. Does one go out there with a unicycle measuring device and follow the path of the horses?
This one reason I have never trusted speed measured this way. Another thing is the wide trip v. the rail. Depends a whole lot of the curvature of the turn. Some horses run well with that right side taking over and some horses run better in a stretch where one side does not have to dominate the other. Also horses that are lugging out or in may cover a lot of ground in a good time but they also might be dead tired compared to a horse who is full of run in a straight line path, running evenly and efficiently... in the figures this would work out to be slow because it was straight(again assuming distance is measured accurately)
Also horses that have changed speeds a number of times might have a low average time, but actually may have run a much tougher race because of having to change speeds (a bit hesitant to move thru a hole that closed, etc...)
Figures and numbers can be helpful (more so in betting, not as much in assessing a particular run) I will stick with my eyeballs and some basic figures in assessing a race. Nonetheless, it gives one something to ponder.
Ok I see Trackus... how is measuring distance accurately done by trackus?
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The Trakus uses a microchip in the saddle bag to chart actual ground covered.
There are actually two different distances to consider here. Trackus measures actual total distance run by the horse.
If the horse raced wide and changed paths he will have covered more ground. (Street Sense actually had the highest ft/s velocity in the Bluegrass).
With Linear Distance, path is not considered. It is simply how fast a horse ran to each point of call and finish using 660 feet per furlong.
To calculate linear velocity I currently use 8feet per length(spacing of safety rail posts) for beaten lengths at point of calls and a seconds/length conversion at the finish line as the photo finish companies do.
These figs were originally designed to be a nice tool for showing a more accurate race shape. The human eye and judgement is where it's at. Everyone who sells figures tends to hint that they pick winners - I would be happy if I narrow my search a little, have a frame of reference, and maybe have something to look for on the replay.