FWIW, I hand-timed the fractions of both the Fountain of Youth and Davona Dale.
I got 1:09.19 and 1:09.20 in my two tries for the FoY. The official fraction was 1:08.85
I got 1:10.59 and 1:10.64 for the Davona Dale. The official fraction was 1:10.21
I went back and hand-timed fractions from other 8.5f dirt races at GP from earlier days, and I always consistently get times .30 to .45 slower -- which is probably just the camera angle bias.
Calling the distances of these races 8.5 furlong races are misleading. They are closer to 9f races because of the huge amount of run-up before the horses get to the timing beam.
The 4th quarter mile of these races are run around a turn ... and the final 1/16th are straight-away.
I don't have a problem with the 1:08.85 clocking only because it appears consistent with how the other races at 8.5f at GP are clocked. Maybe they gave the FoY a little more run-up than usual to help the outside posts, but all races at this distance seem to get huge run-up anyway.
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