Loose horse drawing off

[Calzone Lord]

I'm was making figures for June 16th at Penn National right now.

There are 7 dirt races on this day. Here are the variants:

Race 2: -36
Race 3: -17
Race 5: -15
Race 6: -17
Race 7: -16
Race 8: -17
Race 9: -17

Obviously -- something is seriously messed up with race #2. Every other race on the card is within 2 points of each other. But race #2 is almost 20 points too fast.

I look at the chart for race #2 and notice that one of the jockeys fell off. I was thinking that maybe an outrider tripped the timer early when they went up the stretch chasing the loose horse.

That isn't what happened though. The loose horse that dumped it's jockey at the start dominated by a huge margin and he tripped the timer early himself. Here's the video of the race.

http://www1.drf.com/displayVideo.do?...=D&country=USA


Huge performance by the riderless horse. He ran the 1:10.09 official final time... not the actual official winner of the race who was falsely given credit for that time.

[GPK]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

I'm was making figures for June 16th at Penn National right now.

There are 7 dirt races on this day. Here are the variants:

Race 2: -36
Race 3: -17
Race 5: -15
Race 6: -17
Race 7: -16
Race 8: -17
Race 9: -17

Obviously -- something is seriously messed up with race #2. Every other race on the card is within 2 points of each other. But race #2 is almost 20 points too fast.

I look at the chart for race #2 and notice that one of the jockeys fell off. I was thinking that maybe an outrider tripped the timer early when they went up the stretch chasing the loose horse.

That isn't what happened though. The loose horse that dumped it's jockey at the start dominated by a huge margin and he tripped the timer early himself. Here's the video of the race.

http://www1.drf.com/displayVideo.do?...=D&country=USA


Huge performance by the riderless horse. He ran the 1:10.09 official final time... not the actual official winner of the race who was falsely given credit for that time.

Further proof that jocks aren't needed. Amazing how that horse went 4-5 wide even without Robby Albarado on his back.

[golfer]

That horse gave himself a PERFECT TRIP. He didn't panic when he broke slowly and dropped his midget, he sat chilly off a speed duel up front, tipped wide and flew home. Pretty darn amazing.

However, considering he was getting approx 120 lbs in weight, I don't think his sheet figure will be that good

[Calzone Lord]

I think his jockey Diaz weighs about 110lbs or so. I know he makes 113 and that includes the saddle.

The timer being tripped by the loose horse is the other very interesting part about that race.

Something as simple as a spider, bee, or bird can trip a timing beam. Starters even do it. They'll walk right in front of it.

Secretariat's Preakness was a classic example.

On the 1973 Preakness card -- a 9.5K claimer for older males, a 5K claimer for older males, and a 3K claimer for older females -- all at the distance of 8.5 furlongs -- and all went 23 4/5 to the opening quarter.

Here were the official fractions for Secretariat's Preakness that same day:

:25, :48 4/5, 1:12, 1:36 1/5, 1:55

Someone or something obviously tripped the beam early. No way the Preakness 1st quarter went 8 lengths slower than 3 cheap claiming routes.

If 1:53.18 is the correct time for that race as video timing equipment shows -- we now also know the fractions:

23.18 - 46.98 -- 1:10.18 -- 1:34.38 -- 1:53.18

[Alabama Stakes]

Originally Posted by GPK

Further proof that jocks aren't needed. Amazing how that horse went 4-5 wide even without Robby Albarado on his back.

That was hilarious.,,the only thing funnier would be to see some tuff chick put Albarado on his back after he tried to play tuff guy again.

if the beam was tripped early (in the case of Spectacular Bid), wouldnt the fractions be much faster than it was? At least one of them.

[Indian Charlie]

Originally Posted by helicopter11

if the beam was tripped early (in the case of Spectacular Bid), wouldnt the fractions be much faster than it was? At least one of them.

The beam to start the timer was tripped early, not the beam, if there is one, that marks the time for the first fraction.

In other words, if you start the timer 10 minutes before the race starts, the time is going to be much slower.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by helicopter11

if the beam was tripped early (in the case of Spectacular Bid), wouldnt the fractions be much faster than it was? At least one of them.

Secretariat's Preakness, not Spectacular Bid's.

No, the fractions and subsequent times would all be slower.

Go for a run. Hit your stop watch two seconds before you cross your starting point -- and your time will be 2 seconds slow.

That makes sense. I figured that each quarter mile marker has a beam that determines each fractional time. I figured that before the horses crossed the 1/4 mile pole, for example, it was set-off before they crossed it.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by helicopter11

That makes sense. I figured that each quarter mile marker has a beam that determines each fractional time. I figured that before the horses crossed the 1/4 mile pole, for example, it was set-off before they crossed it.

The beams just determine the actual race time when they cross each point.

The photo finish guy also handles the timing of races here.

The timing system is setup here so that the beams can't be tripped until 20.00 seconds have passed since the last quarter mile.

They have a spider problem on the backstretch -- and on a couple of occasions this meet -- a spider has crawled on the beam and tripped it way early. In those instances, the times on the TV will be whacky and they will hand-time the race and use the hand-time.

Tracks should take the timing of races very seriously. If they have spiders and bees anywhere near the poles where the timing beams are setup -- they need to get rid of them. Tracks like Gulfstream and Tampa have a big bird problem. Outriders and starters are often focused on what they're doing and can be so oblivious that they trip the timer.

The problem is almost never with the equipment.

[gamblin4ever]

In Japan when training they use bar codes in the saddlecloths to get times on each horse. Could they use something like that to get acurate times for races so a spider couldn't trip the timer beam?