question about clockers

[2MinsToPost]

most of you know I have a background in motorsports. question is in relation to my background, how in the world do the clockers get those times down with any decent rate of accuracy. second question, do they have to get "checked" every now and then for accuracy?

I know some crew chiefs and scorers who were / are darn accurate with a stopwatch. just curious

They are usually pretty accurate at most top tracks that have the money to pay multiple good clockers....I know several very good clockers that can catch multiple horses working at the same time....they are pretty accurate for the most part...the biggest thing that I find that clockers botch is the distance a horse is breezing....I've seen many times where a trainer breezed a horse 4 furlongs and got a 5 furlong work recorded officially because the clocker timed the gallop out - thus the work time looks slower and worse than the work really was...the thing I hate worst about workouts are the tracks (especially the ones on the west coast) that don't differentiate between Handily abd just regular Breezing...that is important to me yet the freakin clockers at Hollywood Park, etc. can't grasp that concept...I never understood why they put "H" next to everything and top management let them get away with it...

As for smaller tracks, many times works are inaccurate and even down right false at times....watch out at believing works from certain smaller tracks..many of them are bought or turned in by horses other than the listed horse...beware, I've seen it many times..with track size comes the integrity of clockers...keep that in mind..

[Downthestretch55]

Originally Posted by Cunningham Racing

They are usually pretty accurate at most top tracks that have the money to pay multiple good clockers....I know several very good clockers that can catch multiple horses working at the same time....they are pretty accurate for the most part...the biggest thing that I find that clockers botch is the distance a horse is breezing....I've seen many times where a trainer breezed a horse 4 furlongs and got a 5 furlong work recorded officially because the clocker timed the gallop out - thus the work time looks slower and worse than the work really was...the thing I hate worst about workouts are the tracks (especially the ones on the west coast) that don't differentiate between Handily abd just regular Breezing...that is important to me yet the freakin clockers at Hollywood Park, etc. can't grasp that concept...I never understood why they put "H" next to everything and top management let them get away with it...

As for smaller tracks, many times works are inaccurate and even down right false at times....watch out at believing works from certain smaller tracks..many of them are bought or turned in by horses other than the listed horse...beware, I've seen it many times..with track size comes the integrity of clockers...keep that in mind..

Cunningham,
You pretty much nailed it.
At the old espn board was a guy named Clocker Bob. He wrote an e-book that explained a lot of what you stated.
My only addition to what you've said is that "works" can be hidden.
If there are a lot of horses out in the morning, it's easy for the other clockers to get distracted.
So, did the clocker click at the 1/8th pole? Or click an 1/8 after the "work"?

Goes like this, "Hey? What did you get....at?
OK...writes it down.

2 Min, I wouldn't trust works. Use past performances instead.

DTS