DRF: Hegarty feature on timing of races

[Kasept]

Timing is everything: Correctly timing a race is more complicated than it looks
By Matt Hegarty
http://www.drf.com/news/timing-every...cated-it-looks

While racetrack veterans often caution clock-watchers that “time only matters in jail,” the final times and internal fractions of races are used as the raw data in the construction of widely used speed figures, pace ratings, and track variants, critical tools for many handicappers (and the livelihood for many past-performance data producers). So, if any part of a race time is incorrect, the error cascades through a long list of calculations designed to give horseplayers accurate metrics to compare performances among horses and tracks, making the recording of both final times and internal fractions incredibly important to the sport’s lifeblood – bettors.

[Benny]

Something i have been calling for a long time now,and point made succintly
by Andrew Beyer. no runups.

http://www.drf.com/news/andrew-beyer...ing-distortion

[cmorioles]

I found it interesting that it is admitted what most knew all along at Gulfstream before Trakus. The fractions in turf races were a farce. They say estimated, but farce is closer to the truth. Shouldn't this information have been shared when it was happening?

[10 pnt move up]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

I found it interesting that it is admitted what most knew all along at Gulfstream before Trakus. The fractions in turf races were a farce. They say estimated, but farce is closer to the truth. Shouldn't this information have been shared when it was happening?

I am so cynical now this is an extreme take but why should they even care, I am sure they had the discussion does this really even have an affect on our bottom line, the answer was no, so why change a thing?