Gulfstream

[karlskorner]

For those playing GP, the times have been off some/most of the races since Friday. Should be fixed by Wed.

[Tom]

Teletimer malfunction?

[karlskorner]

As an example:

True Love's Secret set a "world" record of 53.85 for 5 furlong on Turf, Suinday at GP. The previous "world" record for 5F on turf was 54.20 set by Preflorada in Argentina 9/95. North America record is 54.60 by General Express at Manmouth Park 7/8/2000.

However, the television replay showed the race in 54.15. Handtimed by myself and others 54.1. Still a record. The internals were 21.11 and 42.58. IF the final time is false, than so are the internals.

GP is not the only track with timer troubles. others have it also. My concern is do the tracks notify DRF of this or let it slide ? Sure can screw up a lot of peoples Pace figures.

[cj]

From DRF on April 12th, GP Track Report:

After further review, it's not a record

By MIKE WELSCH
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - For 16 hours, True Love's Secret was credited with not only a course record but a world record for his neck victory over Take Achance on Me in Sunday's $50,000 Yankee Affair Stakes going five furlongs on the turf. Then common sense finally prevailed.

According to the track teletimer, True Love's Secret covered the distance in 53.85 seconds, following an opening half-mile split in an astounding 42.58. If it had been correct, True Love's Secret's final time would have eclipsed the existing track record of 55 by more than a full second and the world record of 54.60 by nearly 0.80 of a second.

Track announcer Vic Stauffer fell all over himself when he informed the crowd that a world record had been set at Gulfstream Park, and the track publicity department wasted little time cranking out a press release to announce the news.

But skeptics, who had seen the track's teletimer system fail on numerous occasions during both turf and dirt races throughout the meeting, immediately questioned the times posted on the toteboard. Had the final time been correct, it would have meant not only that True Love's Secret smashed the world mark, but that each of the first five horses across the wire had bettered the old world record. Callthesheriff, who finished fifth, was beaten less than three lengths, or approximately .60 seconds by the winner.

But early the following morning, officials from Teleview Teletimer Co. admitted a mistake had been made. They informed Equibase, the industry's official chartkeepers for all races run in the U.S., that they had re-timed the race by hand and found the original clocking to be off by almost three seconds. The corrected internal fractions were changed to 22.71 and 44.89, and the final time will be listed in the chart of the Yankee Affair as 56.16 - far from a track record, let alone the world record.

The controversy surrounding the final time, however, should not overshadow an outstanding performance by True Love's Secret in the Yankee Affair. True Love's Secret was pressed on the lead from the outset by Ghostly Numbers, but was able to shake off that challenge and still withstand a final bid from Take Achance on Me, who was the runner-up in the Yankee Affair for the second straight year.

"This horse is a warrior," said Ross Wolfendale, who trains True Love's Secret for owner-breeder Robert Bakerman. "He's had chips taken out of his knee, and he always comes back running. I'm so proud of him."

The Yankee Affair was the 17th career victory for True Love's Secret; all but one of those wins have come on the grass.

[PaceAdvantage]

How many other races are they going to go back and retime?

And why does Gulfstream have much more than its fair share of teletimer problems?

[chrisg]

Historically Gp has had time problems; they used to post the corrected times on their website...don't know if they still do.

[cj]

This is the only race that is being reported as of now.

Lone Star has its share of timer problems, but it usually just doesn't work, which is better than giving false times. Another issue for Frankie? Spend some dollars where it counts, Frank!

[karlskorner]

I started this thread by stating the "times" have been on/off since Friday. If anyone wants to believe this is the only track with bad timing, be my guest, it's just that most other tracks are not reporting corrected times. Toby Callet and "the beard" are probably 2 of the best hand timers around. GP being one of the premier winter tracks running, more attention is given to the times. Those who believe that that the times published for all tracks are gospel and base their handicapping on such, have a problem.

[PaceAdvantage]

"More than its fair share" does not equate to "only Gulfstream has timing problems", does it?

[Tom]

I have to believe that many races are mis-timed at probably all tracks. In fact, I absolutley do not believe that the accuracy rate of timed races is that good-probably not much over 99%-but think how many races are times every year.
Perhaps someone on the "inside" of the game might be able to ask how often tracks calibrate their timers, how often they verify the equipment if operating as designed, how often races are selected for re-timing to verify the accuracy of the equipment.
And even if they are timed perfectly, the numbers have to be transcribed by humans and errors can occurr.

[karlskorner]

The sad part is that the "offical program" today for GP listed True Loves Secret running in 53.85 for 5F, along with all the other distances/best times run at the track. BRIS as of 10:30PM Wed. still shows 53.85 in their GP charts for 4/11 9th race. DRF and Equibase have amended their charts to read 56.16. I don't think BRIS is going to change the time. The 9th race was a 50K Stake race, but there were 10 other races run that day, I don't see any one of the 3 chart distributors changing or even thinking about checking the other races. Hand timing an "actual race" and timing a race off a TV screen will never agree. The 2 people who handtimed the race work for BRIS.

[takeout]

It has been my experience that a lot of stuff in the PPs never gets fixed. A lot of stuff that has been fixed has often been wrong for many years and is only right from the time it's fixed, forward.

What is it, coming up on 31 years now and Secretariat's "official" time in the Preakness remains wrong due to a combination of a timer malfunction and people in charge that could care less? Well, there's one I can't blame on DeFrancis.

I once saw a different internal fraction for the same horse in the TSN & BRIS PPs. Human error maybe? That one kind of surprised me because I assumed that stuff was all automated and I couldn't grasp how it would be different from one place to another. Just for the record BRIS had it wrong that time.

Fortunately a lot of the timing mistakes are pretty obvious but I do wonder how many slip by that aren't so easy to assume wrong.