Alan Wight
08-17-2007, 03:16 PM
Has anyone attempted to determine the value of a beaten length at the finish using the Trakus data for KEE and DMR that has become available this year?
This is what I've found:
The lengths are not represented by feet, but by seconds:
KEE: 17 sec/length, except 8.5 furlongs which is 20 sec
DMR: 19 sec/length
Handicappers have argued for years about the value of a beaten length. The debate has been centered on the question of how LONG a horse length is, ie 10 feet, 9 feet, 8 feet, etc. This debate is still relevant for the fractional calls, but with regard to the finish, the question apparently should be: how much time does a length equal? I didn't realize until I attempted to use the Trakus data to solve the question of the horse length, that the value of a beaten length is not based on the length of the horse, but is based on a time which is programmed into the photo finish software. Unfortunately, as the figures for DMR and KEE above suggest, this time is not necessarily the same from track to track, nor even from distance to distance at the same track. In fact, it can probably be changed at the whim of the photo finish operator (as a story in Ragozin's The Odds Must Be Crazy suggests).
The main problem, however, is that this information is considered secret and not available to the public. That is, once you realize what's going on, you will find that there is no public source for most of the information. I'm not sure how this came to be, but it doesn't seem quite right that the public at large has been led to believe that a length is always equal to a length.
Am I the only one here who did not know the truth?
Can anyone corroborate the values above for KEE and DMR? Does anyone know the values for tracks other than KEE and DMR?
This is what I've found:
The lengths are not represented by feet, but by seconds:
KEE: 17 sec/length, except 8.5 furlongs which is 20 sec
DMR: 19 sec/length
Handicappers have argued for years about the value of a beaten length. The debate has been centered on the question of how LONG a horse length is, ie 10 feet, 9 feet, 8 feet, etc. This debate is still relevant for the fractional calls, but with regard to the finish, the question apparently should be: how much time does a length equal? I didn't realize until I attempted to use the Trakus data to solve the question of the horse length, that the value of a beaten length is not based on the length of the horse, but is based on a time which is programmed into the photo finish software. Unfortunately, as the figures for DMR and KEE above suggest, this time is not necessarily the same from track to track, nor even from distance to distance at the same track. In fact, it can probably be changed at the whim of the photo finish operator (as a story in Ragozin's The Odds Must Be Crazy suggests).
The main problem, however, is that this information is considered secret and not available to the public. That is, once you realize what's going on, you will find that there is no public source for most of the information. I'm not sure how this came to be, but it doesn't seem quite right that the public at large has been led to believe that a length is always equal to a length.
Am I the only one here who did not know the truth?
Can anyone corroborate the values above for KEE and DMR? Does anyone know the values for tracks other than KEE and DMR?