Crazy happenings in racing today (12-2)
 

Item 1:

First race at Delta, originally declared a dead heat by the placing judges, overruled by the stewards (rightly so in my opinion). Dead heat was on the board for at least a few minutes.

Item 2:

Gulfstream is running races at the listed post time!

THIS is an item "TWO" in a crazy happenings post???? I find this miraculous enough that it deserves its own thread! :)

Can add to this with Parx R4 today where the eventual winner was clear at head of the stretch only to almost stop running, then get going again and get back in front to still win!

Happened before at Parx....not sure if that was more remarkable than the next race today (the 5th), which was 70-1 over 90-1.

I thought about that. At some point in history Gulfstream has run at the posted time, but I don't think I've ever seen the stewards overrule the placing judges.

Aiden is a good guy and a smart guy. Very impressed with the way he handled the covid crisis for Santa Anita along with Fravel. They wouldn't have made it without him

The sad part is that the "dreaded drag" was adopted by other tracks. Let's hope the switch is adopted as well.

The ironic or not so ironic thing is that the races at Gulfstream still had the same amount of time in between each race so it didn’t really matter what the post time said. Do not a lot of people understand this? The drag was in every race.....or was.

GOOD. post time = post time

I guess the drag will be eliminated at Laurel/Pimlico too, although I don't know if that's effective immediately.

Yesterday, Was alive to a decent P4 in the 9th at Tampa. Didnt hit it but made a saver bet on the eventual winner who goes in the gate at 21-1 but crosses the finish line at 11-1. Uggghhhh. These very late odds drops, especially 10 points really get me thinking conspiracy theories.

Ya Think.

If all you play is Gulfstream it probably doesn't matter much. But if you are playing multiple tracks and trying to figure out when Gulfstream is going off it was a pain in the ass. And that is before considering if there is an extra reason to drag (Rainbow 6, Super High 5 carryover, guaranteed pool not reached, etc.) it wasn't consistent.

Also, this gave an even bigger edge to CRW teams in my opinion for a variety of reasons.

The first few times I attended the races in New York, back when Marshall Cassidy was still calling the races, it was very common for the tote board to click and for Cassidy to announce, stridently, "it is now POST time!", as the 4th or 5th horse was loading into the gate.

Coming from California, where we routinely started the races 5 minutes late, this astounded me.