In post #2 above I asked:
Quote:
Question for Equibase and/or Gulfstream Park Track Management:
How does this happen?
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Yesterday, someone with a management position at Equibase reached out to me with a phone call.
I came away with a better (at least some) understanding why timing of turf races at Gulfstream's current meet has been so problematic.
For those of you who may not be aware these are the bullet points:
• Last summer, Gulfstream dug up the outer portion of their turf course.
• Gulfstream installed a new Tapeta course where the outer portion of their turf course had previously been.
I was definitely aware of the above two bullet points.
But other than writing new code to handle the new Tapeta surface and races taken off the Turf to be run on the new Tapeta surface - I'd given little thought to much of what follows below.
As part of the construction project:
• A new permanent inner rail for the turf course was ordered (and shipped.)
• However, the new permanent inner rail for the turf course was late in arriving.
Right now as I type this:
• Although the new permanent inner rail for the Gulfstream turf course has arrived - it has not yet been installed.
• The new course configuration has not yet been surveyed.
• Logistically, it really doesn't make any sense to survey the new course configuration until after the new permanent inner rail for the turf course has been installed.
• Placement of the new permanent inner rail for the turf course determines radius of the turns.
• Radius of the turns determines where the starting gate needs to be placed in order to create desired race distance.
• If placement of the new permanent turf rail is different by even a few feet from the old permanent turf rail the result is a change in the radius of the turns and you basically end up with a new course layout.
The lack of a formal course survey has impacted what you'll find in the Equibase Chart Data for the current Gulfstream meet:
• Exact race distance isn't really known. That's why you see About = 'Y' in the chart data for all of the Turf and Tapeta races.
• Runup distances for races run on the new Tapeta course are present in the Equibase Charts Data.
• But for some reason all runup distances for races run on the Turf for the current meet are listed as 0.
• Why runup is present in the Tapeta data but is missing from the Turf data remains a mystery to me.
Race Timing and the 35 Turf Races with Missing Fractional Times:
• Trakus is Gulfstream's timing company.
• Trakus is generating internal fractions and final time.
However:
• Equibase employs some rudimentary sanity checks for internal fractions relative to final time.
• For races where internal fractions and final time final time for race distance are out of whack: The race is flagged as an exception.
• Example: 1st quarter 19.80 with final time 1:09.80 for a 5f turf race. (Should cause Equibase to kick that race out as an exception.)
• Equibase would then ask Trakus and/or the Track to take a second look at that race.
• More often, it is actually players like CJ who ask Equibase to ask Trakus and/or the Track to take a second look at mistimed races.
For mistimed races where Trakus and/or the Track provide Equibase with corrected fractions and/or corrected final times:
• Equibase updates their chart data with said corrections.
For mistimed races where Trakus and/or the Track fails to provide Equibase with corrected fractions and/or final corrected times:
• Equibase often has little choice but to leave the internal fractions blank in their chart data. (Hardly optimal but better than publishing known bad data.)
I wish things were otherwise and that:
• Gulfstream had been able to install the new permanent inner rail for the turf course well in advance of their 2021-2022 Championship Meet.
• Equibase had been able to survey the new course configuration well in advance of Gulfstream's 2021-2022 Championship Meet.
But that's just wishful thinking on my part.
Suggestion:
• Gulfstream could send a crew out there with a tape measure and install fence posts with flags on them (one post every 10 feet) just to the infield side of the inner boundary of the turf course adjacent to the most commonly used starting gate placement areas.
• The fence posts could be used as a backup to help the chartcaller and/or track personnel estimate the runup distance based on gate placement for each race. I'm thinking this could actually work until such time a formal course survey has been performed. Imo, this would have been better than what we have now (0 runup in the chart data for every turf race.)
The above is my takeaway after yesterday's phone call.
-jp
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