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Originally Posted by cj
Yep, it is terrible, and to make it worse there are a select few that actually have the information (via Trakus timing or GPS timing systems). Tracks apparently request they DO NOT give it to us, at least that was the case with Trakus.
Also, I should add, the run up as listed in the charts isn't always accurate. I find errors all the time. Equibase reports what the track says the run up will be, not necessarily what the run up is with the gate actually in place.
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CJ, great point about inaccuracies in reporting of runup distances.
For years Turf Paradise had been reporting runups for all of their dirt sprints as 15 feet.
But if you recorded video of their dirt sprints - and timed from gate open to when the nose of the winner broke the plane of the mirror -- you'd consistently get times that were 1.65 seconds to 1.8 seconds longer than final time for the race published in the Equibase chart --
This of course suggested their actual runups were far longer than the published 15 feet.
Another horseplayer first pointed this out to me.
He told me there must be something wrong with the fractional times at Turf Paraside because as he put it:
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None of the Turf Paradise horses shipping to Del Mar ever come anywhere close to making the lead. I don't expect them to win because they're out-classed. But time is time. A horse who consistently runs sub 22.0 opening quarters at Turf Paradise ought to at least be able to compete for the lead when the gate opens. But none of them do. I'm telling you something stinks.
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It took a bit of leg work to figure it out... And from there a little prodding --
I had to explain to then Equibase President Hank Zeitlin that I had used Camtasia to record Turf Paradise replays
which provides the user with an elapsed time at each point in the recorded video --
My explanation to Hank went something like this:
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You start recording when the gate opens.
Then you freeze the video at the point where the nose of the winner first breaks the plane of the mirror.
If you note the elapsed time in the software at that point -- and if you you subtract final time for the race as published in the Equibase chart from the elapsed time noted at the race finish --
And if you hit the rewind arrow in the video software and keep tapping it until the elapsed time in the software matches the final time for the race from the Equibase chart --
And if you look at the horses at that point --
They should be 15 feet in front of the gate give or take.
But they're not.
The horses in race after race are several times further away from the gate than 15 feet.
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I'll give Hank credit. He was patient and listened to what I was trying to say.
And Equibase actually did get Turf Paradise to start reporting runups much closer to actual.
-jp
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