Quote:
Originally Posted by PhantomOnTour
If tracks would have the timer start when the gates open (like the rest of the world) many of these problems would disappear. No run up - no birds flying by and tripping the timing beam etc etc...
Then all we would have to worry about is the placement of the gate  |
This would cause a lot of short term pain but it would be worth it in the long run. On turf, there are only so many places to bring the gate onto the course. And those won't be exact distances as currently constructed. On dirt, the gate would have to placed in the same spot each time. Good luck with that one.
Two things should be a given to be reported accurately for a horse race, the time and the distance. We don't know the distance the vast majority of the time because run up isn't taken seriously by racetracks. What we get is the time for a specified distance. When there are timing problems in addition to the poor distance reporting, things get exponentially worse.
