Quote:
Originally Posted by cj
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I don't envy figure makers these days.
Everyone knows my often repeated views on the problems making figures.
1. There are technical complexities related to run ups, rail settings, and timer problems.
2. There are problems related to wind, track maintenance during the day changing the track speed, variations between sprints/routes from day to day.
3. The are problems related to the pace, race dynamics/flow, and how the track was playing impacting the times.
4. And to put a cherry on top there are subjective differences in how to interpret the results that lead to wide differences between figure makers for many horses that then feed into future analysis.
These issues have always existed. That's why I've tended to use figures but also remain "old school" and be more qualitative than most people are these days. But the problems seem to be getting worse instead of better.
My typical speech on the subject aside, there are a lot of podcasts out there, but the ones I always make time for are those by CJ and David. It's really the best place to get some insights into where the issues are the most significant currently so you can stay on top of the game - unless you want to spend a LOT of time and energy timing races yourself and making the figures. CJ and his partner are doing as much as they can to correct for all these issues and David and CJ always do a terrific job on the analysis of races both pre and post race.
