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Decades ago, I used to time my local track with two handheld stopwatches. Right from when the gate opened. Then I'd time the videotaped replay with same. (It was amazing that the videotape always was perfect in that regard.)
About once every 3rd or 4th day, there would be a cluster with the automatic timer. I never could figure the reason for it, only that it could be nearly a full second off. Birds flying in front of an electric eye or a joker employee doing whatever ... who knows?
When I first began going through that routine, I thought that I had a major coup for future races involving those mistakes. But it was funny how the locals seemed to realize that the DRF info was bogus, too, thus negating my purported edge.
In the end, the only edge that all of my effort yielded were situations where the whole field was either fast or slow out of the gate, which (for cheaper claimers) could separate real frontrunners from a field of lamer animals.
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