Champagne Figure Raised to 102

[MJC922]

If I'm understanding the Beyer team's findings correctly the timing started .83 seconds early. If we then reduce the fractional times by .83 we get 22.75 and 45.67 which largely into the wind even if it was fairly light at the time @ 8mph would still be pretty impressive. Not disagreeing but I have my doubts tbh.

[cj]

Originally Posted by MJC922

If I'm understanding the Beyer team's findings correctly the timing started .83 seconds early. If we then reduce the fractional times by .83 we get 22.75 and 45.67 which largely into the wind even if it was fairly light at the time @ 8mph would still be pretty impressive. Not disagreeing but I have my doubts tbh.

I personally don't think for this race the fractions are off the same amount as the final time. They are probably even faster going from memory. I don't have the means to look them up right now.This wasn't a simple beam tripping early problem. There is something going on with the timing system at Belmont, whether mechanical or operator error.

[Hedevar]

Originally Posted by cj

I personally don't think for this race the fractions are off the same amount as the final time. They are probably even faster going from memory. I don't have the means to look them up right now.This wasn't a simple beam tripping early problem. There is something going on with the timing system at Belmont, whether mechanical or operator error.

The fractions and final times in turf races are very suspicious.

[the little guy]

Originally Posted by MJC922

If I'm understanding the Beyer team's findings correctly the timing started .83 seconds early. If we then reduce the fractional times by .83 we get 22.75 and 45.67 which largely into the wind even if it was fairly light at the time @ 8mph would still be pretty impressive. Not disagreeing but I have my doubts tbh.

It was a crosswind so they weren't going into the wind.

[classhandicapper]

Do I have to break out my standard diatribe about all the potential pitfalls of speed figures again?

The times of races obviously matter, but there are loads of technical and subjective issues that impact their accuracy on top of extremely complex interrelationships between individual horse ability, race development and surface that can impact the times.

IMO, (backed by years of data and testing) the best use of figures is to help find the strong and weak fields within classes, especially in races where the quality is tough to determine (maidens and other very lightly raced horses). If you spend a lot of time worrying about a few points either way, just line up 3-4 of the best sets of figures out there and your head will explode in race after race when you see all the small and sometime HUGE differences.

Wind, clock, run up, malfunctioning timers etc…all matter, but this Champagne was almost obviously strong. Upping the figure didn’t change my opinion. It verified it.

[Tom]

From Andy's comments on ATR Friday, they can't even get the run up distances right. DUH????

I can give any track a simple 2-step method that works......

[GMB@BP]

Originally Posted by Tom

From Andy's comments on ATR Friday, they can't even get the run up distances right. DUH????

I can give any track a simple 2-step method that works......

yet other sports like golf and baseball have instant analytics about bat speed, ball speed, etc...a sport built on timing cant even get the fractions correct.

[Tom]

Maybe that guy was chewing gum on the job.....

[cj]

Originally Posted by Tom

From Andy's comments on ATR Friday, they can't even get the run up distances right. DUH????

I know this is something that is being worked on. IMO run ups should never have been published if tracks weren't going to take them seriously. Very few places, if any, did for a long time. Most of what is reported is a very rough guess. But things do appear to be moving in the right direction.

As I've said, just tell us the real distance (race plus run up) and we can usually handle the rest. The most difficult part of verifying race times from video are inaccurate run ups being given. Of course the ideal situation would be to tell us the real distance and time from the gate.