Temp rail / Scratch questions

[BIG RED]

Can someone please explain what the temporary rail is for? Where is the rail exactly?
A friend of mine mentioned this to me earlier this week. He showed me it was set at 120ft. Isn't that extreme? They would rather listen to you guys than me, and I don't blame them

2nd would be in the scratches. When we use equibase's race changes it will show a horse scratched by name, then it states it was Re-entered. What exactly does that mean?

I have 3 newbies learning this game and I always say if you are confused, always ask, these folks will be glad to answer if they can. Now, if I can only get them to join here

[jay68802]

Temp rail is used to keep the course from getting to worn out in one area. Makes the horses run on a different part of the track. A horse that is entered in two different races is scratched from one and shown as re-entered in the other.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by BIG RED

Can someone please explain what the temporary rail is for? Where is the rail exactly?

A temporary rail is used on turf courses to prevent the grass from getting worn down or torn up by constant usage. The rail is moved in or out in increments as the turf gets worn down or recovers.

[BIG RED]

Originally Posted by Clocker

A temporary rail is used on turf courses to prevent the grass from getting worn down or torn up by constant usage. The rail is moved in or out in increments as the turf gets worn down or recovers.

Where is the rail? The whole oval?? 120ft. still sounds extreme.
TY

Jay I knew the scratch question, but they don't listen to me
TY

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by BIG RED

Where is the rail? The whole oval?? 120ft. still sounds extreme.
TY

Crew installing a temp rail.

[BIG RED]

OK TY

[Jeff P]

Click on the thumbnail below to see a screenshot I took of Bing.com maps satellite imagery after zooming in to about 50 ft above ground level a little north of the finish line at Gulfstream Park.

You can actually see the temporary turf rails in the image.

Before saving the screenshot I used the distance measuring tool that's built into Bing.com maps. Using my mouse, I right clicked directly on top of the permanent turf rail along the right hand edge of the turf course as shown in the image and selected "Measure Distance." (Think of that as point A.)

From there, doing my best to create a 90 degree angle by hand, I clicked directly on top of the second set of temp turf rails (think of this as point B.)

This caused the distance measuring tool to draw a line between the two points along with the estimated distance between the two points.

In this case: 84 feet.

I'm guessing that's within a foot or two of the actual temp rail placement for the outer part of the turf course on the day the satellite image currently displayed on Bing.com maps was taken.

The temp rail distance for the inner part of the turf course would be the distance from point A (described above) and the first temp rail to the left of point A.

Hope I managed to type most of that out in a way that makes sense,



-jp

.

[titans1127]

I've always wondered but never asked, if the temporary rail is put out, is the distance a race is advertised to be really accurate?

Ex. A track has a 1 mile turf course and puts the rail out 120 feet, and runs a 1 mile race with the gate still right at the finish line, was the race really 1 mile or is it more or less than a mile? Hope my example made some sense.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by titans1127

I've always wondered but never asked, if the temporary rail is put out, is the distance a race is advertised to be really accurate?

Ex. A track has a 1 mile turf course and puts the rail out 120 feet, and runs a 1 mile race with the gate still right at the finish line, was the race really 1 mile or is it more or less than a mile? Hope my example made some sense.

It is more than a mile, but there is much disagreement as to how much more and how much impact it has. The straights are the same distance, only the turns are a little longer because the radius of the turn is greater. I've seen nothing to indicate that the difference is significant.



https://www.paulickreport.com/horsep...ry-turf-rails/

[Jeff P]

Originally Posted by titans1127

I've always wondered but never asked, if the temporary rail is put out, is the distance a race is advertised to be really accurate?

Ex. A track has a 1 mile turf course and puts the rail out 120 feet, and runs a 1 mile race with the gate still right at the finish line, was the race really 1 mile or is it more or less than a mile? Hope my example made some sense.

Parameters from your example:

• Temp rail placement = 120 feet
• The starting gate remains in the same place
• Race is conducted over a one mile course with two turns

Formula for calculating the circumference of a circle:

Circumference = 2 x Pi x Radius

Assumptions:

In this case there are two turns. For purposes of this discussion let each turn be equal to one half of a circle.

The temp rail placement simply increases the radius of the circle by 120 feet (vs. running at 0 feet if there were no temp turf rail.)

The starting gate isn't moved in an attempt to shorten the race distance.

I get an increase in race distance of 753.98 feet calculated as follows:

Circumference = 2 x Pi x Radius

Circumference = 2 x 3.1416 x 120

Circumference = 753.98

754 ft seems like a lot.

That said, I think the math is correct.

In practice, depending on course layout, it may be possible to move the starting gate closer to the first turn in an effort to shorten the race distance a bit.


-jp

.

[Jeff P]

Adding to my post above --

753.98 feet is approximately equal to 251.33 yards or 1.14 furlongs.

Imo, the effect this type of distance increase has on individual races varies from one race to the next. The effect really depends on the abilities and tendencies of the individual horses that make up each race.



-jp

.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by Jeff P

Adding to my post above --

753.98 feet is approximately equal to 251.33 yards or 1.14 furlongs.

Imo, the effect this type of distance increase has on individual races varies from one race to the next. The effect really depends on the abilities and tendencies of the individual horses that make up each race.



-jp

.

I assume that the 120 foot rail we are discussing is at Gulfstream. They say that they have 2 turf courses there, and it is not clear how or if the times or other factors from the 2 are comparable.

For purposes of this study, please understand there are essentially two turf courses at Gulfstream Park. The “inner” turf course is when the rail is set between 0 and 36 feet. The “outer” turf course is when the rail is set between 72 and 120 feet.

Looks like the 72 foot rail is the inner rail on the "outer" course and is the outer rail on the inner course.



https://www.twinspires.com/blog/2018...racing-part-ii

[The_Turf_Monster]

The distance isn't so much of a factor in the outcome of the race as the rail distance is. The bigger the rail distance is, the more likely a deep closer is to win it. If the rail distance is shorter, the more likely the race is decided by about half way through turns 3 and 4. This is why you see tracks with nice turf courses like AP publish stats based on rail distance, I think they publish theirs with a 45' cutoff - either <45' or >45'

[Steve 'StatMan']

The can be multiple turf track layouts, already pre-measured. Arlington, for example, has turf rail settings from lane 0 to lane 5, as normal distance, and about distances for lanes '1/2' to '5 1/2'.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by The_Turf_Monster

The distance isn't so much of a factor in the outcome of the race as the rail distance is. The bigger the rail distance is, the more likely a deep closer is to win it.

I would be interested in seeing any data or studies on this. The Paulick article I linked to earlier in this thread concludes there is no correlation.