Fractional Time Errors

[cj]

Originally Posted by RXB

Sam Houston R7 tonight (Jan 15), it was a 7f race but they set the timing for a 6f race.

Amazing. The biggest problem with the electronic timing in place (outside of Equibase fat fingering the times when entering them) is that they still require human intervention. A button has to be pressed as the horses approach the pole where times are taken. Guys screw it up. There are other things that can go wrong, but I'll be honest, never saw this one before. I'll have to check it out.

[cj]

I will add the Sam Houston, and all the Texas tracks (LS, Ret) have way more timing problems than most places.

[EMD4ME]

Dec 31st 7th race Delta Downs. No way they came home that fast (final 1/8th). Clock stopped yards before the wire.

How annoying!

For the record. I got the last 1/8 4/5 and the final time 4/5 slower than what's reported.

[cj]

Gulfstream has had a few races lately where Trakus didn't function properly, no fractions given, just a final time that probably is a guess. Yesterday's 2nd race (1-22) was the latest.

[cj]

Sam Houston ran a $200,000 G3 and has no times listed at all, no fractions, no final time, no nothing. So bush league.

[no breathalyzer]

Originally Posted by cj

Sam Houston ran a $200,000 G3 and has no times listed at all, no fractions, no final time, no nothing. So bush league.

the fractions they first put up were so wrong that they couldn't even guess/ correct them.. they were saying on tvg the track record was broken by 4 seconds

[Tom]

They should remove the graded status from it.
Seems like Trakus is really out of beta yet.
How can you trust anything it reports?

[ubercapper]

Originally Posted by cj

Sam Houston ran a $200,000 G3 and has no times listed at all, no fractions, no final time, no nothing. So bush league.

Charts and data have been corrected to reflect the correct times. Sorry for the delay.

[cj]

Originally Posted by ubercapper

Charts and data have been corrected to reflect the correct times. Sorry for the delay.

Just to be clear, certainly wasn't blaming Equibase. It was a track problem. Thanks for the update.

[classhandicapper]

Originally Posted by cj

Sam Houston ran a $200,000 G3 and has no times listed at all, no fractions, no final time, no nothing. So bush league.

I did a double take when I saw that one.

[highnote]

Originally Posted by cj

The racetracks that employ Trakus do not want them to give out this data. I have no idea why this is the case. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if somebody with access to it isn't using the data for profit.

Insiders definitely use whatever edge they have to their advantage.

I have told this story before...

A executive who worked for a racetrack overseas emailed me to see if I could provide software that would help crunch numbers in the betting pools to find good bets. He wanted to bet into the U.S. pools using his racetrack's ADW.

His edge was reduced takeout. His track only had to pay the fee to the U.S. hosts tracks.

So if the fee was 5%, for example, but the takeout in the U.S. was 18%, then he was getting a 13% discount, (i.e., rebate).

Is this fair? I don't know. But I do know that it puts everyone who is paying the full takeout rate at a disadvantage.

So if trakus is withholding data it would not surprise me if an insider is using it to gain a betting advantage. Just like erroneously reported running times in the charts may be used to gain an advantage by people with the correct times.

Hell, there have been plenty of instances of erroneously published times of workouts that benefit those with the correct times -- or even big workouts that were never published. Dave Litfin told a story in his first book about an Allen Jerkins horse who had a big workout that did not get reported.

Correct information is the lifeblood of the betting public. Without it, the public is in the dark and holders of the correct information have a huge edge.

[RXB]

The fractions were posted during the running of the Connally. Perhaps they thought that the four-second track record indicated a false time and thus they held them off of the charts. But never before had horses of that calibre ran 12f at Sam Houston. (The Connally was a 9f race until this year.) I timed the race myself and it seemed fine.

[cj]

Timer malfunctioned at Penn yesterday for the 2nd race, and since it was foggy there is really no way to come up with any times.

[cj]

No final time was posted for the 3rd at Turfway Saturday night, 2-16. Working on an estimate now. 1:05.68 should be pretty solid.

[Stillriledup]

Originally Posted by highnote

Insiders definitely use whatever edge they have to their advantage.

I have told this story before...

A executive who worked for a racetrack overseas emailed me to see if I could provide software that would help crunch numbers in the betting pools to find good bets. He wanted to bet into the U.S. pools using his racetrack's ADW.

His edge was reduced takeout. His track only had to pay the fee to the U.S. hosts tracks.

So if the fee was 5%, for example, but the takeout in the U.S. was 18%, then he was getting a 13% discount, (i.e., rebate).

Is this fair? I don't know. But I do know that it puts everyone who is paying the full takeout rate at a disadvantage.

So if trakus is withholding data it would not surprise me if an insider is using it to gain a betting advantage. Just like erroneously reported running times in the charts may be used to gain an advantage by people with the correct times.

Hell, there have been plenty of instances of erroneously published times of workouts that benefit those with the correct times -- or even big workouts that were never published. Dave Litfin told a story in his first book about an Allen Jerkins horse who had a big workout that did not get reported.

Correct information is the lifeblood of the betting public. Without it, the public is in the dark and holders of the correct information have a huge edge.

I could see how it's an ADVANTAGE to him, but how is it a disadvantage to you? The percentage you pay doesn't change, they're not changing your rate to pay him.