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Old 09-27-2008, 12:21 PM   #9
Tim Y
turf historian
 
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Join Date: Feb 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by socantra View Post
I suspect that the 6.5 furlongs minus 64.5 feet is a degree of precision that existed only in the mind of some long forgotten PR hack. They don't put the starting gate at the start anyway and I never saw a gate crew using a ruler to place the gate.

You would be suprised at how "anal" the crew is in getting the gate as CLOSE to the same spot on the track as possible: within a few inches sometimes. They have alignment markers on the rail to help in that accurate placement.
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