Pace and Cap - Sartin Methodology & The Match Up - View Single Post

Tim Y · 10-21-2016, 08:15 PM

I come in early some days and have breakfast at the employee cafeteria.

I go up to the 6th floor and work out the races of interest for the day and usually run into the clockers who are in the stewards office and/or the placing judges room.

I have never seen any more than three of them there at a time,... now it is later into the second session so there may have been more earlier.

On any given day during the season, some 150-200 animals are out on the main track. They come over from the barns, talk with the horse identifier at the gap (he radios over the information to the clockers) and tell him the horse's name along with how far they are going to work. Also, since there are no logical ID's on the animals (like in Hong Kong where EACH worker is assigned a saddle cloth number so as to NEVER mix them up). Most, but not all, have some sort of stable ID (usually by a colored blanket specific to the trainer).

Now this is NOT including all the animals OUT on the course just making standard two mile gallops. At any one time (unless they are working in company) only one horse goes through their work. WITH all the horses out there, with the feeble way of identification on their backs, MANY times the time and the animal get mixed up.

I sat several mornings with the clocker at Hastings (much fewer horses out there at any one time) and he had 6 stop watches that he lined up on his desk corresponding to the POSITION each animal that was in a work were positioned out on the course. A few times, one that worked BEHIND another passed the first worker in line and he moved that stopwatch to that relative new position. He assured me that MOST of the horses working get accurate recordings, but with so many out there some are missed or incorrectly reported.

He also reported that many two year olds that had not started often were listed under the dam's name until the paperwork got to the racing secretary. This was usually early in the season.

Can you imagine how they keep track of some many animals without numbers?

10-21-2016, 08:15 PM	#36
Tim Y turf historian Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 6,455	I come in early some days and have breakfast at the employee cafeteria. I go up to the 6th floor and work out the races of interest for the day and usually run into the clockers who are in the stewards office and/or the placing judges room. I have never seen any more than three of them there at a time,... now it is later into the second session so there may have been more earlier. On any given day during the season, some 150-200 animals are out on the main track. They come over from the barns, talk with the horse identifier at the gap (he radios over the information to the clockers) and tell him the horse's name along with how far they are going to work. Also, since there are no logical ID's on the animals (like in Hong Kong where EACH worker is assigned a saddle cloth number so as to NEVER mix them up). Most, but not all, have some sort of stable ID (usually by a colored blanket specific to the trainer). Now this is NOT including all the animals OUT on the course just making standard two mile gallops. At any one time (unless they are working in company) only one horse goes through their work. WITH all the horses out there, with the feeble way of identification on their backs, MANY times the time and the animal get mixed up. I sat several mornings with the clocker at Hastings (much fewer horses out there at any one time) and he had 6 stop watches that he lined up on his desk corresponding to the POSITION each animal that was in a work were positioned out on the course. A few times, one that worked BEHIND another passed the first worker in line and he moved that stopwatch to that relative new position. He assured me that MOST of the horses working get accurate recordings, but with so many out there some are missed or incorrectly reported. He also reported that many two year olds that had not started often were listed under the dam's name until the paperwork got to the racing secretary. This was usually early in the season. Can you imagine how they keep track of some many animals without numbers? __________________ Albert Einstein:"The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind."