Turf Timing at Woodbine

[Ted Craven]

I received the following email from Tim Yatcak, a former member here, who also works on the camera crew at Woodbine and has some inside knowledge of goings on there. I have no independent information on this topic, so pending further information, I accept it at face value:

Teletimer LOST the contract for timing. ONLY they had sensors set meticulously around the track that exactly compensated for what lane the horse were running in, even to the point of re-locating the 1/8th poles dependent upon the lane.NONE of them are active currently. Times recorded that way have been consistent to hand timings for years.

I would NOT trust turf times whatsoever and it is NOT because Woodbine has been lax. Woodbine was the first North American track to install Trakus and at that time, the system was their first prototype with sort of an "experimental" electronic layout grid that has not been re-calibrated with any regularity since the thing was installed as it was NEVER meant to be the TIme standard.

They have jokingly said, the same error (or close to it) is there for all the domestic turfers, just watch out when comparing shippers. Now that Fort Erie has taken up the turf for lower claimer horses, many of those may come back later in the year to add to the confusion, as they use electronic bean timing FAR MORE accurate. .

Radio waves from the horse's transmitter have to go from the horse's flank to the central computer on site, and then ALL the way to Boston before the operator gets to see them. Remember these evaluations are VELOCITY based, so, as we saw all Winter in the standardbreds, faster closing horses were often reported as being 2nd when the PHOTO showed them 4th because of their FASTER final velocity. Also weak batteries on the transmitter, radio beams bouncing and an interruption of the info that occurs as the horses come from the clubhouse turn and pass the 6 7 furlong chute, where there is a HOLE in the data, all add to the errors.

Greg, the Teletimer clocker now does all races hand times along with the Equibase clocker and they compare their times to the Trakus. They are off sometimes upward of 3 second especially in the first fraction. It is however irregular irregularity race to race.

BIG problem same with Gulfstream

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