Rabbit for Mine That Bird?

[Bobby Fischer]

while we're on the subject of trackus, Charitable man is listed as losing more ground in the Bluegrass stretch per Trackus than per the Past Performances.

I think the eyes agree with trackus here as usual. It's amazing how much these things can be different.

[Antitrust32]

The question really is what do you trust more... electronics tracking every step or a pair of eyes prone to making mistakes.

The answer is simple.

[the_fat_man]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

The question really is what do you trust more... electronics tracking every step or a pair of eyes prone to making mistakes.

The answer is simple.

It goes way beyond that. It strikes at the foundations of the present game.
It will allow those doing speed/pace figures to accurately (once and for all) compute these figures. As an example: with actual ground covered, you can now have an accurate feet per second number. You can thus actually tell how much ground was covered in a race that was supposed to be, say, 6F. So, rather than having a speed number for a race without any regard to the actual ground covered, and in some cases this could be a difference of 100 ft or so, you can now have an accurate number for the race. Not only for the winner but for all the others. And, you'd clearly see, for the 1st time, that the fastest horse in the race is not always the winner. Which makes the present 'not fast enough' BS, just that.

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by the_fat_man

It goes way beyond that. It strikes at the foundations of the present game.
It will allow those doing speed/pace figures to accurately (once and for all) compute these figures. As an example: with actual ground covered, you can now have an accurate feet per second number. You can thus actually tell how much ground was covered in a race that was supposed to be, say, 6F. So, rather than having a speed number for a race without any regard to the actual ground covered, and in some cases this could be a difference of 100 ft or so, you can now have an accurate number for the race. Not only for the winner but for all the others. And, you'd clearly see, for the 1st time, that the fastest horse in the race is not always the winner. Which makes the present 'not fast enough' BS, just that.

I'm not really a big bettor... I only really bet when I go to the track or hit up simulcast on big race days.

But I would think every single serious handicapper would benefit greatly from Trakus and would lobby hard for tracks to use it. Its a wonderful tool and its silly to think in this day of age that most tracks are relying on eyes to make charts. There are many times on here where people bring up misleading charts... with Trakus this would not happen.

I'm not sure about the costs of starting Trakus at a racetrack... Isnt it basically a device in the saddle pad or cloth and camera's or timing devices set up at each pole to track the horse?

If it is not insanely expensive I see no reason for every track not to have it. Especially CDI tracks, MAGNA tracks and NYRA.