There is absolutely no doubt that the speed of the track changes during the day from time to time. There are also issues of extreme paces effecting final time.

The real problem is when you have a somewhat ambiguous result or figure that can be interpreted in two ways.

The question is do you change the variant (cut the race loose) and the give the race a figure that seems more logical or do you leave it as is and risk wildly overrating/underrating the race.

Beyer obviously concluded that giving Smarty a 114 (gigantic for this time of year for a 3yo) and Purge (a lighty raced limited winner running two turns for the first time) a 109 made less sense than cutting the race loose.

He was wrong, but I bet he does this many times during the year and is usually right.

If he didn't, people would be complaining some of his figures make no sense.



Post Edited (06-04-04 10:18)