CH-- you hit it on the head.

1-- Yes, most of the differences in figures have to do with differing methodologies, although I don't think it's simply a matter of opinion. I have gone to great effort to point those out and explain them, but they still go over the head of most of those who have not made figures. So I try to find examples where anyone with eyes and a minimal IQ can see that those guys have screwed up-- which would not be that big an issue except that a) they won't admit it and fix the errors, because b) they make claims for super accuracy, and pattern reads based on it, claims that would be blown to bits if people actually understood what we're really talking about here.

2-- Which means, yes, they have made business decisions, of the most cynical kind. The vast majority of their customers still buys hard copy and never hears about this stuff (not true of us-- 2/3rds of our business is now on-line), and it would cause the Ragozin office more of a problem with them to admit a mistake and change a figure than to look bad here. Aside from which, they cynically (and unfortunately correctly) calculate that their on-line customers won't call them on it on their board-- there has not been a whisper about any of this over there in the last couple of days. The most extreme example of this cynicism came when they blew the ground for Touch Of The Blues in the Mile a couple of years back, I pointed out that he was wide (not inside), and Friedman came back and posted that he had checked the tape himself and the horse was inside. Much later, when everything had quieted down, they made the correction.

And obviously, a similar situation exists with this year's Derby, and the bad BC figures. In one case they flatly denied without explanation, in the other they will just wait for it to blow over without commenting.



TGJB