Re: Many many question for TG (414 Views)
Posted by:
TGAB (IP Logged)
Date: March 16, 2005 06:49PM
Yes, we use observers, some of whom also work as Equibase trackmen. They note runups, wind direction and velocity, paths, track maintenance, weather, and any occurence pre-race or during the race which may have affected performance. In addition they hand-time races. Final time, beaten lengths, weight, equipment and medication information are provided by the official chart callers and photo finish companies. We review the official charts, integrate our own data and occasionally when warranted will recheck the data inputs to make sure everything input-wise checks out. Variants are made and we have our "hard" figures. "Hard" figures are denoted by emboldened path information in the upper left of the sheet.
We also make figures for tracks where we do not have an observer. For these tracks, we again utilize official chart caller and photo finish company information. We do not have runup or weather information other than track condition. We estimate ground loss using a model we've developed which takes track configuration, starting posts, and points of call and attendent lengths behind or ahead information into account. These estimates are checked by the figure maker looking at the chart notes. Variants are made and we have our "soft" figures. "Soft" figures are denoted by italicized path information in the upper left of the sheet.