Does it matter to you where they put the starting gate?

[propro]

According to Andy Serling, it's irrelevant where the gate is.....  

If you look at the replay from today's fifth race at Saratoga, you'll see the fractions look crazy.  29.69, 53.50, 119.50, 144.16, 150.51.  It was supposed to be 1 1/16 miles on the Mellon turf, rails at 18 feet.  From the time the gates opened, I clocked 153.80.  The official time was later said to be 144.51, taking 6 seconds off of every fraction.  That's over 9 seconds of runup.

Andy was tweeting about the race and I commented that they put the gate at the 9f starting position and to compare it to the gate position of the Hall Of Fame stakes last week, which was also at 8.5f on the Mellon with rails at 18 feet.  The HOF was on Friday, 8/3, race 9 if you want to see the replay.  His reply to me is the first line of this post

I realize the gate can be in slightly different positions for the same distance at a track, but it's not usually more than a few feet.  Having a 330+ foot runup is just flat wrong and I question where the stewards were when the gate was put in the wrong position.

[eye123]

I took a look at the charts and replays. Strange that Fridays chart shows a run-up of 172 ft, where today the fifth race chart shows only a 72 foot run-up yet a four second (20 length) further starting point(behind the pole). Does it matter ? You have a horse on the front that gets caught on the wire by a head, yeah I think it would matter. You have a closer that catches the front runner by a head,yeah I think it matters. Serling said irrelevant, would like to know his reasoning for that.(or if someone here has one)


PS....If I'm betting a runner I like to go wire to wire, and they are placing the starting gate a significant distance back from the stated starting point for the distance, am i not at a disadvantage. (placing a wager under a different circumstance then offered) 

[propro]

Here's visual proof.  On Aug 2, the 9th race was on the Mellon at 9 furlongs, rails at 18 feet.  Here's the gate.



Yesterday (Aug 8), the fifth race was at 8.5 furlongs, rails at 18 feet.  Here's the gate.



They're in the exact same spot.  The zoom is different, but you can see the shrub in the infield, the yellow pole through gate 3.5 and the tall timing pole to the left of the screen is in the same spot.  This is why the timing was off.  Pretty damn sloppy of NYRA to not notice this and a slap in the face to anyone who bet this race at 1 1/16 miles when they really ran 1 1/8 miles.  The runup on 8/2 was 72 feet, which makes yesterday's runup 402 feet....or just change the chart to show they ran 1 1/8 miles and NOT 1 1/16 miles.  I left a message with Equibase and I'd love to talk with the stewards at Saratoga if anyone knows how to get in touch with them.

[Deleted]

from my point of view it matters to the jockey for sure as he or she must evaluate the consequences of how to position the horse ....lol

[propro]

Chart has been changed. Race is now listed as being run at 9f, originally scheduled for 8.5.

[TW]

From Official Equibase chart:

(Rail at 18 Feet) THIS RACE WAS
SCHEDULED FOR ONE MILE AND ONE SIXTEENTH BUT WAS RUN AT ONE MILE AND ONE FURLONG DUE TO THE GATE BEING PLACED IN THE
WRONG LOCATION. FRACTIONS ARE UNAVAILABLE, FINAL TIME WAS HAND TIMED.

Nice catch, Pro. Somebody (everybody) was asleep at the switch...

[UpInClass]

Does it matter to you where they put the starting gate?

[elkurzhal]

www.drf.com/news/saratoga-race-run-wrong-distance