THOROUGHBRED RACING : Confusion Over Timing of Races Adds to Woes of Needed New Fans

The winner of the seventh race at Santa Anita last Sunday was timed in 1:36.55 for one mile.

At least that was the time on the tote board at the track.

The Daily Racing Form time for the same race was 1:36 2/5.

The time in The Times, which uses the Racing Form charts, was 1:36 2/5.

Had the race been a stake, both wire services would have carried the time as 1:36 2/5.

The Racing Times, a new publication and a competitor of the Racing Form, carried the time as 1:36.55.

Had the race been run in record time, Santa Anita’s next press book would list the performance in hundredths of a second, the same time that appeared on the tote board.

But the American Racing Manual, which is published by the Racing Form and is as close to an official record book as racing has, would have listed the time in fifths of a second.

On Wednesday, Bel’s Starlet, a 4-year-old filly, won the Autumn Days Handicap by two lengths, and the Racing Form credited her with tying the track record in a time of 1:11 4/5 for the distance of about 6 1/2 furlongs on grass. Santa Anita, however, will not recognize the record-tying time, because its more precise clock showed 1:11.89 for Bel’s Starlet.

Welcome to the game, new racing fan. The game needs you desperately, but once inside the door, be prepared to be confused.

“One of the things racing needs to concentrate on is the elimination of the intimidation factor for the new fan,” said Ogden Mills (Dinny) Phipps, one of New York’s racing leaders, several years ago.

Once inside the door, the racing fan is still facing intimidation. But even experienced horseplayers are confused by a sport that can’t agree on how to time its horses. The New York tracks offer both times, in fifths and hundredths of a second, on their tote boards. The Southern California tracks apparently are in the process of going to hundredths. At the tracks between New York and California, almost all the horses are timed in fifths. The horses that run in this year’s Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs will be timed in fifths.

This chaos is from the same sport that gave us the “fast official,” and which puts the results and payoffs on the tote board before the jockey dismounts after a race and before a trainer can confer with his rider to see if they want to claim foul. At the Final Fourteen Stakes at Bay Meadows last year, the jockey of the first-place horse came back weighing two or three pounds less than he started with, and there was a disqualification. With “fast official,” a disqualification wouldn’t have been possible, because the numbers would have gone up on the board before the post-race weights were checked.

At Phipps’ tracks in New York, a bet offered each day is the triple. That’s the same as a trifecta--picking the first three horses in order in one race. In California, the triple is not a trifecta but is really a Pick Three, which is trying to pick the winners of three consecutive races. California had the Pick Six and the Pick Nine before it had the triple, but chose to call the additional bet the triple instead of the Pick Three. In Delaware, the Pick Three--which is what picking three consecutive races is called in New York--becomes the Win Three.

In California, picking the first two finishers in a race is called the exacta. In Chicago, the same bet is called the perfecta. And don’t confuse the exacta or the perfecta with New York’s quinella, which is something else again.

In the matter of timing races in hundredths or fifths of a second, Santa Anita inadvertently has gotten in the middle a philosophical difference between the Racing Form and the Racing Times. The Racing Form says it won’t switch to hundredths until the rest of racing does. The Racing Times says that it is doing pace handicappers a big favor by publishing times in hundredths of a second, because they are more accurate. By the very way that thoroughbreds are timed, there is a loss in accuracy. The clock doesn’t start when they leave the gate, it begins a few jumps out of the gate, so the times are all from a running start. Quarter horses, which have always been timed in hundredths of a second, start the clock when they leave the gate.

Workouts at Santa Anita, timed by track-paid clockers, are listed in fifths of a second. The Racing Times publishes workouts in hundredths, but they are rounded-off figures based on the times they receive from Santa Anita in fifths.

If racing wants to service instead of confuse fans, it ought to consider things such as weighing horses before they run. Horses have pre-race weigh-ins at a few American tracks, as well as in South America. It could be a betting factor if a horse loses or gains a substantial amount of weight between races.

Recently, two fans went to the races at Bay Meadows. They paid $5 to park, $10 to get in, $3 for programs, almost $6 for the Racing Form and the Racing Times and they tipped the maitre’d $5 to get a table.

“Do you want a table with one of those small TVs?” the maitre’d said.

They said they did.

“That’ll be $5, please,” he said.

The total outlay before they ordered their first hamburger or made their first bet: Almost $34.

That’s intimidation of the worst kind. Intimidation of the wallet.

Horse Racing Notes

Akinemod, who once ran brilliantly for owner Jack Klugman, had another dull outing in the Autumn Days, finishing 10th as the 5-2 favorite. . . . Kent Desormeaux had two wins Wednesday besides the victory aboard Bel’s Starlet. . . . Santa Anita officials estimate that the Pick Six pool will reach $1.4 million today. The three-day carryover is more than $600,000 after Wednesday, when the best anyone could do was pick five winners. There were 75 tickets with five winners, worth $4,814.80 apiece.

Marquetry, being prepared for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 2, is scheduled to run Saturday in the $250,000 Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita. The decision on whether Best Pal runs will be made by his owners, John and Betty Mabee. . . . David Flores, who lost the mount on Marquetry when he had visa problems this summer at Del Mar, will be back aboard Saturday. . . . Corey Nakatani will be at Keeneland Saturday to ride Opening Verse in the Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Stakes. . . . Another trainee of Dick Lundy, Fowda, runs Sunday in the Spinster at Keeneland, with Eddie Delahoussaye doing the riding.