By Kelsey Riley
Longines Thursday unveiled the Longines Positioning System, a new technology for timekeeping and tracking in racing, during a press conference at Royal Randwick. The technology will be put into action for the first time during Saturday's second day of The Championships at Royal Randwick, which features the A$4 million Longines Queen Elizabeth S.
The LPS will utilize tiny boxes, weighing about 60 grams and placed in the saddlecloths, that have an integrated antenna that will communicate with about 20 antennas positioned around the racecourse, “to ensure permanent communication and tracking of the boxes,” explained Alain Zobrist, chief executive officer of Longines Timing. Zobrist added that the technology has “precision and accuracy that is about 20-times more than a random GPS system.” The technology collects up to 1000 measurements per second with accuracy down to five centimeters, and provides instant data on the exact position of horses during a race; race ranking; distance between horses and speed.
“It enables us to evaluate in real time the speed, the gaps between horses, and the intermediate times of every single horse anywhere on the racetrack, and share it live to a multitude of channels, such as additional data on the video board for spectators in the stadium, enhanced graphics on TV for the audiences, real-time data to journalists and very detailed post-race analysis,” said Zobrist.
Juan-Carlos Capelli, vice president and head of international marketing of Longines, was on hand to make the announcement, and he said, “For Longines, investing in technological advancements is the latest step in our long-term relationship with horse racing. The Longines Positioning System delivers a number of benefits to the sport and is a game-changer for the racing industry.”
“Whether you are a horse racing enthusiast, a world-renowned jockey or a TV broadcaster, access to more accurate, flexible data allows you to understand, share and act on the intricacies of performance as never before,” he added.
Longines has become a pre-eminent partner of horse racing events globally, and Capelli explained the modernity of Royal Randwick helped prompt them to debut the LPS system there.
“Royal Randwick is a very new track [after undergoing recent renovations],” Capelli noted. “It's a new partnership for Longines that we started last year and we have a very good partnership with the Australian Turf Club, so it was the perfect location to start the new system at a new racecourse.”
Capelli reiterated that Longines is a partner rather than a sponsor.
“We are not only giving money, but we give a service,” he said. “Part of our marketing budget is not to give a sponsorship, but to give something different. Part of our investment is done by giving services.”
Darren Pearce, CEO of the Australian Turf Club, added, “When we entered into agreements with Longines, it wasn't a sponsorship; it was a partnership. A partnership is a two-way business relationship. So when Longines, after a very successful Longines Queen Elizabeth S. day last year, talked to us about their timing technology and the Longines Positioning System, we obviously wanted to expand our partnership and we've taken it to the next step. To be the first racecourse in the world to use the system is absolutely phenomenal for us, and we're delighted to extend our partnership with Longines even further.”
That will happen next year when Longines begins a partnership with the ATC for the Golden Slipper carnival, an arrangement that was also revealed Friday. The Longines Positioning System will be installed at Rosehill Gardens in time for the Golden Slipper card Mar. 19, 2016, which will include five Group 1 races including the world's richest 2-year-old race.
“This is a massive vote of confidence in Sydney racing by the largest partner in global racing,” Pearce said.
Asked if the LPS would be rolled out at other racetracks around the world in the near future, Capelli said, “We won't put the system everywhere, but we'll propose the system to our major partners. We'll give our main partners this kind of technology, but we will not put it at all racecourses because it took us a lot of time to develop it, and it's something that has to be useful to the racecourses and people watching it. The purpose is not to put it everywhere, but where it's very important to have it.”
While tomorrow's debut of the LPS will be accessible only by on-track patrons, Pearce noted that plans are already in the works to integrate the technology with broadcasts and other media. He also said an online database that will be available to the public is in the works.
“After we get this weekend away we'll certainly move to the broadcast integration,” he said. “We're just perfecting the data reports now, and we hope we'll be able to issue those, and we'll update everyone as we move through the process.”
Australian champion trainer Peter Moody was on-hand to discuss the possibilities the data will provide to horsepeople.
“It's become of the utmost importance in our industry in recent times to have this data available to individualize the horses, where in the past the data has been on a field,” he said. “We've always had our 200, 400, and 600-meter sectionals, but to be able to split that up individually to concentrate on your own horse is most important.”
Longines's connection with racing dates back to 1878, and of the reasons for supporting the sport, Capelli said, “We share the same values: tradition, elegance, performance.”
“Also, horse racing and equestrian sports are for men and women,” he added. “It's the only big sport where men and women compete together, and Longines is a brand for men and ladies. You have a jockey in the U.S., Rosie [Napravnik], who is one of the best jockeys in the U.S. In what other sport do you have men and women competing together? That is exactly the spirit of Longines.”
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