Races at Wrong Distances

Saratoga's 12th and final race on the Aug. 9 card, an allowance for New York-breds originally carded for 1 1/8 miles on the turf, was accidentally contested at 1 1/16 miles. The race was declared official, with the error first pointed out by DRF's Dave Grening. The official Equibase chart made note of the error, stating: "Please note that the race was originally scheduled to be run at a mile and one-eighth on the Mellon Turf course. However, the gate was positioned for a mile and one-sixteenth start on the...

From the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation Saratoga, Gulfstream and Kentucky Downs have all run races over wrong distances within the last six weeks - at least one half-furlong longer than the races were scheduled. This 50th volume of #FreeDataFriday is not an explanation of some obscure method of timing races, it offers merely a sobering fact, easily exposed BECAUSE of the way in which America times horse races. First, understand that nearly every distance of a race run in North America is not the actual distance traveled, but the distance which...