Equibase has added new gate-to-wire timing to all racing result charts, the company announced Thursday. The gate-to-wire times will be in addition to the fractional and official final times already included in charts.
Per their report, gate-to-wire times include the run-up distance, which is the untimed, extra distance horses travel from the starting gate to the designated point where the official race distance begins and the timer starts. Official final times do not include the run-up distance, which can vary from zero feet up to a sixteenth of a mile or more. This allows horses to accelerate, in some cases up to full speed, before official timing begins. These variations are due to unique configurations from track to track and other factors such as temporary turf rail placement, starting gate positions, and to ensure safety.
“We decided to include the gate-to-wire times in our charts to provide a more accurate indication of the time a horse travels over the true distance of the race,” said Kyle McDoniel, president and COO of Equibase. “Equibase collects the gate-to-wire times from our chartcalling teams and also through our GPS systems at tracks that utilize that technology, so we thought it would be good to provide this additional information to the public.”
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