Gmax

The Week in Review: With Eclipse Ballots Mailed Out in Mid-December, Was Taiba at Disadvantage?

Eclipse Award ballots were sent out electronically to voters on Dec. 12, with 19 days remaining on the calendar in 2022. That's how it's done. The ballot always lands in your in-box with a few weeks to go in the year. In a normal year, that's not a problem.  Come mid-December there are only a handful of major races left on the calendar and most Eclipse races have been wrapped up by then. But that wasn't the case in 2022. The GI Runhappy Malibu S. at Santa Anita turned into...

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Problems Persist with Gmax Timing System

Despite a press release in late August from Equibase in which the company announced it would be conducting an "extensive analysis" of its Gmax timing system, the technology has continued to produce a number of inaccurate times at the racetracks it services. The TDN has found recent examples from Del Mar, Tampa Bay Downs and Penn National that show there were problems with the Gmax timing of the races. Gmax, which is operated in the U.S. by Equibase, relies on Global Positioning System (GPS) to record times, as well as...

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Del Mar Adjusts Some Starting Gate, Turf Rail Positions After Surveying Turf Course

With the objective of improving the accuracy of tracking and timing data, officials at Del Mar have re-surveyed the track's turf course with a GPS system that will be in use beginning with the start of the Bing Crosby Meet Oct. 31. In August, the track acknowledged a rash of timing inconsistencies and reported that turf races would be hand timed over the last two weeks of the summer meeting. In conjunction with Equibase and its timing partner Gmax, Del Mar has re-surveyed its seven-furlong turf oval for the different...

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After Gmax Tweaks, Del Mar Expects 'No Problems With Turf Timing'

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club (DMTC) president Josh Rubinstein told the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) Sept. 24 that he expects the track will no longer have to rely on hand-timing turf races at its upcoming fall meet because its inaccurate Equibase Gmax GPS timing system has since been tweaked to fix problems that produced numerous wrong clockings throughout the summer season. TDN reported back on Aug. 18 that some dirt and turf final times at Del Mar were mis-clocked anywhere between .07 seconds and 1.19 seconds by the industry's official...

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Equibase to Evaluate GPS Timing System

In light of reports questioning the accuracy of the Gmax timing system, which relies on GPS technology, Equibase announced Monday in a statement that it will conduct an "extensive analysis" of the systems that is in place at 11 racetracks and will look to increase quality control efforts with respect to the GPS timers. The accuracy of the GPS method became such an issue for the team putting together the Beyer speed figures that they have been hand timing the races from the Gmax tracks and have been using those...

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The Week in Review: No More Doubts, Maximum Security is Back

When Maximum Security (New Year's Day) had to fight his way to a narrow victory in the GII San Diego H., it was fair to question whether or not this was the same horse that had been so outstanding throughout his career for trainer Jason Servis. Yes, he won that day, but the dominance and brilliance he had shown on so many occasions for a trainer who was subsequently indicted for allegedly doping his horses was not there. Then again, it seemed unwise to write him off after one race....

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Acknowledging 'Inconsistencies' in New Timing System, Equibase Says Del Mar Turf Races Will Be Hand Timed for Rest of Meet

In response to reports of inaccurate times being produced for Del Mar turf races by its new Gmax GPS timing system, Equibase said in a statement Thursday that Del Mar will hand time its turf races for the rest of the meet. The statement also admitted the company found "inconsistencies" in the Gmax timing of Del Mar turf races that it will work to fix before the fall meet at the seaside oval. "Del Mar racetrack will be utilizing hand timing for turf races for the remainder of the summer...

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TIF's Cummings Takes on Issue of Timing Problems

One day after Bill Finley wrote about inconsistencies in timing at a handful of racetracks in the U.S.--both big and small--in Wednesday's TDN, Pat Cummings, the Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, has penned a piece of his own, explaining why accuracy in timing is paramount to the game and offering a framework for how to move forward. "The state of race timing in America is not improving as the years pass. It is getting worse," writes Cummings, who served as the director of racing information for Trakus for...

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Reports of Erroneous Times Lead to Concern About Accuracy of New Equibase Timing System

When the horses in the fourth race at Del Mar Aug. 1 crossed the wire, the final time for the mile-and-a-sixteenth turf race was posted as 1:41.18. There was no reason to believe the race was mistimed and no announcements to that effect were made, but when the official chart was released by Equibase the time was listed as 1:40.80. It happened again in the next race on the card, a mile dirt race originally timed in 1:38.60, but changed to 1:38.53 in the official chart. It didn't stop there....

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