2012 Travers and Pacific Classic Day Re-caps

I hope everybody was able to cash a few winners this weekend on either the Travers or the Pacific Classic. I had a decent day on Saturday (despite having my butt handed to me in the stakes races); I hit a couple winners early and then got out of jail by cleaning up in the nightcap Kris Royal and Julien Leparoux on the grass at odds of 7/1 (up from 7/2 on the morning line). Thanks again, Julien!

I only made a couple of bets on the Pacific Classic card and none of them amounted to much of anything. While initially planning on playing Dullahan in the race, I switched to Richard's Kid after he floated up in price. Needless to say, I should have stuck with my initial choice and played the Romans horse. Oh well, typical horse racing. Right?

I went through the cards for each day and broke down the fractions race-by-race in order to get a better feel of the way each course was playing over the weekend. Overall, both Saratoga and Del Mar appeared to have fast times, both on the main track (dirt and poly) and on the lawn. But even more importantly, I think all the surfaces were quite fair this weekend.

Just looking at the Pacific Classic on the Polytrack, Game On Dude ran right up near the lead for much of the race and was in the mix for the win until the final strides. Dullahan was content to sit mid-pack for much of the early running, along with racing wide throughout, and was able to make a strong move in the stretch to pick up the win. Similarly, in early races on the Del Mar card, the Poly appeared to be fair but fast.

Saratoga's dirt main track also appeared to be quite fair on Saturday with horses winning on the lead, pressing the pace and closing from the back of the pack. The turf course also appeared to play evenly throughout the day.

On my notes for the day I simply marked each main track as "Fast and Fair".

Below is a summary of the winners, fractions and internal splits for Saratoga (Saturday) and Del Mar (Sunday).

Saratoga, Saturday, August 25th

Del Mar, Sunday, August 26th

Since Del Mar provides the wonderful Trakus numbers, here are some additional Pacific Classic notes:

• Dullahan covered 18 feet more than Game On Dude. In fact, Dullahan had the co-widest trip of any horse in the Pacific Classic, along with Jaycito. Both Dullahan and Jaycito ran 6,731 feet, 18 feet more than the next closest horse (the aforementioned Game On Dude) and 63 feet more than 3^rd place horse Richard's Kid.
• Dullahan covered the final 1/16^th of a mile in a brisk 5.94 seconds.
• The Daily Racing Form/Equibase chart notes a final time of 1:59.54. The Trakus chart indicates a final time of 1:59.03.
  
  

  2012 Pacific Classic Timing
  	1/4	1/2	3/4	Mile	Finish
  DRF/Equibase	23.61	46.98	71.08	95.25	119.54
  Trakus	23.34	46.69	70.69	94.88	119.03
  DRF/Equibase	23.61	23.37	24.10	24.17	24.29
  Trakus	23.34	23.35	24.00	24.19	24.15
  Difference	0.27	0.02	0.10	-0.02	0.14

  
  
  If we dive a bit deeper into each timing system, we can see where the differences come from, specifically the opening quarter (which is likely a result of the run-up from the gate to the first timer), the last quarter (which... I don't know why) and, for some strange reason, the 3^rd quarter. Yet the 2^nd and 4^th quarters are, for all intents and purposes, the same.
  
  If you aren't much of figure maker, or tend not to use figures at all, differences in timing isn't a large concern to you. But, if you rely heavily on numbers, small variances can be a big deal over the long term.