Report: After errors, Kentucky Downs will review timing system
Kentucky Downs management will review the accuracy of its new timing system after four graded stakes run Saturday were found to have timing errors, BloodHorse reported.
Those four stakes have been revised to slower times, according to the report. Three of them initially were timed as track records.
Track officials already had said that with the new timing system, they would reset all track records beginning this year. They don't plan to recognize track records at the meet, only the meet's fastest times.
"Kentucky Downs, after every meet, scrutinizes all its operations and how they performed, and the new timing system will certainly be part of that," Kentucky Downs vice president of racing Ted Nicholson told BloodHorse.
The biggest change came in the Grade 3 Nashville Derby, according to the report. Wimbledon Hawkeye's time initially was reported as 2:03.74 for 1 5/16 miles on turf, but that has been changed to 2:06.76.
Ag Bullet initially was found to have completed the Ladies Turf Sprint Stakes (G2) in a record 1:13.13, but that was revised to 1:14.38, according to the report. She already held the track record of 1:14.19 from the same race last year.
Saturday's other two graded stakes at Kentucky Downs included the Turf Sprint (G2), where Bear River's time was changed from 1:06.91, which would hve been a track record for six furlongs, to 1:07.71. And in the Ladies Turf Sprint (G3), Special Wan initially was report to have won in 1:31.74 a track record for a mile. The new time is 1:32.40, according to the report.
Kentucky Downs announced last week that it would use a new timing mechanism created by a strategic partnership between France-based horse-racing GPS tracking firm McLloyd and StrideSAFE, a Kentucky–based company that provides AI-powered equine-welfare sensor analytics. The system promised to more precise race timing, within .01 second and 25 centimeters distance raw accuracy, and biometrics with thousands of safety data points into one sensor.