Day 213

Sometimes it is almost comical how inaccurate morning workout times can be. Just this morning I had four different sets of horses workout. The first horse worked alone and I caught him in 37.80 while the clockers gave him an official time for 38. No problem. The second horse I worked went in company with a horse of Austin Smith's. I had my horse in 48 flat. The clockers? No time. The third horse went in 51.20 which is what both the clockers and I had. The fourth set is where the problem comes about. My two horses broke off with the inside horse trailing the outside one by about 2 lengths. The inside horse collared the outside horse at the 1/8th pole and was 3 clear at the wire. I clocked the leader in 47.80 which if you take into consideration the 2 lengths behind he was beginning the work puts the work in the 47.40 - 47.60 territory and gives the outside horse a time in the 48.40 range. No time was forthcoming from the clockers after the work so when I looked up the time later in the day on DRF.com imagine my surprise seeing 51 posted for both horses. So I was on the same page with the clockers in timing my other workers but was over 3 seconds off on this one? The fact that one horse clearly outworked the other and yet they get the same time (wrong time!) is really telling. There is really no way to verify workout times and because of that we have situations like this where the public will be given inaccurate information and there is really no recourse or way to prove that this information is not correct. Not to mention my owners questioning me when I tell them how well their horse worked and them seeing a time 3 seconds slower in the official workouts.