Trakus catching timer errors?

[sighthound]

Interesting - that\'s a big difference in time.

From DRF yesterday:
The time of one of those two races gets a test in a rather unscientific manner in Saturday\'s Louisville Handicap at Churchill Downs. Among the 12-horse field are five entrants exiting the April 27 Elkhorn Stakes at Keeneland, a race that Trakus timed as being run in 2:27.12, 3.28 seconds faster than the official timer at Keeneland did.

One of those two times - 2:27.12 for Trakus, 2:30.40 officially - is seemingly incorrect. It is up to horseplayers to determine which one they trust.

[TGJB]

The time our trackman got was much closer to the track time. But since the pace was extremely slow (1:16 6f, last half mile about 2 seconds faster than the opening half), the final time was academic-- it was an \"s. pace\" race.

[P.Eckhart]

Have you done any work on the Keeneland Trakus ground loss data? I just had a quick look and compared each winner\'s ground loss compared against the mean ground loss of the 2nd 3rd and 4th placed in the race.
 

6f races april 6-27 All poly (no grass races)
-2.4 ie the winner traveled 2.4ft less than the mean of 2nd 3rd and 4th horses
+8.0 ie the winner traveled 8.0ft more than the mean of 2nd 3rd and 4th horses
-16.3
+2.0
+5.7
-8.3
+2.3
-4.3
-22.7
-10.0
+4.3
+13.0
+2.7
----------
13 races 7+ 6- ,  median = +2.0ft ,  Ave +ve = 5.4ft ,   Ave -ve = 10.7ft

7f races
+14.7
-1.0
+12.3
+12.3
-33.0
+5.3
+15.3
-25.0
-14.7
-4.6
+8.3
-12.0
-5.3
+17.3
+2.0
-6.0
+1.3
-27.0
-25.0
-5.3
0.0
+8.7
-28.0
-15.7
-9.0
+4.6
+19.7
-29.0
+6.7
+12.0
+23.0
+20.0
+17.7
-8.0
========
33 races, 17+ 16-,   median = +1.3ft ,  ave +ve = 11.8ft ,  ave -ve = 15.5ft

8.5f races
+13.7
+8.6
+4.3
-16.7
-47.0
-30.7
-23.0
-13.7
+13.0
+5.0
+60.3
-14.3
-2.0
+2.7
+49.0
+11.3
+3.0
+21.3
+16.7
-17.7
+16.0
-2.6
+37.0
-30.3
-16.7
+8.0
+2.3
+18.0
+33.0
=============
29 races, 18+  11- , median = +4.3ft ,  ave +ve = 17.9ft , ave -ve = 19.5ft

9f races
-18.3
+22.7
+9.7
+12.0
-44.7
-17.0
-20.7
+7.3
+19.3
+39.0
+38.3
-1.3
-19.0
+9.7
=========
14 races, 8+ 6- ,  median = +8.5ft ,  ave +ve = 19.7ft ,  ave -ve = 20.2ft