HalHope fractions

[luxor]

I looked at the fractions they put up at Gulfstream for the opening day Halhope G3 and it didnt seem right to me. If you look at the 4th race Md Sp Wt 45k and see the times for that race ran at 1 mile you can see how the times seem closer to what one would expect. Just wanted to know if anyone had any thoughts on the slow early fractions?

[RichieP]

The reason for the very slow 1st fractions at GP for the 8f races is the run up is only 5 feet before the timer pops.

the 3 8f races went
24.2
24.1
25.0 - Quality Road in the Hal's Hope

Hope that helped

[luxor]

I did look at the run up but if you look at Quality Road when he ran at Gulfstream last year at the same distance and same run up he went 23.4/45.2 if you look at Spin Master when he ran in a 3nx on 5-27-09 they went 24.1/47. It just didnt seem right that Le Grand Cru and Spin Master just let this horse go with fractions that slow. One could say that 1.1 second diff. in the first 2 furlongs is not that much diff.( I think its enough to start to separate contenders) but the diff. in this years 4 furlong time compared to last years with 2.3 second diff. and the 6 furlong time was weak for this class of horses. I felt like something was off watching the race.

[tom]

GP has a history of mis-timed races. That is always in the back of my mind.

[luxor]

I will be on the look out for this......thank you

[Jay Kassa]

When I hand time the mile at Gulfstream, I basically just time it straight from the time the gate. Let it open all the way, not necessarily the first instance you see movement. I didn't even know they use a 5' run up. Guess it depends how you time it.
I went and timed this one and I got something like 25.25 and it was 25.17 officially (or vice versa?)... in that ballpark.
It was accurate, at least the 1st quarter.

with the other mile race fractions (thanks RichieP), and just watching the lack of any torrid duel visually, you can tell it wasn't that fast early anyway. IIRC the FOY for 2009 (won by Quality Road) was a better example of a GP mile with somewhat moderate looking fractions that were actually pretty legit (especially you consider 109change 6/8 "from the gate"), as opposed to this HalHope, which may have been slow looking/actually on the moderate side...

Originally Posted by RichieP

The reason for the very slow 1st fractions at GP for the 8f races is the run up is only 5 feet before the timer pops.

the 3 8f races went
24.2
24.1
25.0 - Quality Road in the Hal's Hope

Hope that helped