TRANSPONDERS TRANSFORM DERBY TIMING

Guess who was the fastest dog in Saturday’s Star Sports Greyhound Derby semis? Who said Droopys Buick?

In fact, on one perameter it was indeed Angela Harrison’s runner who hit a top speed of 46.2 mph. Just one of the fascinating facts to be revealed by the transponders attached to the racing jackets of all the Towcester runners. For the record, Coolavanny Mason, also eliminated, hit the second highest speed at 45.9mph.

The transponders are detected at 10 different places in the race starting with the sectional and ending with the winning line. To avoid confusion it is worth noting that the times will vary slightly from the official race times which are recorded by the dog’s nose triggering the photo electric cell.

The Towcester technical team produce a stream of figures, which we have tried to simplify below. A separate set of figures calculates the various sections of the race into MPH values and the key one here is hidden away as his third time on the table. At just under six seconds into the race, Buick was travelling at 46.2mph.

At the sectional Clares Rocket was travelling at 21.5 mph, he peaked at the same stage as Buick at 44.7mph and crossed the winning line doing 37.7mph. Tyrur Shay was travelling at 38.1 mph at the same stage.

None of the figures has any official use, though they are certainly entertaining as well as informative. As far as official times are concerned, Clares Rocket’s 5.10 is the fastest sectional ever recorded in race conditions over course and distance though Bubbly Bluebird clocked 5.07 in trials before racing.