It was standard practice in the Star newspaper to present race and trial times times ‘as recorded’ writes Floyd Amphlett.
As a result, we would sometimes get calls from owners saying things like ‘with the going taken into account, my dog broke the track record’, or ‘your chart is wrong, my dog did the fastest time of the year if you take off the .20 slow’.
We stuck to our guns, which copied the old NGRC rule on track records – actual times only. We carried the same principle into the recent article about ‘open race time check‘ which has proven massively popular with several thousand visits.
We resisted the urge to amend the actual times with going allowances primarily because it complicated issues but secondly, due to our perceived lack on consistency between racing offices on applying effective calculations.
While Nottingham have been criticised in some quarters over their consistently ‘fast’ allowances, they do seem to be conscientious in their assessments.
Of the 82 races over the Derby course, they break down: 23 @ +20, 32 @ +30, 20 @ +40, 6 @ +50 and 1 @ +60. There have been some slower trial sessions including one rated at -10.
But what if you do take going allowances into account? Here are the fastest calculated trials and race times over the Derby course this year.
We think they make for interesting reading.
