Clocker

When the news was reported earlier in the week that a NYRA clocker had been charged with altering a published workout, it may have seemed at first that a significant penalty was in order. Workouts are an important part of a horse's history and gamblers must be able to have trust in their accuracy. The New York Gaming Commission is alleging that clocker Richie Gazer played around with the workout of a horse named Papi On Ice (Keen Ice) and suspended him for 30 days and fined him $2,500.  He...

Like many issues in racing, the inaccuracy of published workout times is something we who are firmly planted in the industry have all just accepted as the way it is. Quote a breeze time to any trainer, owner or serious horseplayer and they'll tell you why it's pointless. "Official" times of works, and rankings, bullets, etc. are almost never correct, and somehow we've all just gone along with it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has analyzed workout video of a horse like it was the Zapruder film...