SIMHorseRacing.com

Mallory Claire · Post by **Mallory Claire** » 17 years ago

Is <a href='http://www.simhorseracing.com/race.php?RaceID=20632' target='_blank'>this</a> a dead heat? Just curious.

Chris Carman · Post by **Chris Carman** » 17 years ago

It doesn't look like it, A dead heat would pay win money to both horses and Kizz's Action is placed 2nd on her page. I guess it was just a glitch in the win margin. The dead heat that I remember is Baffert-Democracy in a 1 mile Maiden at Belmont Park, if you are looking for an example of DH.

Michelle Calderoni · Post by **Michelle Calderoni** » 17 years ago

I would guess it was a photo finish.

Peihe Sun · Post by **Peihe Sun** » 17 years ago

a photo finish would show a winning margin of a nose, wouldn't it?

Laura Ferguson · Post by **Laura Ferguson** » 17 years ago

I am the Steward, not Laura. It's a nose victory, I was just distractedly watching TV and didn't correct it.

Mandy Saunders · Post by **Mandy Saunders** » 17 years ago

<a href='http://www.simhorseracing.com/race.php?RaceID=3996' target='_blank'>http://www.simhorseracing.com/race.php?RaceID=3996</a>

There's a dead heat for ya

Bill Oelrich · Post by **Bill Oelrich** » 17 years ago

if you click on both of their names it says that they finished with the exact same time so it should be a dual heat

Emily Mitchell · Post by **Emily Mitchell** » 17 years ago

Bill Oelrich wrote: if you click on both of their names it says that they finished with the exact same time so it should be a dual heat

Nope. That time is for the race itself... so the winning horse- not each individual horse. Just one time is ever listed for a race.

Ara Davies · Post by **Ara Davies** » 17 years ago

If you want to calculate your own horse's time, the rule of thumb is that a horse travels one length in 1/5 of a second. So if the winner ran the race in, say, 1:08.09 (as in the race Mandy posted), and your horse finished three lengths from the winner, you calculate it like this:

Winner: 68 seconds
Your horse: 68 seconds + (3 lengths * 1/5 second) = 68 3/5 seconds, or roughly 1:08.60.

Note that .09 seconds is not equal to 1/5 of a second; it's actually closer to 1/10 of a second. You can either round it to the closest 1/5 of a second or (what is usually done) only count FULL fifths of a second, and any remainder is thrown out. Thus:

1:08.00 = 1:08 flat
1:08.05 = 1:08 flat
1:08.18 = 1:08 flat
1:08.20 = 1:08 1/5
1:08.26 = 1:08 1/5
1:08.42 = 1:08 2/5

This is because the old, non-decimal stopwatches would not switch over to the next 1/5 of a second until it was a full 1/5; they did not round up. So as far as they were concerned, 1:08.00, 1:08.05, and 1:08.18 were all equal to 1:08 flat because the next 1/5 of a second had not yet been achieved and the stopwatch had not yet flipped over to 1:08 1/5.

Martin Pennington · Post by **Martin Pennington** » 17 years ago

Real life I generally use 1 second = 3 lengths though it varies over distance.

If it's anything like real life be very wary of the French times - the real official times show 2 listed fillies being 5 lengths better than the rest over 10f.

Good break down though Ara - I always look at times on the SIM ((though get the feeling i'm the only one - for races anyway)

Dave Shields · Post by **Dave Shields** » 17 years ago

Martin Pennington wrote: Real life I generally use 1 second = 3 lengths though it varies over distance.

If it's anything like real life be very wary of the French times - the real official times show 2 listed fillies being 5 lengths better than the rest over 10f.

Good break down though Ara - I always look at times on the SIM ((though get the feeling i'm the only one - for races anyway)

Actually I always look at the times now for my "stake caliber" horses. It does help in figuring out if one of my horses "fits in" with the rest or not.

Of course I didn't know about timing of lengths I just loosely based if my horse's race had same time as another race but was 3 lengths back (of the winner) it would be a legit shot at possibly catching a win against that other race's winner (if that was the match up). Any further than 3 lengths back of the winner and I either look for another race or "roll the dice and go for it anyways".

I also realize that different tracks yield different times, so that also factors in a bit too. Not that I know the "fast" or "slow" tracks, but I can see over a horses season (year 18 since the times were fine tuned) and make an average.

At first glance at Ara's explanation, my head nearly exploded (yeah math is not my thing). But I do appreciate the breakdown and I think I might have learned something too.

Ara Davies · Post by **Ara Davies** » 17 years ago

Dave Shields wrote: At first glance at Ara's explanation, my head nearly exploded (yeah math is not my thing).

There's a reason I'm majoring in engineering. *g*

I want to note that the 1 length = 1/5 of a second is of course not exact, since it depends on distance, surface, and other variables, but it's a decent guideline.

Dh?