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| Is TRAKUS the future for UK Racing? |
Something a little different for you all today guys.
'Racing for Change' is a topic that has been thrown in our faces for a large part of 2010. Some of the suggestions/changes they have implemented have been....eh...OK but a majority of them have been........(I'll leave it up to yourselves to insert various expletives here!)
Maybe the people at 'Racing for Change' should listen (I mean REALLY listen!) to the people that know best; the racing fans, the punters, the race goers, the people that spend hour upon hour watching the racing either at home or in the betting shops.
Step forward one of my Twitter buddies, Gavin Dobson (@Gav_Dobson).
Gavin is a freelance journalist and a regular European contributor to the Thoroughbred Daily News. He also runs his own website - www.gdobson.co.uk
When I asked Gavin if he would like to contribute an article to NTF he kindly allowed me to share with you his article on the wireless tracking system TRAKUS.
Not sure what Trakus is and how it may benefit us? Well read on.......
Tracking Changes...
We’ve all been there.
“There” being the futile attempt to spot a specific horse as a multitude of runners hurtle towards the winning post - a Technicolor array of caps and silks atop chestnuts, browns and bays.
In the vast majority of instances, the race is entering the final stages as the horse in question is located, their winning chance over - along with the watchers fun.
The occurrence is all too frequent for many people involved in the sport, and it is a situation where technology can lend a helping hand.
Enter Trakus.
Initially designed for real-time data collection in sports such as American Football, Ice Hockey, NASCAR, and PGA Golf, it has since been successfully adapted to the sport of horse racing.
The wireless system works by ‘tracking’ each runner in a race using an ultra-lightweight credit card sized radio transponder placed in each runner’s saddlecloth. Each transponder communicates with a handful of strategically placed antennas, linked together by fibre-optic cabling around the circumference of the racecourse, the two combining to instantaneously provide the precise real-time location of each horse.
The data generated by the system is then output to the Trakus Virtuoso Digital Sport Information platform and can be used in numerous ways.
Number.5 in the R2 Collective’s ‘Innovations of the Decade 2000-2010’ the system was first installed at Woodbine -Toronto, Canada in 2006.
Now deployed at a number of major racecourses throughout the World, including most recently the ultra-impressive Meydan in Dubai, the Massachusetts based company claim the technology is more accurate than conventional GPS or any other positioning technique currently available.
Woodbine supplement their live race video broadcast with Trakus data forming a split-screen layout. Coloured icons or ‘chicklets’ display the current position of each horse throughout the entire race. Similarly, Kentucky based Keeneland embed a constantly updating rundown of the field order towards the bottom of the visual broadcast.
However it is used, the Trakus system is constantly on-hand to display the exact location of each horse at every point in the race.
Successful US Racing mogul and Trakus Chairman, Barry Weisbord is understandably proud of the system, “Nobody in the World does what we do at the minute. When I was first introduced to Trakus, I thought it was the biggest tool available to try and make horse racing more understandable, and although Trakus makes racing easily more understandable for the novice, the ability to identify every horse in the race, quickly, helps anybody watching the race.”
The capability of Trakus to make any race easier to understand could certainly play a pivotal role in the current ‘Racing for Change’ initiative in the UK - a campaign with a strategic goal of bringing new customers and new spending into the sport.
Weisbord, along with CEO Bob McCarthy are both fully aware of Trakus’ capacity to improve the experience of the British racing fan.
“We’ve had a series of productive initial discussions with British racing organisations and we are excited about the opportunity to introduce Trakus in the British racing market. We are aware of the Racing for Change initiative and think Trakus could potentially be a very good fit with the goals of the program,” said McCarthy.
Weisbord is equally enthusiastic about a possible link-up in the UK, “We would really like the opportunity to explore Trakus in the UK, as not only are the on-course fans enhanced, but anybody watching on the TV, the internet or in the betting shop has their viewing of the race enhanced also. There’s nobody in the World who doesn’t want to know where their horse is during a horse race”
British racecourses, with their own unique twists, turns and geographical idiosyncrasies, many bearing little resemblance to the left-hand ovals of the US, would not, according to Weisbord, hinder the implementation of the system,
“From a technology point of view, making it work in the UK is no different to making it work anywhere else in the World. It doesn’t matter what the geometry of the course is, the total area will be surrounded by fibre-optic cabling, meaning that any part of the course, including chutes etc will be incorporated. Somewhere like Kempton would be an obvious choice for installation but to think that this technology would not be helpful at places such as Epsom or Ascot would be wrong - it would be very helpful.”
Although the real-time application of the system is certainly impressive during a race, Trakus truly enters the 21st century with its post-race data manipulation.
Not only can 3-Dimensional animation replays be viewed instantaneously on-course, therefore giving the ability to closely examine the trip of every horse in the race - quite possibly a useful tool for the stewards room - but visitors to the Trakus website can analyse races from many different angles. The most impressive of which being the incredibly realistic ‘jockeys-eye’ view, handing the viewer the reigns to the mount of their choice.
However, perhaps the most cutting-edge application of the system is the ability to forward a 3-D animated replay to a mobile telephone.
In an age where mobile phones and the internet play such a central role in everyday life, these are excellent methods of promoting the sport to the younger generation, something Weisbord is very aware of, “The idea that we can talk to people in their 20’s - in a way that they like to be spoken to - is very important.”
Along with the ability to make a race easier to follow, a feature that may introduce a new demographic to the sport, Trakus has a number of additional uses for seasoned horse racing aficionados.
The T-Netdatabase of supplementary information gathered by the system is available to view for every runner tracked. The data compiled includes, total distance travelled during the race, amount of ground covered in comparison to its opponents and the average and peak speed, in Mph.
The capture of sectional/fractional times at defined distances during the race is also inherent within the system, something that been available in most countries around the World - with the exception of the UK - for a number of years.
The aim of the Trakus board is clear - they hope to deploy the system at all major racecourses around the world, with McCarthy stating the company goal as, “to help automate the collection of traditional performance measures, and to enable a next generation of innovative, user-friendly, multi-platform applications for on-track/infield boards, television, HD/3D-TV, broadband Internet, and mobile devices.”
Hopefully, the UK powers that be share some common goals with Barry Weisbord and Bob McCarthy, as if implemented and embraced in the correct way; Trakus has the potential to really ‘Change Racing’ in Britain, not by a short head, but by a distance.
© Gavin Dobson - Sept 2010.
www.gdobson.co.uk
More information: www.trakus.com
To view Trakus in operation visit: www.youtube.com/user/TrakusRacing
So what do we think?
Could this benefit us as punters and race viewers?
Would it bring in new fans to the sport?
Are the British betting public ready for this type of technology?
Whether you agree or disagree it's certainly something to give serious consideration too.
What do I think?
I can see plenty of advantages and not many disadvantages. For someone like myself who uses statistical analysis as a punting tool this technology would surely open up a plethora of angles for me to get stuck into and that can never be a bad thing!
I would like to give a big thanks to Gavin for allowing this article to be shared on NTF.
Ben (NTF)
10 comments:
If this system is as accurate as they say the sectional time data would be absolutely brilliant
For whatever reason, the previous attempt to implement technology via Turftrax never worked.
This sounds like a really exciting and innovative use of technology and could drag horse racing kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Kempton would be a good place to trial it in the UK, on both the A/W and the jumps tracks. And if that's successful roll it out across the country.
It could possibly ruin the in-running betting angles and markets if that's your bag. If you're quickest to spot the colours of a horse progressing quickly through a large field you can get a nice in-running price. Having the numbers on screen would sign post such a move and kill off such markets. Such an innovation could herald the loss of a winning edge for some.
An advertorial for Trakus. Dobby works for them then?
All I can say is Gavin Dobson..where were you five years ago !!.
I used to work with a company called SportingLOT who in conjunction with Turftrax developed this type of technology in 2006 and it would still seem that what we produced together is still light years ahead of current offerings from Trakus.
Not only could we reproduce an animated version of the race which on the internet was about 1 second ahead or TV pictures but we could use the turftrax data to produce live in running predictions based on the speed of the horses and distance left and also integrate the "moving icons" with Betfair prices prices allowing users to back / lay with a single click on the moving icon.
Some of the winning predictions were spectacular especially Salient who was clearly indicated as the winner at odds of over 300/1.
I still have plenty of data on IRIS (In running Information Services), that's what the service was called including some great videos of the service in operation.
If anybody wants to sees these please let me know at kcoldrick@yahoo.co.uk.
Anyway sorry to say that even the so called "technology gurus" at Betfair and others could not see the value or this technology and alas it now sits on the shelf gathering dust while everybody is jumping up and down with excitement over the Trakus offering from the US which in my humble opinion cannot hold a candle to the Turftrax / SportingLOT homegrown offering of five years ago.
Ah..those were the days !!
as you know i use speed as my main factor and then handicapping..i am able to use the usa market better then the uk as the use section timings which are needed for closing times.trying this in th uk is impossible for one man to tackle. this system is right up my street but i hope it does nt crush the odds like it has in the usa.
The premise behind Racing for Change is to get more people attending race meetings. This technology would have the opposite effect in that it enhances racing only as a televisual event. It helps identify horses to those watching a screen. Anyone at the course who isn't an in running player (99.9%) will be squinting into the distance trying to find 'their' horse, in the same way they always have. Otherwise what's the point of going?
This technology may encourage more people to bet on horse races from home, but even that is unlikely. People drawn to gambling for its own sake already have ample opportunities to bet by numbers via online roulette, bingo etc and even greyhound racing, so this isn't going to do anything other than interfere with the in running markets of hardened horse racing bettors.
As for sectional times and all that guff, the Americans are obsessed with sporting statistics, most of which are of absolutely no interest to the occassional race goer or even the regular bettor.
The Americans tried to change the rules and mess about with soccer in order to increase its appeal to American audiences. It didn't work and none of their 'innovations' such as penalty shoot outs, organ music(!) and cheerleaders has caught on over here either. If you over-complicate things, provide too much information and generally clutter up people's brains with media effects rather than the blood and thunder of SPORT then they are more likely to go elsewhere for entertainment and gambling purposes.
Hi,
Firstly, many thanks to Ben for hosting this article and thanks to everybody who has read and commented.
I do not work for Trakus and have no affiliation to them at all.
However, I do watch a lot of US Racing and being a speed figure fan, sectional/fractional timings are something that I believe could be very beneficial in Britain. I was a subscriber to Turftrax when their system was in place a few years ago, and I found the times were very useful - I would be very interested in seeing those videos as well Ken.
As for the in-running punter, this system would surely provide an advantage as you could use the timing data to pinpoint horses who may or may not have a finishing kick. There's a multitude of back/lay methods that could be borne out of this kind of data.
Racing for Change is not simply a venture to try and get more people to visit the racecourse. Their whole raison d'être is to increase the sports popularity, especially with the younger generation. In turn, this would hopefully lead to more racegoers.
Check the Trakus website for hi-res photographs of the system in action at Meydan and tell me that it would not enhance the racegoers experience during the big 30 runner handicaps when its difficult to see anything from the stands or on TV!
And hey, if its good enough for Sheikh Mo, its good enough for me!
Thanks again
Gavin
I heard on the grapevine that ATR/TurfTrax will be trialling a similar system at Southwell in October with a view to wider coverage next year - watch this space.
I'd rather watch the horses racing than their numbers flitting across the bottom of the screen. It's hard to do both with only one brain and two eyes. For the general punter it's not difficult to note the number and colours of your horse and jockey beforehand. Commentary fills in the gaps until we get to the business end of the race which means your eyes can stay on track. Relative positions in the first two thirds of the race mean very little except to in running players, but any perceived advantage they may get from these number systems will soon get closed off once every stat. about every horse becomes common knowledge. Value, which is already hard enough to find, will soon disappear, along with the in running markets eventually.
When you say Racing For Change is about making the sport more popular, unless that translates to more people and younger people going racing, it will have failed. Products which increase gambling on horse racing are not making racing more popular any more than increased gambling on football increases the popularity of that sport. The sport of racing and the gambling are two separate entities and the fact is that the internet encourages people to stay at home, place bets at best odds guaranteed or on the exchanges, be much more flexible about how or when they bet than they could be on course.
Remember when all the football stadiums installed big screens in the grounds to show the game simultaneously on and off the pitch? They soon realised the screens were a hinderance and a distraction and have simply reverted to using them for advertsiing and team lineups/scores. It's the same scenario at a race course. You can't watch the live action AND a big screen at the same time.
Going racing these days is much more about the social side of gambling and at the big meetings, for the sporting occasion of Cheltenham, Aintree etc. Serious betting and going racing are therefore incompatible. In the context of that, your numbers mean nothing because many people who bet on horses don't watch racing unless it happens to be on terrestial TV! They don't get excited about winning or losing, or give a damn where their horse is until it crosses the line.
By all means, try it on the all weather as that is little more than dog racing anyway, but virtually nobody watches that rubbish, either on or off course. The addition of graphics telling me 'my' horse is 10th after a furlong and 6th after 3 furlongs is not going to get me signed up to the satellite channels in order to take part in the tedium of it all or fritter away my pennies on rubbish handicaps at Southwell in October simply because I can tell more easily how utterly ungenuine the nag is at various stages of the race!
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