Beyer Team Disputes Florida Derby Time

After an extensive review of Saturday’s GI Florida Derby, the team that assigns the Beyer figures has concluded that the race was mistimed and, as a result, has lowered the figure for Forte (Violence) from a 98 to a 95.

The official time of the race was listed 1:48.51 for the mile-and-an-eighth in the Equibase chart. According to Beyer associate Randy Moss, the race was actually run in 1:49.40.

“The time is almost a full second wrong and I have no idea why,” Moss said.

Moss said questions were raised about the Equibase time because it had the field covering the final eighth of a mile in 12:16 seconds, which seemed unrealistically fast. That, Moss said, drew the attention of Craig Milkowski from TimeformUS. He reached out to Moss and both went over the race. With the recalculated final time, Forte’s last furlong went in 13.02.

“We timed it four different times, four different ways and got within three-one hundredths of a second every time,” Moss said.

Moss added that on first inspection it appeared that Forte’s figure was significantly higher.

“Initially, we looked at the track variant and had the figure coming up as 104,” Moss said. “Andy (Beyer) and Mark (Hopkins) asked me what did I think. I said that the fig is the fig. They said there was no way those horses who finished behind Forte could have all run that fast. So they decided to make it a 98. As it turns out, they were right because the time was wrong.”

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