Martin On Seven-Eighths Trial

Jamie-Martin.jpg
Published: December 3, 2008 05:56 pm EST

Trot Insider has spoken with Jamie Martin, Woodbine Entertainment Group's senior vice president, Racing, regarding the experimental seven-eighths mile dashes which are taking place Mondays during the month of December at Woodbine Racetrack.

"This is something that should have been made clear from the get-go, but Woodbine Entertainment has no intention of offering seven-eighths mile races as regularly-carded events going forward. We are not looking to change the distance of racing at Woodbine from anything but one mile," Martin explained.

"In 2005, Woodbine Racetrack conducted, I believe, three seven-eighths mile races to explore whether it would be beneficial to make a big change and move the poles and the finish line closer to the first turn to prompt more flow to the standardbred races at Woodbine."

Martin explained that nothing came from the '05 experiments, but with flow issues still a big issue to date with loyal WEG customers, the Canadian racing giant decided to accumulate more data. The data collected and scrutinized via the Monday cards in December could possibly lead to the movement of the poles and finish line closer to the first turn.

"With a good portion of seven-eighths mile races from December to analyze, Woodbine Entertainment will be able to assess whether we should go forward with making the changes to the poles and finish line."

Martin stressed that such a move is not a simple one, and that the move will not be taken unless the data indicates it would be worthwhile.

"If it were the type of change that would cost us a few thousand dollars to do, then it wouldn't be an issue, but what we're talking about here is much more than that," he explained.

"The last thing that we want to do is go ahead with substantial change such as this and then not have the racing change, accordingly. That is why we are conducting this trial period to gather enough info to give us a good sample here."

WEG first announced the initiative November 24. The topic has received much feedback, especially from a Trot Insider exclusive article which contained comments from WEG drivers.

Tags
Have something to say about this? Log in or create an account to post a comment.