TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2020 PROBLEMS PERSIST WITH MGG WANTS ZAYAT DEBT RULED >NON-DISCHARGEABLE' BECAUSE OF GMAX TIMING SYSTEM ALLEGED FRAUD by T.D. Thornton MGG Investment Group, LP, is already nearly a year into a civil lawsuit initiated to try and recoup $24 million in loan defaults by Ahmed Zayat and his family-owned bloodstock and racing operation. Now the New York-based lender is going after the insolvent Triple Crown-winning owner and breeder in a different court by trying to get a federal bankruptcy judge to rule that some of Zayat's debts shouldn't be legally forgiven under the Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection he is seeking because those loans were the product of years of systematic fraud that Zayat allegedly orchestrated. Cont. p6 Tampa Bay Downs | Doug DeFelice IN TDN EUROPE TODAY by Bill Finley STRONG CLEARANCE AS ARQANA CONTINUES Despite a press release in late August from Equibase in which Nafithaa (GB) (Shamardal) proved the dearest lot at Arqana on the company announced it would be conducting an "extensive Monday. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. analysis" of its Gmax timing system, the technology has continued to produce a number of inaccurate times at the racetracks it services. The TDN has found recent examples from Del Mar, Tampa Bay Downs and Penn National that show there were problems with the Gmax timing of the races. Gmax, which is operated in the U.S. by Equibase, relies on Global Positioning System (GPS) to record times, as well as providing additional information such as the running order of a race. Equibase issued the press release after the TDN and other media outlets reported on a series of problems with the timing system since it was first introduced to American racing in 2018 and subsequently suffered a number of timing issues during this year's Del Mar summer meet. Starting with the Aug. 2 card, Del Mar took the unusual step of relying not on Gmax, but on hand times, for all its grass races through the remainder of the meet. The more recent problems were particularly pronounced during the early days of the meet at Tampa Bay Downs, where the Gmax system is being used for the first time. The chart for the first race on opening day, Nov. 25, notes that the race was hand-timed. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Tuesday, December 8, 2020 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Deputy Editor Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Associate Editors Christina Bossinakis @CBossTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN News and Features Editor In Memoriam: Ben Massam (1988-2019) ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson Photographer/Photo Editor 2020 in Photos: March 15. On the 23rd anniversary of Chindi (El Prado {Ire}-Rousing, Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew by Alydar) breaking his maiden at Oaklawn, Porfirio Cruz (right) and Juan Fernandez [email protected] (left) lead Chindi to the winner's circle. The 26-year-old millionaire and multiple graded Social Media Strategist stakes winner received a proclamation from the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas declaring Justina Severni March 15 as Chindi Day. Chindi retired in 2006 and is a stable pony for trainer Steve Associate Producer Hobby. | Sarah Andrew Katie Ritz Director of Customer Service NEW FACES IN ASHFORD STUD BARN 8 Vicki Forbes [email protected] Coolmore’s Adrian Wallace discusses the new faces in the Ashford Stud barn: champion Maximum Security and Marketing Manager Grade I winner Echo Town. Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Director of IT/Accounting BODEXPRESS RETIRED 11 Ray Villa [email protected] Bodexpress (Bodemeister), recent winner of the GI Clark H., [email protected] has suffered a career-ending injury. WORLDWIDE INFORMATION International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 14 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • DECEMBER 8, 2020 Problems Persist with Gmax Timing System 1:10.71. In the official race chart, the running time is listed as 1:11.70, nearly a full second off the Gmax time originally posted (cont. from p1) on the toteboard. During the running of the first three races of the day at Tampa Tampa Bay Downs President Pete Berube told the TDN that Bay Downs, no fractional or some of the problems with the final times were posted on the posting of inaccurate fractional toteboard as the races were and final times were the result of being run. errors being made by an outside After an uneventful day vendor contracted to handle Nov. 27, the second day of the Tampa's television graphics Tampa meet, there were package. Berube added that he several problems Nov. 28. The had not lost faith in the Gmax charts of five of the 10 races on system. the card noted that the races "I am very confident with the were hand-timed. In some of times," he said. "I know there has the races, no times were posted been a lot of talk about timings on the toteboard or through the and things like that from the simulcast feed while the races speed figure guys and I certainly were being run. In others, the appreciate that. But I am very times listed were clearly Josh Rubinstein | Benoit pleased that Equibase is doing incorrect. In the fifth race, the the video control with the timing to make sure we are putting opening quarter time was posted as :33.81. In the sixth race, out correct times because I know how important they are to the after the horses crossed the wire a time of 1:29.94 was listed for bettors." the quarter-time. In the seventh, the quarter-time was posted as Cont. p4 1:04.39 and the final time for the six furlong race went up as TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 14 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • DECEMBER 8, 2020 Over the Aug. 1-2 weekend, the original times of seven races to catch most of the mistakes and correct them before they at Del Mar were updated in the final chart. The altered times become a permanent part of the charts and a horse's past came in both turf and dirt races and the differences were as performance lines. But Wilson admitted that it would be small as 0.07 seconds and as big as 1.19 seconds. Addressing the preferable for there to be fewer mistakes in the first place. problems after the meet concluded, Del Mar officials announced that they had re-surveyed the turf course to "enhance timing and tracking accuracy with the state-of-the-art GPS system." There was no mention of correcting problems with the timing for dirt races. Speaking to the California Horse Racing Board in September, Del Mar President Josh Rubinstein told the regulators that the track would not have to rely on hand timing for the Bing Crosby meet because problems with the Gmax system had been corrected. But the official charts for five races run at the Bing Crosby meet list that they were hand-timed. Two of the races were run on the dirt and three were turf races. Asked by the TDN to address the five hand-timed races, Rubinstein pointed to extenuating circumstances that led to the problems. Some of Jason Wilson | The Jockey Club photo the problems, Rubinstein said, involved miscalculating how far the run-up distance prior to the start was and how far out the "We use video timing as a way to check for races where there rails were on the turf course. needs to be some investigation as to whether a time is good or There were a handful of additional problems during the meet. not," he said. "We will go in and review those races and make Over the three-day span beginning May 20, there were at least changes as we need to. People have probably seen some of that. four races where Gmax times that went up on the toteboard I think we need to work on how we communicate those changes while the races were being run were changed in the final chart. to people. A lot of this is growing pains and, unfortunately, it has Equibase President and COO Jason Wilson said there were been a bit more painful than we thought it was going to be. We issues with "probably 10 races" at the Del Mar fall meet. are getting there. Obviously, video timing every single race is Despite the problems with Gmax, Rubinstein said he remains a not, in the long term, sustainable. It's just not a good use of fan of the system. resources." "Del Mar continues to believe in the platform and GPS technology for timing and tracking" he wrote in an e-mail "We're working with Gmax and Equibase to provide the most accurate information possible." During November, there were numerous occasions at Penn National where the Gmax time was later corrected, with an adjusted time going into the official charts. On the night of Nov. 13 alone, there were seven races in which the final Gmax time was adjusted before going into the official chart.