Hawthorne: New turf course record - in a conditioned claimer

Supposedly -- and I emphasize supposedly -- Lose None won race 7 in 1:01.70, a course record for five and one-half furlongs. Splits for the race were timed in 20.97, 44.09, and 55.69 seconds.

Now, I grant you, Lose None was quite sharp in victory, and early leader She's Packin Heat appeared to be rolling, but lets keep in mind that this was a $17,500 N2L claimer. Lose None came into the race 1-17 in career victories, and had most recently finished second in a $15K N2L turf-sprint claimer at Arlington. The horse clearly is far from exceptional, and to set a course record the turf would have to be playing extremely fast. It was not. There were two other grass races on the day, both miles that went in 1:38 and change.

Something isn't kosher, whether the electronic eye was tripped too soon, the distance isn't quite right, the run-up to the timer is off. This time appears to have gone official, and is .37 seconds faster than any other horse has clocked going 5.5 furlongs on Hawthorne turf. Lose None's name apparently will go into the books -- but there should be an asterisk.