Countless columns have been written on how to improve the condition system in harness racing, from basing everything on money earned, to an ABC method where the racing office has complete authority, to switching to all claiming races. Now, courtesy of Hoosier Park and Trackmaster, a new experimental series has been introduced where the sole determination of classification is based on a computerized algorithm. Introduced for the first time on Saturday May 12, leg one of the “Trackmaster Class C Overnight Series” was carded for pacing fillies and mares which have a 79 Trackmaster rating or below or a 79 or lower rating since 5/9/18. The second leg continues on May 19 along with a similar series for trotters based on an 82 Trackmaster rating. Hoosier Park Racing Secretary Scott Peine heard about the system from Hambletonian President John Campbell during the Breeders Crown last October and kept it in the back of his head. When racing began at Hoosier in late March, Peine realized he was a bit short on horses particularly in the pacing mares condition and since in Indiana the race office is not permitted to change the condition of races on the day of a draw, he thought the system may be a good fit. He then spent a month studying the daily excel file from Trackmaster to review the viability of the ratings. “What you saw last Saturday was a way to test it out with a small subsection of our horse population,” said Peine. “I think it worked out OK. The 12th race did have a heavy favorite, but he was overbet because of the connections. Right now we are feeling it out and will give it a shot with trotters this week. “The Indiana horsemen are great about trying new stuff and were all for it as long as it didn’t flip things on its head,” continued Peine. Peine admits that the Trackmaster system does produce some anomalies. “One of the issues is that if we have a really good Indiana Sire Stakes 3-year-old filly who also competed a bit on the Grand Circuit and she is laid off until March, as a newly turned 4-year-old her number ends up being a bit inflated,” said Peine. Trackmaster President David Siegel didn’t avoid the topic when asked if certain numbers could be “out of whack.” With horses coming in from outside of North America or returning from long layoffs, he suggested that a temporary manual number could be assigned by the racing office. “The system is not perfect but it is pretty darn good,” said Siegel, who added that at least 10 different groups, including tracks and horsemen associations, have contacted him about using the system in the near future. “Every horse in North America gets a daily number. These numbers can be used for aged races predominately targeted at the non-winner of dollar amount races and claiming groups. At the end of the day, each track can do whatever they want with the number.” Hoosier Park took a different path with the speed rating-based system than Siegel had expected. “They are not using it in the way I anticipated, but it is a perfectly fine way,” said Siegel, who was expecting a more broad use than a specific series. In essence, the program is designed to create more competitive fields by removing the need to continuously expand monetary conditions to create full fields. Instead of each race having four or five conditions, the header would simply read, “horses with a speed rating of 78-80”. “It helps to objectively bring horses of similar ability together and it can be totally transparent. The numbers are produced in advance so everyone can see them,” said Siegel, who compared the system to a computerized ABC system. In a perfect world, Siegel feels the Trackmaster system works best when the entire horse population is brought together into one group and separated by gait and perhaps by sex. That allows for a larger pool of horses which results in more evenly matched fields. The ideal race would contain horses with ratings in a two-point range, so 78-79 or 84-85. In basic terms, each horses’ final number is determined by taking the average of the highest speed ratings from a horse over its previous five to 10 starts in the previous two years. Races in which a horse encounters trouble (broken equipment, break, etc.) are immediately excluded. Whether the Trackmaster system will become widely used throughout the industry is still up in the air. Siegel said he expects a handful of tracks will use it in a more wholesale manner in the future. For now Hoosier Park remains the testing ground for what has the potential to provide more competitive and evenly matched fields; something everyone can agree is a plus for the industry.