Amsterdam time adjusted

The New York Racing Association made a slight adjustment to the final time of Monday's Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes won by Quality Road, but the new time of 1:13.74 remains a track record.

In another development regarding the Amsterdam, Andrew Beyer and his associates have adjusted the Beyer Speed Figure to 110, raised from an original assigned figure of 103. The new figure is based on the belief that the final time is correct, something Beyer and his associates disputed on Monday.

The original final time of the Amsterdam was reported as 1:13.45 for 6 1/2 furlongs. The previous track record for that distance was 1:14.40 set by Topsider on Aug. 1, 1979. The adjusted time comes after two NYRA clockers re-timed the race at the request of racing secretary P.J. Campo. The half-mile fraction was adjusted to 44.55 seconds from an original posting of 44.95.

The timer malfunctioned during the running of the Amsterdam which required the race to be hand-timed. That was done by Steven Foster, the official timer for NYRA, who was one of the clockers that re-timed the race on Wednesday.

According to Don Morehouse, the photo-finish technician, a backup computer that he uses when the timer malfunctions had the final time as 1:13.68.

According to Mark Hopkins, who makes the Beyer Figures for the New York tracks, there was an original belief that the final time of the race was wrong by a full second, which made for a low Beyer Figure of 103. Hopkins said the new figure is "based on final time being correct" and the fact that the last race of the day, a six-furlong maiden $20,000 claiming race, was won in a final time of 1:09.72.

"Taking everything into consideration, this is what made sense," Hopkins said. "The fast time of the last race factors into this. The figures for the horses that finished second and third in the Amsterdam are higher than we would have expected them to conceivably run."