Nerds, Cheating and More Cheating

Did You Hear About The Big Data Derby Competition?

There was a competition on Kaggle to analyze horse racing tactics, drafting strategies, and path efficiency in order to help owners, trainers, and vets better understand horse racing performance and welfare based on data analysis. The first-place prize for the competition was a whopping $20,000. You can see the data from the winner of the competition in this post. We're not exactly smart enough to break down those graphs and analysis but one of the interesting parts of their findings was the jockey data seen here:

One of our big questions is, why is part of the competition so hung up on drafting? We feel like this is a flawed piece of the analysis but hey we're also not the ones who can come up with these models so maybe they're onto something.

You can read more about the winners and the other 106 entrants in this article. At the end of the day, we're all about more data in racing, no matter what the findings.

Jason Servis Is Going To Service Some Jail Time

The game we all love to play just got a little more crooked. Not that we didn't know that it was already, but apparently Jason Servis plead guilty to a widespread scheme to conceal the performance-enhancing drugs he was giving horses under his training. More specifically he was giving horses the banned substance SGF-1000.

This wasn't even the first time he's been arrested either. Previously he had been busted on charges related to his actions in March of 2020 where he and 27 other people were implicated in even more doping.

Hot Spicy Giddyup Digest Take of the Day: We think most of them are guilty of it, but some get caught easier than others. That's right, we said it!

In More Dirty, Cheating News...

We really hate to report this, we really do. According to the Paulick Report - Jockey Cody Rodger Smith has been summarily suspended by the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission due to “conduct detrimental to horse racing, possession of contraband, and prohibited use of equipment,” according to a ruling posted on the Association of Racing Commissioners International website on Tuesday.According to sources, the ruling was made after a photograph of the finish of the $43,433 Speedhorse Paint & Appaloosa Futurity Championship-G1 at Will Rogers Downs in Claremore, Okla., was brought to the attention of Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission officials. The photograph in question was reportedly taken from the inside rail.Do you agree with our Spicy Hot Take yet?

Do you have On-Air Talent for Horse Racing?

In case you missed your dream job listing - FanDuel TV (you know, formally TVG) is hiring someone for on-air talent! Think you have what it takes? Do you think you can discuss horse racing on a nationwide basis? Of course you can, go out there and get it!

It's truly all of our duties as horseplayers to apply to this regardless of accolades.