The 2008 Record Boards

How to read this

Each board is one race's result screen, exactly as it appeared on the cabinet. The rows are the finishing order, gate 1 through 12, with the horse's name, the owner's public arcade tag, the finish time, the margin back to the horse ahead, and the bonus purse.

The NEW RECORD line at the top of a board shows the standing track record for that venue and distance. When the winner's time is slower than that line, the record was not broken that heat (those cases are flagged here). When the winner's time equals the record line, that race set it.

Owner tags are arcade player handles printed on the public result board. LW = Lance Woodrum (noted here once); other tags seen include mao, pappy, DDS, SFG, AC.BM / CBM / BM, DAL, PFM, TT, and Krole (a distinct player, whose tag shares two boards, M and O, with an unreadable holder line). Tags are transcribed as shown. Where the photograph could not be read confidently, the field is marked [illegible]; a value shown for a distance or surface that was off-frame is taken from the race name and marked with an asterisk in the summary.

The 22 boards, at a glance

Every recovered screen, with its venue, race, distance, standing record time and record holder. Sixteen of the twenty-two records stand to LW (Lance Woodrum) outright, with two more (boards M and O) hedged between LW and the handle Krole where the holder line was unreadable.

* Distance or surface was not printed on that screen or was partly off-frame; the value shown is from the race name and DOC convention.

Featured boards

Six of the twenty-two, shown with the photograph that recovered them above the transcribed finishing order. These are the boards where the photo itself is the record: the result screen, the venue, the date, and the standing time, all in one frame.

A · 6R DOC 2000 Guineas

Lake Station, Indiana · Feb 23 '08 · 2000M turf (from race name)

New record

1.57.33 Casino Crazy (LW). Header: RESULT OF 6R DOC 2000 GUINEAS.

Place	Gate	Horse	Tag	Time	Margin	Bonus Purse
1st	8	Casino Crazy	LW	1.57.33	—	970,000
2nd	6	COWBOY	pappy	1.57.33	Nose	390,000
3rd	3	Name is Earl 2000		1.57.33	Nose	240,000
4th	7	UR MINE	AC.BM	1.57.86	3	150,000
5th	2	Special Delivery		2.00.00	9	97,000
6th	10	Spiral Nebula		2.00.62	4	22,000
7th	5	Never Glory		2.02.71	9	22,000
8th	1	Penang the King		2.03.38	4	22,000
9th	4	White Socks		2.03.57	1	22,000
10th	[illegible]	Lucky Soldier		2.03.62	Neck	22,000
11th	[illegible]	Dr.Mare		2.03.67	Neck	22,000
12th	[illegible]	Bold Emperor		2.04.00	1 1/2	22,000

E · 6R Derby Owners Cup

Lake Station, Indiana · Jan 23 '08 · distance not printed (Derby Owners Cup ≈ 2400M)

New record

2.22.33 Hulk (LW). Header: RESULT OF 6R DERBY OWNERS CUP. Row times run through 11th; the 12th time was off-frame.

Place	Gate	Horse	Tag	Time	Margin	Bonus Purse
1st	7	Hulk	LW	2.22.33	—	2,000,000
2nd	2	Wild Man oWar	LW	2.22.38	Neck	800,000
3rd	8	Beowulf	LW	2.22.38	Nose	500,000
4th	[illegible]	DAM-IT-BOY	PFM	2.22.71	1 3/4	300,000
5th	[illegible]	Kingston's Fury		2.24.81	9	200,000
6th	6	Wing Man		2.25.38	3	22,000
7th	5	Hit Maker		2.25.43	Neck	22,000
8th	1	White Star		2.25.52	1/2	22,000
9th	3	Steppin' Out		2.25.71	1	22,000
10th	[illegible]	Highland Regent		2.26.91	6	22,000
11th	4	Pop Dancer		2.27.76	4	22,000
12th	[illegible]	Hong Kong Express		[off-frame]	2 1/2	22,000

H · 4R Sega Dirt 1400M

Addison, Illinois (Dave & Buster's) · dirt

Standing record, not beaten this heat

1.22.43 Donner (LW). Winner Amazon (1.27.04) did not beat it. Bonus-purse column partly off the right edge (leading digits legible).

Place	Gate	Horse	Tag	Time	Margin	Bonus Purse
1st	5	Amazon		1.27.04	—	400,000
2nd	4	Michigan Blue		1.27.28	1 1/4	200,000
3rd	[illegible]	King Fish		1.27.33	Neck	120,000
4th	6	Sunday Star		1.27.76	2 1/2	70,000
5th	1	Snowman		1.27.81	Neck	50,000
6th	10	Southern Cross		1.27.86	Neck	22,000
7th	9	New Yorker		1.28.04	3/4	22,000
8th	2	Gray Goblin		1.28.09	Neck	22,000
9th	7	Shadow Boxer		1.28.23	3/4	22,000
10th	3	Malasian Lion		1.28.33	1/2	22,000
11th	[illegible]	Mississippi Mt.		1.28.52	1	22,000
12th	8	Moon Lady		1.28.52	Nose	22,000

G · 6R Queen Elizabeth II Cup

Lake Station, Indiana · Mar 26 '08 · 10-horse field

New record

2.09.47 Storm Rising (LW). Header: RESULT OF 6R QUEEN ELIZABETH II CUP.

Place	Gate	Horse	Tag	Time	Margin	Bonus Purse
1st	4	Storm Rising	LW	2.09.47	—	1,000,000
2nd	10	DRAGON CLAW	DAL	2.09.57	1/2	400,000
3rd	[illegible]	Assault	TT	2.09.57	Nose	250,000
4th	2	COOL BUCK.	BM	2.09.91	1 3/4	150,000
5th	[illegible]	Golf of Singapore		2.13.04	Big lead	100,000
6th	8	Sir Lancelot		2.14.00	5	22,000
7th	3	Lucky Girl		2.16.00	9	22,000
8th	5	Mermaid		2.16.43	2 1/2	22,000
9th	12	Marine Snow		2.16.67	1 1/4	22,000
10th	7	Marilyn		2.16.71	Neck	22,000

L · 6R Super Dirt Grand Prix

Lake Station, Indiana · Feb 17 '08

New record

1.59.47 Breeze (LW). Header: RESULT OF 6R SUPER DIRT GRAND PRIX.

Place	Gate	Horse	Tag	Time	Margin	Bonus Purse
1st	[illegible]	Breeze	LW	1.59.47	—	1,300,000
2nd	9	Kool A.	CBM	1.59.47	Nose	520,000
3rd	10	MAGIC	pappy	2.00.00	2 1/2	380,000
4th	[illegible]	On Beam		2.02.67	Big lead	200,000
5th	1	Star Dust		2.03.76	5	130,000
6th	4	Battle Front		2.06.09	Big lead	22,000
7th	12	Comet		2.06.57	2 1/2	22,000
8th	8	Snowman		2.06.62	Neck	22,000
9th	5	Special Arrow		2.06.76	3/4	22,000
10th	2	Golden Shoe		2.06.91	3/4	22,000
11th	6	Special Dream		2.07.47	3	22,000
12th	7	Penang the King		2.07.47	Nose	22,000

K · 6R Sprinters Stakes

Addison, Illinois (Dave & Buster's) · distance not printed (Sprinters ≈ 1200M)

New record

1.08.38 Fury (LW). Header: RESULT OF 6R SPRINTERS STAKES. Lower rows slightly soft but legible.

Place	Gate	Horse	Tag	Time	Margin	Bonus Purse
1st	1	Fury	LW	1.08.38	—	940,000
2nd	5	Affirmed	SFG	1.08.43	Neck	380,000
3rd	[illegible]	Bold Ruler	SFG	1.08.67	1 1/4	240,000
4th	[illegible]	Blitzen !		1.09.23	3	140,000
5th	[illegible]	Star Lover		1.10.43	3	94,000
6th	[illegible]	Red Baron		1.11.00	3	22,000
7th	[illegible]	Defiant Warrior		1.12.43	7	22,000
8th	[illegible]	Winnin' Easy		1.12.67	1 1/4	22,000
9th	[illegible]	Penang the King		1.12.76	1 1/2	22,000
10th	[illegible]	Extremely Lucky		1.13.10	3/4	22,000
11th	2	Big Daddy		1.13.19	1 1/4	22,000
12th	[illegible]	Red Pepper		1.13.38	1	22,000

The rest of the boards

The remaining sixteen result screens, transcribed the same way, without a photograph on the page. Each keeps its record-holder callout. The final board (V) is a winner splash, the animated final-result screen, so it has a winner and a record but no place-by-place table.

A closing note

This is what a scene's record board looked like the year the machines started disappearing. Twenty-two heats across two arcades in one winter, with times to the hundredth, margins down to a nose, and the same handful of tags coming back board after board. Read together, they are the documented high-water mark of the American Derby Owners Club scene, most of it Lance Woodrum's own club at Addison and Lake Station.

LW (Lance Woodrum) holds sixteen of the twenty-two records shown here. That dominance is also what resolved a small mystery in the recovery: the national records table long carried an unexplained LW suffix, and these photographs, the record boards in the owner's own hand, are what tied that suffix to him. The English wing tells that recovery story in full.

The cards and the photographs outlived the venues. That is why this record exists.