Trakus, a timing and tracking system employed at many tracks over the last decade, will cease operations this weekend, Barry Weisbord, chairman of the company, said Wednesday. Many tracks that utilized Trakus will now switch to an Equibase GPS system (E-GPS) created by a European-based company called Total Performance Data. “Basically, Equibase backed a lower-cost service and we couldn’t make it work,” Weisbord said. “It was costing us a fortune and we were just losing money. There was no path forward. We offered Equibase to take it over, they opted not to.” Tracks that are now using E-GPS for either tracking, timing, or both include ones owned by The Stronach Group -- Gulfstream Park, Santa Anita Park, Golden Gate, and Laurel Park -- as well as Del Mar, Turfway Park, Lone Star, Turfway Park, and Woodbine. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. The New York Racing Association, which had been using Trakus, will switch to E-GPS as a tracking system, but will keep its beam-timed system in place for official times, according to a spokesman. At the beginning of its use, tracks that utilized E-GPS as their primary timing mechanism experienced inaccuracies in their timing of races. Jim Gagliano, the interim president of Equibase, said to address those issues a hybrid system has since been employed where E-GPS is used as the tracking system and a beam instrument has been utilized to record final times. Gagliano said improvements have been and continue to be made to the beam instrument. Technology such as ground covered by a horse in a race has been offered by Trakus and will ultimately be offered on the E-GPS system, Gagliano said. “Once we get this rolling and get it right it’ll unlock a lot of new fun things in recording the performance of a horse in a race,” Gagliano said. Weisbord believes Trakus, which debuted at the 2006 Keeneland fall meet and picked up other tracks over the years, was a positive initiative for the industry and that it's imperative for racing officials to find a way to better utilize technology. “I think we did a great job and deserve high marks,” Weisbord said. “We showed the industry why this is important. We’re hoping the people in charge can improve on what we started and make the deliverables even better. There’s no question the deliverables are the right deliverables. We pointed everybody in the right direction.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.