NHC - Finals

[jms62]

Originally Posted by HoosierInOhio

Actually, its quite a bit more than you have described. And you can actually change the screen color to whatever you prefer. Mine is white with black font.

At any rate, I believe you can go to the website and check out the software for free or download the HTR-pedia which describes a lot of the terms and angles and stuff.

I've been using it for 9 months now, and it was very difficult to go from my traditional "Go over the PP's for hours and handicap". At first, I was doing both (PPs and HTR). Then I started doing more HTR and less PP, maybe writing some HTR stuff on my PPs. Now I pretty much just use the software, and print stuff straight out of there.

One of the best features, for tournaments with optional races at least, is the race rating called the VI (Volatility Index). Each race is given a rating from 50 (Very Chalky), down to 15 (Bombs Away). This rating can change once horses scratch. So maybe it was a 27 (Mixed), and 3 horses scratch and it becomes a 34 (Chalky). So when doing an optional contest, you can just look at each race's VI index and start there. So, if I had made the NHC, I probably would have took the 12-15 optional races each day with the lowest VI and looked only at those (at least to start).

I play the Santa Anita low roller contest when I go, and you can only play 5 races on the card. I basically take the 5 races with the lowest VI and that's it. It can save a lot of time.

In fact, the two greatest things about it is the time it saves and that it can point you to horses you may not consider. You can also query a ton of stuff from the files you have like how many 8/1 or greater horses hit in turf sprints at certain tracks, and what do they have in common.

Anyway, you guys can check it out for yourself on the site or PM me if you want some more details. I believe their forums are open as well (meaning you don't need to be a member to read them at least.)

Is it giving you results too or do you have to manually enter? Thing is how many people in the contest are using the tool exactly the same as you. You need to differentiate yourself in a large tourney, use the tool sometimes and take shots other times and even choose a horse that the tool feels is 3rd or 4th best to catch a price.

[HoosierInOhio]

Originally Posted by jms62

Is it giving you results too or do you have to manually enter? Thing is how many people in the contest are using the tool exactly the same as you. You need to differentiate yourself in a large tourney, use the tool sometimes and take shots other times and even choose a horse that the tool feels is 3rd or 4th best to catch a price.

You download race files daily (or whatever frequency you like). That is what you actually pay monthly for, the race files. The software is free (but useless without the race files). I download files daily for the most part. One dump gets you all the tracks. Results are usually out a few hours after the races end. The face files are available about 24 hours before the races. Although for big events (BC, NHC, KY), they sometimes come out 36 hours in advance

Some members even take the race files into Access and build their own databases to query and research. I haven't done that yet.

[pweizer]

Originally Posted by jms62

Is it giving you results too or do you have to manually enter? Thing is how many people in the contest are using the tool exactly the same as you. You need to differentiate yourself in a large tourney, use the tool sometimes and take shots other times and even choose a horse that the tool feels is 3rd or 4th best to catch a price.

I really think you are overthinking things here. Do not worry about what others do or use. You obviously know what you are doing or you wouldn't have been in the room. Focus on what you do well, set a goal in terms of number of points historically needed for the contest, and don't panic if things don't go according to plan. It is a marathon, not a sprint.

Paul