Suggestion Box

[km]

This is a suggestion box for HTR2 and MaxVel. Robot II suggestions go into its own forum.

On June 20, I'll print the suggestions, sort through them, and get to work ( not going to reply to each suggestion in this forum). If your suggestion is a minor annoyance, bug fix, or small screen addition, i can probably take care of it. If you want something major such as on demand video of every PP line, it'll have to wait for 2010 :)

Please be realistic with your suggestions and realize my time is limited. Adding something new is just the first step. It has to beta tested and then documentation has to be written. Recently I updated our Export. The programming time was probably 30 hours. The follow up time was double that and much of that was done by Rick and our other dedicated users thankfully. Then we had to produce PDF updates of the file specifications. Nothing is as layered as software development :eek:

thanks in advance !

[dehere]

on demand video of every PP line

Speaking of which, the following link leads to a nifty article in yesterday's Times about a growing library of past horse races.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/sports/07cheer.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=youtube%20horse%20racing&st=nyt

[jackfro]

How about putting the type of wagers available on each race in the header

[BillBam]

In MaxVel in the Modeler "Show Model for This Race" screen how about column averages for all the individual factors.

[km]

jack - that info is in the header of the Trainer Stats, click from HTR2 = [Trnr] pink button and look at the text just above the first trainer section. I'm afraid i'm out of room on the main screen header to put the entire wagering menu.

BTW: the currrent version of HTR2.EXE was an export update primarily, but there were some items that were new in it if you want to get a copy now =

= Chalk Evaluator Grades are in the header "A-B"

= DanG requested to see the Turf course condition that is often over written on the PPQ with the rail placement. Now on PPQ = if the course was "firm" the Rail feet-out position remains ( "R35"), but if the Turf course was "gd", "sf", "yl", etc, the course condtion with show and a "^" symbol indicates the rails were up.

= For our friends in Europe, i added more GMT time length to the late night races printout: 28:00 o clock ! Let me know if this works, i'll fix it in the Robot II also.

[Gambler]

No complaining. Just asking. Why was HX5 fields 11-20 changed?
I used this fields along with a formula to show me the pattern of how many days a horse would be off before he would run. With the new data i have to try and figure it in my head.
Thanks
ed

[Rick]

Just do some date arithmetic. It is easy. Something like

[tDATE]-[nPP1DATE]

[Gambler]

. I didnt know you could do that. Ill work on it.
Thanks again Rick
ed

[km]

Ed, I changed the "Ago" days, to the actual dates to enable searching from the PPs for past races.

In order to do that, you need Track, Date and Race Number (also added this time).

As Rick shows, the days ago is a simple procedure to recapture in Access.

Without the actual date, no searches can be done to find information from a horse's past races, such as the items found on the PPX screen.

[dehere]

I'd like to echo jackfro's suggestion - it would be nice if wagering menu was available in one of the exports. Not a big deal, just would be nice to have it.

[DanG]

No complaining. Just asking. Why was HX5 fields 11-20 changed?
I used this fields along with a formula to show me the pattern of how many days a horse would be off before he would run. With the new data i have to try and figure it in my head.
Thanks
ed
Ed. The “nAGO” field is still in HXV if you export that. Just join HXV with HX5 and grab it as you normally do. There are several other fields in HXV you might like as well.

[DanG]

Off the top of my frazzled (redesigning my DB) head… :confused:

(BTW: HTR is beyond what I had hoped for if another addition was never made, but just throwing things out there and maybe something sticks…or better yet Ken tweaks it into something much more powerful.)

• A Winners screen in HTR2: Only the wins a horse has had (lifetime if available) in PP form. It can be a good practice for keys to get an overview of the low % type who just ran into that perfect storm that they may never see again. It also can be a window into the connections mind because in this game everyone is trying to duplicate success. Come to think of it…maybe just a hot-key, but the lifetime (or 2 years) PP’s would be nice.

• MaxVel adding the remaining HTR consensus factors so the maniacs among us could attempt to “weight” the scores into a composite rating. (Using that brilliant factor score in MaxVel) Better yet; MaxVel does this process for us and when at least a 20 race model is reached it displays a ‘weighted consensus vs. the straight counterpart. The scores could also be superimposed above the factors on the main screen so players could emphasis the key points. As you have said Ken; weighting can be very tricky and in large groupings can actually be counterproductive…but it might reveal something we are not yet thinking about.

• While I’m thinking about it…the “LTrn and LJky in the HX4 export cuts off the name for some reason. I know the exports are complete, but just a minor thing for down the road.

• Some type of indicator of which two horses HTR is recognizing as the FAV1 & 2 for quick recognition.

• I know I ask for this every year, but the PED’s for all three surfaces would really help with the off the turf races and its just a good indicator of intent when an animal is only bred for one surface. (I realize it’s an HDW issue, but maybe a workaround occurred to Ron while he was playing ‘Tarzan on vacation :) )

• A “Pace” version of EPR. I know all the issues with projecting a pace #, but even when it’s off it can be an important factor when they run back confirming an unusual pace etc. This can also yield conditional color formatting (ala Access…see Henry’s reports) when the R_PAC and or SOR meet today’s par / or are well below.

• Sounds like a programming nightmare, but allowing the PL-5 pacelines to remain when switching to PL-0. They do for the race your on, but once you move to the next race they all blank. This is a selfish one…I admit. I rarely change dirt lines, but I print what PL-5 selects and then switch to PL-0 / and then put them all back in / and then go over to see if I want to add or remove anything. In general PL-5 is REMARKABLE (as the Little Rascals used to say), but occasionally some turf lines can be added. (Or at least I “think” it’s helping the process :o )


As usual…on June-21st when this thread closes a rush of ideas will come to all of us, but nothing “has” to be added to keep HTR the leader in racing software imo. What does need to happen is Ken needs to work sleep and playing the ponies into his life more often.

Thanks for everything and to everyone for this team effort in a game that often breeds self interest. :cool:

[del_dog]

"• A “Pace” version of EPR. I know all the issues with projecting a pace #, but even when it’s off it can be an important factor when they run back confirming an unusual pace etc. This can also yield conditional color formatting (ala Access…see Henry’s reports) when the R_PAC and or SOR meet today’s par / or are well below"


If I had one thing and only one thing I could get in Maxvel , this or something like it would be IT!.


Maybe we could replace the horse's names on the v4 screen and put the RACE PAC-PER for the selected line in it's place , if multiple lines are selected , use the highest RACE PAC from the selected lines for the display.

Also would be nice to have the pscan or pdif as a sorted field on the v4 screen as well as the ACL change from the LAST race.

It's funny, i guess, but I never use the modeler part , but that v4 screen is a killer read if you are following one or two tracks in detail.

:D

[Gambler]

Thanks for all the help. I see it in HXV
Thanks again
ed

[Bob77713]

The 'Proj' number from the Fig2 screen, added to the KM and TLC screens.

Thanks.

[Huguenot]

Number 1 --

An indicator in the KM or TLC screen that a horse is 2nd or 3rd off a layoff.

Number 2

Subbing the Pac and Per figs for the Cramer speed figure on the Selected PL chart in VEL

Number 3

Probably unrealistic but the ability to see "good" (Im not sure how Wet Fast races are treated) races in the XFIG screen under "F" OR identifying a "W" track as "gd". Similarly in the KM screen being able to denote a "gd" track instead of just "W" as there is a major difference between a good or even WF track than a sloppy or muddy one.

Number 4
In the full chalk evaluator. After the race, something to denote the odds that the A and B horses went off at (and the horses themselves)

thanks!

[jbshoulda]

TLC screen. = after Lay in top section is 2nd after layoff. ^ is 3rd after layoff.

[matthewsiv]

How about putting some spot play emblems in KM or TLC

For those of us that might miss them

[tomcat]

Sort the Hx4 file by the second letter....after trk and race.

[parnell]

Ken - First of all thank you for all of your hard work in continually improving the HTR program. It is very much appreciated. Love the program.

Here is my suggestion.

As someone who likes to try to find good win bet overlays off the KLine my suggestion would be to incorporate the actual money being bet into the win pool to smooth the KLine to make it more accurate.

The track betting information would be brought in by ATR PRO and actually change the KLine odds based on that continually updated information.

As accurate as the KLine is I believe that using the actual money bet into the win pool would make it even more accurate. For example a 4.5 KLine horse going off at 2.0 track odds will win more often than his KLine probabilities.


Thanks Ken

[Huguenot]

TLC screen. = after Lay in top section is 2nd after layoff. ^ is 3rd after layoff.

That's what I thought -- but how many days is considered a layoff? I thought it was 45 days.

Belmont 6/10, Race 2 the 8 horse was 3rd off a 55-day layoff with no marker.
Race 3, the 2 was 3rd off a 70-day layoff with no marker.

[Rick]

I thought it was 150 days.

Guess I will have to look for some of those squiglly marks and see what it is. :)

[Rick]

OOPS!!!!

The TLC Help file says it is 180 days.

I guess we were both wrong this time.

[DanG]

While were shooting ideas over the bow…

At some point down the line additions to the HXT [Trk Profile] export would really be helpful. I know many of us have spent mucho time merging chart / hx4 information with this file. It’s also very fast (only 1 line per race) to grab race information for constructing PP’s with Access.

• About dist
• Temp rail
• Run-ups
• Chutes
• Off the turf and run in Gupta’s back yard is also helpful. :D

[dehere]

For lack of a better place to put this as this is not strictly a suggestion for changes, I sure would love to see an "early" HTR file at some point. I think this idea was brought up about this time last summer with the idea that it might be ready in time for the Breeder's Cup. The last I heard was that Ron had some other things he was working on, but this is really #1 on my wish list. It wouldn't have to include much, heck entries and enough data to kick out an HX5 and HXV export would be fine with me.

[km]

thank you for all the suggestions, i'll get to work

I'm working with Ron on an Early Entries file, we'll have an announcement soon