Getting Started

[tbrown]

I am seriously considering either HTRor HSH and would appreciate some infor about HTR if anyone has the time. I have downloaded the demo and with it I got HTR, Track Pro, and Impact. Do I need to download anything else?
When I set up my account, do I have to start on the 1st of the month?
Is there a manula or other instructions that come with the account, either by mail or downloading?
I think I would like to at least give this a 30-60 day try out- I gather I can stop the subscription at any time?
Thanks to anyone for comments.
And thanks to George W. for the $300 rebate check I will be getting this summer that makes this al possible.
Tom

[George]

Tom,
Think most of HTR people are off on a three day weekend so was concerned you may not get a rapid response from the board. I believe your best course of action would be to call Ken Massa on the number listed on main web page. He would be best able to answer all your questions.

Think you can start anytime of month and sure you can cancel at the end of any month. There is no formal manual that I am aware of but plenty has been written and available.
The "HELP AND INFORMATION" button on the main program is probably best place to start reading. Old newsletters and articles by Ken Massa are available on the website and are an excellent source of info on what works best within HTR.

Last but not least, peruse both the new and old bulletin board for hints on what works.

Hope you give HTR a tryout. It is not a blackbox but does have some great tools. Takes a bit of time and thinking to sort out what works best for you.

BOL!

[tbrown]

Thanks for the reply.
Look forward to learnng about this program.
Tom

[Glen]

Hi Bulldog and welcome. George coverd it pretty well. I'll take a stab at your questions...

I have downloaded the demo and with it I got HTR,
Track Pro, and Impact. Do I need to download anything else?
PRAT and TLC. PRAT is a Sheet style past performace with 4 different viewing options. TLC is a custom program by Tomcat.

When I set up my account, do I have to start on the 1st of the month?
Don't think so. Send Ken Massa an email and he might be able to get you a trial period with free downlaods.

Is there a manula or other instructions that come with the account, either by mail or downloading?
Yes, the Help file and newsletters cover just about all of it.
I think I would like to at least give this a 30-60 day try out- I gather I can stop the subscription at any time?
Yeop.

[Carl]

Welcome Tom. Best of luck in your look see at HTR.

The Help file built into the main HTR Handicapper should answer a lot of questions as to how the numbers are derived.

I would start with the areas that look similiar to the way that you handicap now, and see what parts of that work better (or worst) for you here, and then go from there.

For me the main question about HTR is "What numbers work best with what numbers." And I think this is a question that we all have to answer for ourselves, and really depends upon handicapping style and minimum win percentage one finds acceptable.

Any specific questions please post back. Best of luck and have fun!

later,
Carl

[MikeDee]

If you can make it a great place to start with HTR is at the seminar next month in Vegas. You should find some info in the old newletters, on the board.

[hurrikane]

Dittos Tom,

The only thing I might add is you should seriously consider getting access. Much of the work and discussion up here is from Access db data crunching. Not a necessity but certainly a bonus.

The only thing I can add it the people on this board are some of the best I've met handicapping racing and helping out..especially the rookies..of which I probably still fit. You can ask any stupid question or pose any ridiculus idea you want and while I am sure they sit in front of thier computers and howl they will give you an answer without laughing in your face.

If you can make Vegas..I think it is going to be a fantastic time.

[Rick]

Tom,
You also need to download http://www.homebased2.com/km/dnl/htrmodel.exe if you have not already done so.

There is a slightly newer version of TLC out that some how I have not received a copy of yet.
(Hint Hint).

Ken is suppose to have a windows version of HTR coming out in Las Vegas next month.

If you get into Access, let us know what version and one of us can send you the table template and the custom version of HTR4MSA (it just adds a few fields but is what most of us use).

Ken is also suppose to be doing a new exporter to replace HTR4MSA that matches the one he did for Impact. He might be waiting for the Windows version for that also.

[Rick]

Thanks Glen for the copy of TLC.

[RayF]

Rick,

Any chance of getting the updated TLC report? It would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Ray

Rymndfrr@aol.com

[Rick]

Ray,
On the way.

[ERNIE]

I will e-mail this to Ken who has all the updated answers to your questions. Except for the long weekend he may see this before he reads other e-mail.........I would suggest that a better use of the 3 big ones would be to come to the Stardust in Las Vegas over Fathers day weekend and meet the whole bunch. You will find room res. information (cheap ) in the newsletter on this website or write Ken :kmsoft@earthlink.net for the details......or send me a note at the address below and I'll look it up.............good luck ,hope to meet you at the Stardust.

Fri night at the Stardust is for Members and invited guest, Consider yourself invited,as my guest (my = everyones guest.........we all like to talk about horseracing)ERNIE

[tomcat]

Hey Bulldog, welcome aboard! You don't happen
to be the Bulldog that used to play Finger Lakes?

[hurrikane]

Tom,
yesterday I noticed something in TLC. 2 PRM. in HTR the 2 horse was rated k1 pl1 and k2 in pl5.
In TLC the 2 horse was k1 in both pl1 and pl5. I don' t know if it matters to you but thought I'd just let you know there seems to be some sort of bug.

[tomcat]

We should ask Ken. My recollection is a K1 is always a K1, no matter what.

[hurrikane]

you are right Tom. I misspoke. It is the HTR rating that is different, not the k rating. in tlc the #2 is htr1 for both pl1 and pl5. In HTR the 2 horse was htr1 in pl1 and htr2 in pl5. It may not matter a lot..I just happened to notice it yesterday.

[George]

Hurrikane.....I should have mentioned yesterday that it is "normal" for the HTR# to vary with the paceline(s) selected. In the case we were looking at, the variation was larger than one usually sees between pl's.

K is a static number as is PER and I have never seen them vary by pl.

[hurrikane]

thanks George. yeah, I've seen them change regularly..and in that case it was a large difference. Just noticed in TLC there was no difference between pl.
You k1 play as I have played it was k1 htr1 pscan1 and ratio less than 1.46 in both pl1 and pl5. Is that correct.

[George]

HTR# = 1, Days < 41, Jky < 6, Pscn = 1, ACL < 3,
ACL# >= PAR, and ratio < 1.50 on pl1 & pl5.

The # 5 in today's contest qualifies on all but the ratio's. I note that she has never won at the distance. Will be tough to beat but think she dislikes going long and will probably place.

[tbrown]

Originally posted by tomcat
Hey Bulldog, welcome aboard! You don't happen
to be the Bulldog that used to play Finger Lakes?

Yes I am. old friend.
I have been torn between HTR and HSH for some time now.
I signed up when Ken yesterday. One of the deciding factors was that you
are affiliated with HTR and I have dealt with Ken in the past with MPH.
Gotta go with those your know.
I must say, I am overwhelmed with readouts today.
This is going to be fun. I only wish I could attend the seminar, bu work is pretty hectic right
now-but next one I'll be there.
Good talking to you again.
Bulldog (Tom)

[Glen]

Congratulations Bulldog, hopefully you will your HTR venture to be fruitful. Yes you are correct...There are a lot of printouts/screens and it is very easy to get them all mixed. There is something for every type of handicapper out there. If you don't mind me throwing out a couple of recommendations...

1) Start with what you know best...ie if you are a pace capper, start there and then work your way out. Trying to mix in all the stuff at one time could lead to premature ejection.

2) Read the old HTR board and some of the new stuff. You will find some good hints to what is effective...ie +10 Espeed Advantage in Impact is like hitting your Driver w/ a 40 MPH wind behind your back.

3) Ask lots of questions...No question is stupid...

4) Enjoy and take your time...It should all pay off in the end.

[Glen]

Oh Nelly, the "*E" horses are good too. Just caught the Lone *E at R8 @ WO for $64. This game is fun!

[MikeDee]

Hey - bulldog welcome aboard, and even if you are a friend of the Tomcat, we won't hold that against you!!:D

Work - now there is a real ugly word...carl got afflected with that a couple of weeks ago,but I thinke he got over it....Hope you do to.

[hurrikane]

Yeah Glen, you gotta love those lone Es. I start every day with the db kicking out he races with lone E/F horses.

I'd just like to say...I don't think this is the proper format for discussing work. Look what happened to Carl, he mentioned it a couple weeks ago and hasn't been seen since.

[Carl]

About W-O-R-K.

I have been observing that two of it's bad points are

1) It is somewhat addictive. Once I started I got P.O.'ed at the general incompetence level of those around me, and "decided to clean things up so that they worked." This was very very stupid. People around me just smiled and moved out of my way. This of course caused me to have more W-O-R-K.

2) Once you start people expect you to continue. As in "it's good to have you back working".

3) My wife took advantage of the situation to hightail it out of there and get another job. This of course left me with her job. Women are nuts........ I really do suspect they like W-O-R-K-ing.

4) So now I got two jobs, three kids and horseys in my "spare time."

And I have been making a lot of spare time hehehe.

And on the bright side, I did send ESB another hundred dollars a month or so back and have managed to work it up to $2100 playing win only. (Was up to $2400 on the weekend.) So the horseys are running fast, I am real sold on the marriage of HTR and Impact for db use.

"Some good some bad, who but a god could expect it all one way."

later,
Carl

[Glen]

Carl,

Was wondering where you were...Work is ok as long as you have internet access. Otherwise is sucks.

Glad you are having great success with impact and Ev. Sounds deadly. I'm real close to completing the link of tables. I "connected the dots" (click and drag tTRACK to tTRK and so on) but don't understand the part you posted about pgno:. When I copied and pasted the pgno: formula and ran the "make table" query, nothing really happend. Was it supposed to create another field in one of my tables? If so, it didn't do it. What next?

Thanks,
Glen

[hurrikane]

Glen, are trying to create a new table with both impc and msa as Carl did or just create a table to join the two.
If you are just trying to join the pgno field will be in the query. If you are making a new table then make sure the field is checked for the pgno field to appear in you're new table. If you have trouble let me know and I"ll shoot you a query.


sorry to hear of your plight Carl. But sounds like HTR and IMPC are making your life barable. See this is what happens when someone starts talking about work..next thing you know they have caught a bad case of it..and it may be very contagious.

The most successful businessman in 1923 died of a heartattack...the most successful golfer of 1923 is still alive and playing golf..

there is a message there somewhere.:D

[Glen]

Hurrikane, I was folling instructions from the below thread.

http://www.homebased2.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=89

Order I followed was clicking and dragging the 4 fields to create a 2nd table the "upper gray area" of design view. When I copied pgno: formula next to tHorse field it created another field. But when I viewed to two tables/Boxes in the "upper gray area" (all_msa and all_impc) the field pgno was not listed. I assume that is ok? Confused? I am...

Thanks,
Glen

[hurrikane]

you need to have that field in there Glen to join the two later. Be sure the box is checked in your query to view. If you just type in the formula that box isn't checked it doesn't show in your query.

Try this..it is a little cleaner.
Open new query. Show table all_msa, click on the * field at the top of the table in the grey area.
This adds all the fields to the query without clicking them all. in the field next to this entry enter the pgno:Left(thorse,2). Be sure the little 'visable' box is checked. Run the query and see if it created a pgno for you. use this Query instead of All Msa for your queries..this will give you the 4 ids you need to join. I'll try to email you one in a minute.

[MikeDee]

see what happens just metion w-o-r-k in a reply and it generates multiple responses which in itself is more w-o-r-k. Very nasty word best not to mention it!

Glen
But when I viewed to two tables/Boxes in the "upper gray area" (all_msa and all_impc) the field pgno was not listed.


make sure that in the grey area you have the impact table and the query with pgr. no calculated field, and that you are linking a table to a query. Don't put the MSAC table in the gray area as it does not have the calculated field prg no in it.