Spot Play Process?

[Cliff]

Can some of you more experienced users please give me some ideas on how you get the data to flow to extract your spot plays, EV/FR 1's, etc?

In other words, do you download to a different folder, use a different file to export to access, etc., etc.?

Thanks much,
Cliff

[fred4now]

Not sure I really understand your question Cliff. Are you already importing data into access?

[Cliff]

F4Now,

Yes,
Am already importing to Access WITH results.....need to get a system down to import prior to results to query for spot plays, etc. Don't want to add data to my existing tables that doesn't have results but not sure how to circumvent the export/import default files i.e. "ALL_MSAC".
Hmmmm, seems to me one could constantly delete/rename the "ALL_MSAC" file, but wouldn't you end up with a bunch of duplicate data in the individual track files? Or maybe download the original data to a file NOT named HTR and work with pre-result files out of it?

Hope this helps explain my question(s).

Cliff

[fred4now]

I'm sure everybody does this different, but here goes. When I download the racefiles I use the default c:\htr folder. I have a shortcut to this folder on my desktop. I then export to access for any daiy plays etc. If I want to do a different day I just right click on shortcut and choose find or search. I search for .txt which brings up your export files and I delete them and search for 08 for august and delete. Repeat process for another day. Once a week I download all the files for the week including results and charts and export and then append to my master table. Then search as above and delete all of them. If this isn't clear keep asking and Mike will be glad to help. (G) Just kidding, but do ask.

[Carl]

I am assuming you're happy with how you do your "with results" stuff Cliff.

So, will only post to how I look for my 16 spot plays for tomorrow. It takes maybe 10 minutes in total.
1) Download/export tomorrow's files into All_Masc.
2) import them into a db I call "tomorrow's plays".
3) Run one large query with all 16 plays in it. I also run individual queries and mark which play selected which horse.
4) Run a query off of this query, with only horse and program number. Print this to play off of.
5) Open All_Masc, select all, delete. This leaves it ready for the next day's information.
6) Select all in my tomorrow's play's db, delete. This leaves it ready for next day's information.

I open, select all, delete All_Masc folder a lot. And once a week, I fill it up with all races with all results and use that db for research.

later,
Carl

[MikeDee]

Cliff,

Here is what I do. My db has 2 main tables one I call race processing and another I call the master table.

Everyday I bring in the days HTR files (the b and s files) from HDW. I keep them in sub directories under htr by day of the week (mon, tue, etc.). Next I copy (important copy NOT move) the HTR files for day from the day of the week directory into the htr directory and run htr msac and the impact export programs and import into access. In Access I take the msac import and the impact import join them and append the data into my empty race processing table with an append query. I now have a single table with htr and impact data ready for spot plays.

Race processing is like a work bench. I take new data for todays races each day and put it on the work bench. Then I run my race day queries on it. I may delete the content of the RP table many times during the day and bring in the daily data again as I get scratch information. I scratch the runners in HTR, so the rankings will be correct. Any time you do this you MUST go into the htr directory and delete the msac and impc all files before lyou run the export prorams. If you don't you will have duplicates in your all files(including the runers you thought you scratched). If you have spot plays based on the rankings you will want to do this as well.

At the end of the day I just delete the contents of the RP table and I go into the htr directroy and delete all of the race files there and I am ready for the next day.

As the days go by during the week I go to HDW and get results and charts and put them in the days of the week sub directories with the b and s files.

Every monday I take all of the htr files(b,s,q,c) for the past week Mon thru Sun and MOVE (not copy) them into the HTR directory. I run the weeks files verify that I have all of the results and charts added or go get them. Now I bring this into my db, but this time I append the data to my master table. Sometimes I put the weeks data into my RP table as well run my spot plays ans see how they did for the week. Once done you can delete all of the race files in HTR. (keep in mind that your HTR data directory will have all of the unzipped files in it that have been processed in HTR). It is your data file backup.

Once I have updated my access db for the week I run the "compact data base command" and then I make a backup of my enitre db. A while back I had windows freeze on me in the middle of doing something in my db. My db got zapped and Access would not recognize it. I was able to restore it from my backup!

Whenever I want to do analysis on past data I make a append query and take the data I want from my master table and put in the RP table. The append query does not move data it just copies data so the master table is intact. If I end up with a new spot play based on my analysis it is always built on the RP table. This way it is there when I bring in my daily race files. When I am doine fooling around I just delete the contents of RP. It's like taking everything on your work bench and throwing it in the trash.


RULE NO 1
I never work directly on any data in the master table. I have learned this lesson more then once and it is not fun. You don't want to delete or screw up someting that would require you to rebuild your master table. It took me a couple master table rebuilding sessions to come up with the master table/Race Processing table process.

[hurrikane]

Mike...excellent note on the master table. I've had that pleasure myself. Only think I would add here is ..don't procrastinate on keeping the data current. If you miss some data without realizing it and a month goes by...your done..you can't get the data again..unless of course some friendly person up here helps you out.

[Cliff]

OK....Thanks guys,

With your help and a little trial and error, I now have a "system" in place. Still working on developing those profitable (long-term) spot plays!

Couple of more questions that MikeDee's post brought up.

1) Do you, or anyone else for that matter, import the trainer data (from the "S" files) into Access for analyzation and/or spot plays, or is that possible at this time?

2) Does anyone out there have a blank DB with the impact data field headings in place for ease of importing that they would be willing to share? Can you give me a brief rundown on how to link the impact data with the MSAC data for testing for spot plays and ultimately querying for them on a daily basis? If it's too verbose, I will figure it out later.

Thanks again for all your help!
Cliff

[MikeDee]

1. If have a module that imports the trainer file. It is not fully automatic I will share it with you but I would suggest that you get everything else the way you want it and then do the trainer stuff. I haven'really found it to be that useful but would certainly be interested in anything yu might find with it.

I can send you a blank db for impact and joining instructioins for impact what is your email address

[Cliff]

Thanks Mike,

Was curious about the trainer stuff.....I have some ideas that I might research some where down the line (way down on the priority list). Do you just DL them for the %'s, etc?

email is cliffhartnitt@home.com

Thanks Much!