December 2001 Newsletter and HTR.exe

[Rick]

The December 2001 Newsletter is now posted in the members' area.

A new HTR.exe is in the download area. It adds print to file. Also changes the way it looks at Longshots/Alerts.

November 2001 Newsletter is now posted on this website.

[MikeDee]

Ken, really liked the article on "good efforts" very interestng stuff. Really looking forward to the December goodies and first crack at the new export. Need all possible tools for the Jan contest:)

[MtKen]

To second MikeD, really interesting 'good effort' stuff. Now to find that dog-eared Quiren book..

[Glen]

http://www.alibris.com/search/detail.cfm?chunk=25&qtit=Winning%20at%20the%20Races&S=R&bid=8037015591&page=1&matches=53&qsort=

[Glen]

Yeah, just read the newsletter. Sounds like a real solid addtioin to our early speed screen. Along similiar lines, I would like to see us come up with something on the opposite extreme-->A special Turf screen since the strong factors we use in dirt racing has little to do with the outcome of turf races. I would be very willing to query away to find significant turf factors that might lead us to perhaps a "seperate" turf composite like screen that might lead us to more winners.

[Ken Massa]

Thanks for the favorable comments on the newsletter Mike and Glen, and to about 20 others that emailed their quality remarks and suggestions as well.

Honestly - this month's edition has received more feedback from readers than any newsletter in a long time. Glad the concept of finding competitive runners vs. trying to pick the winner hit home.

Many asked for turf race help along these lines (predict 'good effort'), but Quirin speed points are not the answer on grass. I'll start researching. Happy to take suggestions.

Fresh meat / new HTR2001 export
--------------------------------------------
The "good effort" flag and the Quirin point enhancements will appear in the new export coming up on Monday for beta test. I'm putting together a small export with new data items because I want everyone to offer feedback on the utility itself. Sort of a beta-test for the new features. But the research will be real and valuable. The data formatting will be (must be) slightly different from DOS versions, but will remain consistent throughout HTR2001 exports in the future.

My goal is to break new ground with early speed analysis in particular. Should make for some great material at next June seminar.

[tomcat]

Ken, once again you have come up with another great newsletter. I have dropped all other subscriptions except Bloodhorse. I don't think any other is needed.
Will you have time to upgrade TLC.exe so that it reflects the changes to "effort"?

[hdcper]

Ken,

I would like to ditto what everyone else has said. Great newsletter likes always.

Thanks for sharing,

Hdcper

[Ken Massa]

Appreciate the nice comments on the newsletter everyone.

TomCat: yes, absolutely we will add the "good effort" to the TLC. In fact, the TLC for Windows is our featured item for the seminar 2002 in Vegas. I will pick your brain long before then for the update and we'll engineer the new version. This one will be called "TLC-X" (for eXtremely strong output).

[tomcat]

I hope you have a magnifying glass for all that pickin'.
All the pickin' we do here is Bluegrass!

[Ken Massa]

Coach, are you telling us that your brain is made of bluegrass? No wonder you get so many winners. When they do your MRI they see a football in there too.

Who do you like for horse of the year?
And don't say "Mr Ed" again.

[tomcat]

Surely Tiznow, but I know a lot of breeders will look elsewhere.

[tbrown]

Ken,
Great newsletter this month. I was particularly interested in the method of adding up the
ranks of F1 and F2 and requiring that the total be less than the number of horses.
I always do something along those lines - add F1 and F2 ranks anf then add F2 and F3 ranks and look for which side shows an imbalance, such as, on the early side, the totals are 6,7,7,8,7,9, and on the late side they are 7,3,8,6,4,9 - I look closely at the 3 and 4 late horse and knid of predict the race bias will be late pace.
I tried your linking the totals to the number of starters and at Penn, it looked like the total of F1 and F2 was the best elimination factor I have ever seen there. To be a contender a horse had to have a total of no more than 1 more than number of starters, like if there were 8 horse, the total had to be 9 or less.
Unfortunatleyl, I discovered a new function available in Windows98 "cut and lose" so my database is now floating somewhere out there in cyberspace (How do you spell backups?)
Oh well, time off for the holidays coming up, so I can build a new one.
But the new version of 2001 is awesome-two upgrades in thee days - you are spoiling us.