The Excel Tips and Tricks thread
 

Hi friends,

More than once we have proposed a thread to assist with Excel questions, and template and model issues. It's long past time to do it.
What can we help you with ?

I do mean "we" ... I know a few things ... others will know many other things.

Yes I always wondered if there were to be a thread about Excel. I am ok at doing it since I used in in high school for business and accounting.

My question is, can there be a "excel software" to put together. I am trying to do this by putting the "Input factors" and then making a formula to make a quick rating for all the horses. It involves 2 books I have (TCN and Guaranteed Money) which both work well to select contenders. Just wondering if it worked to put into excel.

Great question.
Can you give an example of what you're asking for in terms of what the inputs are and how would you like it to look as "output" ?

The factors without the systems above that I would like to include are in order:

Speed Ability (using speed figures)
Proven Class Figure (how strong in recent class levels)
Advantage on Pace(how well on pace in recent starts)
Speed Sum (average and top speed)
Class Rating (searching for best overall class)
Pace Ability (using pace ratings)

Creating a rating for each and then the "output" would be making 2 top selections, a 3 or 4 horse exacta suggestion and a possible selection for scratch. Thank you Dorianmode!

Have you done these on paper in a certain way, and have you started an Excel sheet ?
Are you trying to just add a series of numbers for each horse ?
Are they "weighted" in any way ?

I have started using a excel spreadsheet for TCN and Guaranteed Money. I input the factors and they are weighted by adding and subtracting points from the raw figure.

what are TCN and Guaranteed Money?

2 handicapping books that I use to do my selections with. Starting with Today’s Correct number and then when I have my 4 horses, I then use Guaranteed money to find the winner from those 4.

https://www.kelsosportshandicapping....eed-Money.html

https://www.kelsosportshandicapping....ber-(TCN).html

Customized filterable profile
 

Hey people,
I've been thinking of presenting this possible profile for a while.

As you may know, when you try to use the filter function in Excel with normal formulas, it doesn't total correctly. There is a way around that, and it's embedded here, (the formulas are adjusted). If you're interested, the formulas that work are a set called "subtotal", (and the list and examples are also attached here).

Some people might think it's easier to have the totals and formulas at the top of the sheet, instead of the bottom, so that's built in, as you can see. I programmed the sheet for 1000 races ... which can easily be expanded. If anyone wants this (totals at the bottom) ... it can be easily fixed back to that.

In the sheet, I added a few rows of more information.
(by the way ... the "data" is dummy data, not real races)

a simple average,

a "max" (maximum) function, which finds the largest value ever, in that series,

a standard deviation value which could (among other things) tell you how consistent (or how much the values in the series are "clumped together ... or "regular") .. technically, the amount of dispersion in a group of data, ... bottom line, the lower the STDEV the better,

and finally a really helpful function in Excel ... it's called the "small" function in which you get to choose the percent you want, and the function tells you how much of the data falls within that percent ... so here's how it actually works : on the profile sheet uploaded here, there is a red box. next to it is a blue box with a .85 in it. So what that is asking Excel to do, is find ... in the columns of data, HOW HIGH Excel has to go in the data, to get 85% of the data included. If you change the .85 to .50, in the blue box, ... you will see in the APV column the 4 changes to 2. What that means is, with the .85 in place, Excel has to go up to a "4" to get 85% of the data. With a .50 in the blue box, Excel has to only count the 1's and 2's ("go up to 2") to get 50 % of the data. It's a very helpful tool if you want to easily see what is working better than something else.

I put in filters on the sheet, which can all easily be removed. At the far right top of the sheet, in "sort and filter" click on the filter, and they will all come out.

Next, I think some have indicated they would like to see how one could "weight" a readout, based on how it did in the race profile records, and use it for a race today.
I'll work on a template for that next, (unless there is one here already ... which I haven't seen).

Best of luck racing today !

Good thing math is learning about Standard Deviation right now lol