View Single Post
Old 05-13-2008, 09:45 PM   #1
Ted Craven
Grade 1
 
Ted Craven's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Posts: 8,853
Doc Sartin Recommends RDSS

RDSS is the Modern Sartin Methodology!

by Dr. Howard Sartin (April 30, 2008)

When I was struck ill in 2002, a number of advertisements appeared in the Racing Form and on the Internet claiming to be “just like, the same as or even better” versions of the Sartin Methodology. None were and none could effectively utilize the highly advanced software engineering applied to the altered speed rating and other vital adjustments made by TrackMaster, the only Past Performance data provider I felt worthy of consideration.

Bill Varone’s website, Pace and Cap, maintained the integrity of the Methodology by posting information and help. This brought me into contact with Ted Craven, a brilliant Windows computer programmer who spent a great deal of time with TrackMaster’s people to reconcile my methodology circa 2001 with their subsequent advances. Craven did not stop there. He obtained the formulae for every readout and diligently studied the concept behind each readout category. He quantified each one into a symphony called RDSS (Racing Decision Support System). Users wrote Ted and to me that it combined the best of Phase 1, Phase 3, Ultrascan, Energy and Validator.

I am particularly pleased that the Bottom Line/Betting Odds Line, introduced in my later software and proven effective in real-world studies by the likes of Mark Cramer and others, retains a central role in RDSS. This readout alone produces double digit winners as testified by dozens of users. Because I insisted that all tests of RDSS produce results of wins that paid $9.00 or more, I received many packets of readouts from handicappers, ranging in ability and geography, that paid as high as $51.00 and ranked in the top 2.

Ted Craven, a winning handicapper himself, has produced a computer program that includes the best of my output together with his own interpretations, plus a quantified representation of “The Matchup” as derived from the genius of the late Jim “The Hat” Bradshaw. To enable “pattern recognition”, the program has readouts and vital graphics that allow the user to look at several lines for a horse and then hide all but the line that most represents the contenders most competitive line in today’s match up.

For 24 years, Jim was my best friend, Methodology teacher, and, during the most productive times, my computer programmer. I would spend a month each year in Oklahoma and would produce advances in computer handicapping ahead of the capacity of imitators to catch up. Bradshaw handicapped so many thousands of races with our programs that his unique and insightful brain was able to successfully predict winners without a computer. Enter: the “Matchup”.

Jim’s focus was on pattern recognition, velocity relative to deceleration and on how a horse ran fast, rather than how fast a horse could run. Jim also specialized in getting the Win horse. The Hat’s ‘voodoo’ mind could not itself be computerized, but Ted has improved on my old V/DC readout to its ultimate potential. V/DC is Velocity tempered by Deceleration, viewed by users as the key to handicapping Valhalla, bringing all the in-the-money horses into much sharper focus.

RDSS has been described by its users as a “can’t lose” program and this echos my own evaluation. I’ve watched the program grow to maturity for over a year and it is, without doubt, the very best tool ever provided for computer handicapping. The greatest obstacles to winning are the selection of worthy contenders, pacelines and mutuel payouts. These obstacles can be readily overcome by handicapping veterans and novices alike through the software’s built-in instructions, video tutorials, website forum, live online seminars and telephone support, backed by TrackMaster’s Past Performance and Chart data, and always by one’s own diligent effort.

The torch has been passed. RDSS is making it burn more brightly than ever. In any economic future it will produce higher win percentages and mutuels than ever before. Were I not bed ridden, I would be standing next in line to get this program. Congratulations Ted on a truly magnificent piece of work – the future of the Sartin Methodology!

Name:  sartin2.gif
Views: 3979
Size:  5.3 KB
__________________

R
DSS -
Racing Decision Support System™
Ted Craven is offline   Reply With Quote