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Old 10-30-2013, 09:42 AM   #11
Ted Craven
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What is 'Tote Xray' (Tx)

Quote:
What is the 'Tote Xray' (Tx) readout and what does it measure.
Tote Xray is a readout in the Tote group at the right side of each Analysis screen, and on the main Tote Screen for each race.

To activate the RDSS Tote Board, click the Supertote Button on the RDSS Desktop, read the message which appears, then login to the BrisNet Supertote web page presented within RDSS (you need a free Brisnet account via the link provided). Then close the Supertote web page. This establishes a connection between RDSS and Supertote to retrieve odds and pool information regularly. Now, Minutes to Post (MTP), live Win Odds and the Tote Xray will appear on the Analysis screens and various other screens.

In general, Tote Xray measures for each horse the general tilt of monies bet in the Win, Place and Show pools towards the Win pool, then the relative ranking of such tilt for all horses. The horse with the most money distributed towards the Win pool relative to the others is shown as rank #1 and 0.0% deviation from best (it is the best). The other horses are shown as a percentage deviation from this best.

Arguably, this measures relative confidence of certain members of the betting public (perhaps the 'insiders' or perhaps skilled or just 'large' bettors).

The 'xray' part of the idea is that when this ranking diverges from the Win Odds rank, there is extra information (e.g. hidden) revealed by the Tote Xray of relationships between the pools, and between the horses.

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For example, when the betting favourite (i.e. Win Odds rank #1) is also the Tote Xray 0.0% ranked #1 horse, there is no extra information. But when a higher odds horse is ranked Tx #1 - near to post time - there is potentially extra or hidden information. In the above image, the #1 Tx horse was ranked 4th in Win odds at 6-1 (the winner, #8).

One of the original uses of Tx was to Dutch the top 3 or 4 ranks in the Win or Exacta pools for a high percentage hit rate. Where the Tx #1 rank agrees with the Win Odds #1 rank (i.e. the betting favourite), this can point to the horse who should be 'hedged' to get a simple breakeven return or partial loss while preserving the balance of the betting unit for the remaining Tx ranks 2 - 3 or 4. (If your ADW does not enable Dutch calculations in Win or Exacta pools, please read --> this)

However, in RDSS the Tote Xray is intended to be used as a corollary to the primary handicapping factors, just like any other supplementary factor - an extra confidence booster or tie-breaker. While the Top 4 ranked Win odds horses win a very high percentage of all races, it is possible that the Top 4 Tote Xray rankings win an even higher percent.

Admittedly lots of money flows late into the pools, and the TX ranks and gaps do fluctuate - however my anecdotal evidence is that the Tx rankings and gaps change less than the Win Odds ranks do between 1 MTP and the Off. And certainly the absolute Top 4 Tx ranks do not change much, so it remains relatively useful in Dutching despite late money flows.

Here is a short previous discussion on Tote Xray: http://paceandcap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6257

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Old 04-23-2014, 11:34 AM   #12
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'Unicode Font Substitution' message when Installing first time

Question: When I install RDSS2 the first time on a computer, I get a weird message about 'Unicode Font Substitution' every time - then RDSS loads and runs OK. How do I get rid of it?



Answer: Close RDSS2, right-click on the RDSS2 Desktop icon and choose "Run as administrator" from the pop-up menu. A Windows setting re fonts gets made, and the message never recurs.


UPDATE: Please Note -- it is not recommended to ALWAYS run RDSS as Administrator - just the once to take care of the above message regarding Unicode fonts.



That is - on the Properties window (from the right-click popup menu), on the Compatibility Tab, DON'T check the 'Run this program as an Administrator' box unless you have to in order to get it to work in unexpected circumstances. Running always as Administrator can have the bizarre side-effect of preventing RDSS when minimized to the Taskbar to Restore/Maximize again. Instead you'll need to Close and restart.


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Old 05-23-2014, 11:26 AM   #13
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Workout Form Patterns

Q: What do Workout Form Patterns mean?

A: Workout Form Patterns Documentation (also see discussion --> HERE)


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FPD - Furlongs Per Day. When there are 2 or more workouts since the last race, and within the past 30 days: count the furlongs worked including the distance of today's race and divide by days since the last race. 1 furlong per day = FPD, less is -FPD, more is +FPD. We're trying to get a coarse idea of how much public work the horse has been doing to return to racing. You can only put so much value in this info - this does not tell us how much private work the horse has done, the frequency, the speed, the pressure during (e.g. working in company, working inside/outside other horses, etc), the distance, etc. Consult other Workout Patterns for some of these.

5f / 6f - 5 or 6 Furlong Workout. The last workout within 9 days of today's race was either 5 or 6 furlongs, an important endurance distance associated with at least a certain degree of fitness, especially if combined with a good Speed Rating and coming at the end of an evenly spaced series of works (see HWL group). If the last work was within 6 days = +5f or +6f. Consider referring to William Scott's excellent book 'How Will Your Horse Run Today', some of which is now rather outdated, but including his treatise on the 5f workout, beginning on Page 42.

SRW - a Short Recent Work between 2f - 4f within 3 to 5 days of today's race

SW - Super Workout. Depending on distance and recency, a designation for the LAST workout within the past 14 days, run faster than a certain time for each distance.

GW - Gate Workout. Within the past 8 days, a workout from the Gate. Extra credit for more recent gate workouts (* ! + modifiers)

HWL1 - Heavy Workload 1. 3 or more workouts within the last 21 days. +HWL1 for 4 works in 20 days or 3 works in 16 days. -HWL1 for 3 works in 21 days

SAR - Heavy Workload 2. Between 4 and 7 workouts since the last race at *regularly* spaced intervals. Extra credit for more workouts.

SCW - Special Condition Workouts.
SCW1 - Comparing workout immediately prior to the last race within 60 days to workout immediately following that last race - the latter workout is faster and may indicate that the last race did not adversely affect the horse.

SCW2 - Comparing workouts immediately preceding and following the last 2 races with an out of the money finish (worse than 3rd), the later workout should be faster, perhaps indicating that the previous 2 races also did not adversely affect the horse's condition and it may be ready to offer at least as good an effort today.

SCW3 - the horse had 1 or more 6f or longer works since the last race (within 21 days) and finished in the money (3rd or better) in its last race.
SWG - Special Work Group. Denotes that 2 or more significant patterns were observed, consisting of: FPD, 5f or 6f workout, SRW, HWL1, SAR.

PIW - Progressively Improving Workouts. Comparing the past 3 workouts within 75 days (preferably shorter), each next workout should be run at increasing average speed.

TCW - Turf Course Work. For a horse's first Turf race, its last workout is on Turf.


Adjunct to Workout Patterns themselves are the Workout Rank and the Workout Speed Rating.

WR - Work Rank. A computation based on the average percentile of a horse's workout rank for all workouts in a day (when at least 5 workouts recorded that day), plus furlongs worked and raced - over the past 30 days. A measure of its fitness.

SR - Speed Rating. A rating of workout time, based on a parallel time chart equating times for different workout distances. Speed Ratings of 92+ may indicate the horse is extremely fit and sharp, especially if the workout distance is 5f or longer.

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Old 06-06-2014, 02:12 PM   #14
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PPs Odds - Bold Markup

Q: Whats the difference between the bold odds and the bold underline odds?

A: Bold odds in Past Performances indicate odds of 6-1 or less (likely chance the horse was in the top group, say odds rank # 1-4, which wins ~ 80+ % of the time). Bold & underline odds indicate the horse was the betting favourite.

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Old 05-14-2015, 12:50 PM   #15
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Error Message during Convert

Q: After downloading a race card, during the Convert process I get this error message:
Problem during Convert. Could not extract contents of downloaded RDSS PP file [a TrackMaster RDSS ZIP data file - for example: pim20150515.zip]

C:\Rdss2\Temp\RACEDR.DBF did not exist. Please try it again.
A: Almost ALWAYS, this is NOT actually a problem with Converting the file to the RDSS database. Instead, it is usually a problem with your TrackMaster account, such as your credit card expiry date, or your chosen RDSS Data Plan being INACTIVE for some reason. (For example, on the RDSS Registration Tab, if you set RDSS to download against your RDSS PP Only data plan but that plan is INACTIVE on your TrackMaster account page, but your RDSS Bundle Plan (Charts+PPs) is ACTIVE, only that's not the one you are using ... etc).

To confirm this, login to your TrackMaster Account (use the link on the RDSS Registration Tab, or here: https://www.trackmaster.com/cgi-bin/my_acct_entry.cgi). Check under your Downloaded files. If the problem is with your account settings, the race card file you thought you downloaded will NOT show up on your Download List. Simply go to your Trackmaster Contact/Billing Info section and update your Credit Card info (e.g. new Expiry Date), or the My Products Tab and set the required RDSS Data Plan to ACTIVE.

What happens is: the file RDSS received from TrackMaster was an ERROR MESSAGE web page, not a race card file, informing you (if you could only see it) - that there was a problem with your account settings. After the recent TrackMaster website upgrade, the current version of RDSS does not interpret correctly ALL these kinds of account-related error messages. Instead, unfortunately, it gives the above unhelpful message about not being able to treat the file as a normal race card file (because it isn't).

This is fixed in the coming RDSS 2.1 upgrade. Until then, please first check your TrackMaster account, or call TrackMaster and ask them to help you ( 800 321-3343
).

Of course, if your TrackMaster account settings are NOT the problem (your credit card is fine, your RDSS Registration page settings about which data plan to use matches an ACTIVE RDSS data plan, and the card file you thought you just downloaded shows as actually having been downloaded on your TrackMaster Download Listing) - then, simply re-download and re-convert the file. Perhaps it got scrambled during the download process (but this is almost never the problem). When you do this - ALWAYS uncheck the 'Don't Duplicate' Task check-box, forcing RDSS to actually do again (i.e. DUPLICATE) a previous unsuccessful download and convert.

If you still need help, just email me (support@SartinMethodology.com), no worries!
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Old 05-14-2015, 02:11 PM   #16
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TrackMaster Race Class (RC)

Q: What is the Trackmaster RC (Race Dlass )? Can we used this with race RC ranking of the race with RC class for the horse?
How reliable is this indicator?


A: The RC number - Race Class - is supplied by TrackMaster, and is integrally related to their Speed Rating, Pace Rating and by extension, their Daily Track Variant and Inter Track Variant. In other words - every final time related number they create.

Dave Siegel, president of TrackMaster explained Race Class (RC) to me once, but it has faded enough that I should let him explain it himself - which he does in the 37 minute video below.

Essentially - RC is the product of the composite of the most recent final time Speed Ratings of all the horses in the race. Sometimes the RC number for the race (e.g. in the Result Charts or in subsequent Past Performances) will change when horses are scratched - which makes sense for a number derived solely from the final times of the entrants - and not the man-made class levels such as Claiming, Allowance, etc (which might more properly be termed Race Conditions, not Race Class).

When you think about this, it's not surprising that RC numbers derived solely from final times do not strictly match Race Condition levels: final times are at the mercy of so many things including weather, the particular track involved - but probably most of all - the matchup of horses running in any given race (i.e. slow pace, fast close; multiple early runners and a torrid pace - slow close; paceless races etc, etc).

Like any given set of Speed Ratings (e.g. TrackMaster's, BRIS', RDSS' internal Adjusted SRs) - they may differ from each other but they will all be coherent within themselves because each of them uses a consistent (if different) concept and formula. So TrackMaster's Race Class number may not co-relate with Race Conditions, but it measures on a consistent basis at least the recent Final Times of the horses involved in each race.

After all - no one is surprised that any given Claiming $20,000 race at the same track, even on the same day, may run in remarkably different final times.

FWIW, I make almost no use of RC myself, and really have no advice about how best to employ it.

Anyway, here's Dave Siegel. It' fascinating if you can bear with it ...




Here is a further discussion on TrackMaster's Race Class (RC) number: http://paceandcap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9415

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Old 05-30-2015, 11:59 AM   #17
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'Problem During Convert' error message

The following Data Centre Error Message during Convert is in the RDSS FAQ section (HERE) though some people do not think to look there for help when it occurs. Since about 75% of the tech support I do recently relates to this one problem, I am repeating it here for convenience, with an explanation following.

This means a problem with your TrackMaster account, not with the card file mentioned or with the Convert process. (Please read further, below).

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Since TrackMaster's website upgrade a few months ago, the error messages TrackMaster reports when something goes wrong while downloading data files (all TrackMaster products, not just RDSS) are now being incorrectly interpreted by the current RDSS version (which is about 2 years old). Thus, that version of RDSS cannot now give a correct message to help you solve the problem - instead it basically throws its hands up and says 'there's some kind of problem with a specific file, but I don't know what it is'. That's because RDSS couldn't figure out that the file is NOT a data file but rather an HTML error message file with useful info about the problem.

Here are the types of problems it could be - all solvable by the user:
1. Your TrackMaster User Name is incorrect (as specified in the RDSS Registration Tab)
2. Your TrackMaster Password is incorrect (ditto above)
3. You don't have ANY RDSS data plan (new users)
4. The type of RDSS data plan you selected in the Registration Tab (PP Only or Bundle) does not exist on your TrackMaster account.
5. The selected RDSS plan DOES exist but is set to INACTIVE
6. Your credit card has expired or changed, or was declined (often happens after the end of the month, or after resuming downloads after a break)
7. Some other (highly unusual) unavailability of the requested card file
The way to solve ANY and ALL of these problems - if you ever get the error message shown above, it to login to your TrackMaster account, using the friendly link on the RDSS Registration Tab (or HERE) and correct anything from points 3 - 6 above. Obviously, if your TrackMaster User Name/Password combo is incorrect you can't login to your account (and neither can RDSS). After you fix that (or call TrackMaster for help 1 800 321-3343), you're likely back in business.

If none of points 1 - 6 is the problem (i.e. maybe point #7), wait a few moments then try again, or call TrackMaster for assistance. Or email or PM me. BUT - please read the next paragraph.

Please Note: to re-download a data file after correcting any of the above issues, YOU MUST uncheck the Don't Duplicate box in the Task section which otherwise causes RDSS to skip over Tasks it thinks it has already done before. You must force RDSS to re-download a correct race card ZIP file (rather than a misnamed HTML error message). When you are done, remember to re-check it again (the normal state).

Also: if you have changed (or corrected a mistaken) Password - be sure to RE-START RDSS so that the changed/new Password takes effect throughout the software before you try to Download again.

(FWIW, if anyone wants to read the error file (mislabeled as a ZIP file for a specific card), just navigate to the card file Archive Folder (\Rdss2\Data\PP\2015\XXX [track code]) and find the file with the date in question. Change the file extension from ZIP to HTML. Then open it as a web page and read it to get the error message RDSS couldn't interpret.)

I am working to fix RDSS' Data Centre error processing routines and TrackMaster is helping me make sure I've covered all possible error circumstances. This will be included in the next RDSS 2.1 release in a few months. Until then, the above points will help you figure it out.

If it's all too much, you are welcomed to PM or email me and I will help you.

Thanks for reading!

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Old 06-15-2015, 10:09 AM   #18
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'Problem During Convert' error message (#2)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Craven View Post
Please Note: to re-download a data file after correcting any of the above issues, YOU MUST uncheck the Don't Duplicate box in the Task section which otherwise causes RDSS to skip over Tasks it thinks it has already done before. You must force RDSS to re-download a correct race card ZIP file (rather than a misnamed HTML error message). When you are done, remember to re-check it again (the normal state).
Normally I don't like to harp on a point too much, but ... after updating your TrackMaster account if you run into the above problem, you really do need to read the above advice - otherwise anything you or TrackMaster do to correct it will be useless for the race card you are interested in.

To re-download the same card which failed with the error message mentioned at the top of post #1 above - you must un-check the 'Don't Duplicate' box to force RDSS to download that same card again. Otherwise it will be skipped (with a clear message) - and you won't be any further ahead.

(TrackMaster personnel know about this problem and how to help with your account, but may not remember to remind you how to re-download the same card in the RDSS Data Centre.)

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Old 11-09-2015, 09:56 AM   #19
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RDSS (does NOT run) on iPad or, Android devices

Q: Does RDSS run on an iPad, or Android tablet or phone, or Mac computer?

A: No. RDSS runs on Windows devices. (However, you can install Windows on a Mac using Parallels or other virtual OS tools, so then you can run RDSS on your Mac - many do). RDSS runs on Windows 10. Maybe that means you can run RDSS on a Windows Phone running Win10 (but why ...). If anyone does that, please do step up and claim your prize!

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Old 02-04-2016, 05:38 AM   #20
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No Data Showing in Analysis Panel Tabs

Q: First let me say that i really enjoy rdss2. I have encountered a problem. My analysis tab has stopped working. No data is showing. Can you give me some advice to correct?

Q: Previously, after I assembled a race for handicapping, selected pacelines would automatically show up in the Analysis Panel. Now, the Analysis screens are just empty

Q: I just installed RDSS for the first time (or on a new computer for the first time). I thought the software picked pacelines for me. Why are the Analysis Panel screens empty?

A: RDSS selects pacelines automatically (or not) depending on the choices you make in the Paceline Selection Strategy (PSS) dialog window, shown below. When you first install RDSS, the default PSS is '00 Manual (You Select!)'. With this setting, RDSS does not select any pacelines for you and when you open a race, the Analysis Screens will be empty. With this Manual setting, YOU select pacelines yourself by clicking on a line or lines in the horses' PP screens.

If you choose any other PSS (for example, the Default of 'Best Perceptor Last 3 Comparable') and you check the box 'Select Pacelines During Race Assembly' then when you open a race, RDSS will automatically also select pacelines for you according to that strategy (or any other you might choose), and your Analysis Panel screens will have data in them (selected pacelines).

You can have RDSS pick pacelines for you, or not - according to these settings.

(Note: in future versions, the Default PSS will always be the initial one, so out of the box, pacelines will be selected for you, but you can always reset that to Manual if you like - just like you can switch selections now.)


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