What's new?

[Bill V.]

In reply to Ted's post

Yes its great that RDSS does so much for you .

Just use what its telling you. LOOK at the colors of the plus lines.
Look at the under lines. See Patterns Just because you don't have to mark
the form with notations, you should still pay attention to when a horse runs well and when it fails.

Read the signs
Good Skill
Bill

[Segwin]

Originally Posted by Ted Craven

Pook,

There's a reason RDSS does not employ + or 0 or (+) symbols for every past race. Instead, it uses other markups to tell you more information - an extra symbol would be redundant.

+ races where the horse finished in the money (or indeed ran 1st, 2nd 3rd at any call point) are coloured RED, GREEN , YELLOW respectively. If you squint to the point you can't even read the numbers (or like me, simply take off your glasses), you can still tell if any given line is a + line (look for colour).

(+) races where the horse made a move against the pace at some point then faded to 4th or worse - look at the colour of any call point position. If you see some colour in the first 2 calls, the horse was in some kind of position relative to the leader (or was the leader). Look also for the underline markups. BLUE underline shows a gain of 3 or more positions or an extension of the lead against the 2nd place horse. RED underline show a gain of 1 or more lengths on the leader. A THICK RED underline shows a length gain 3+ wide around the turn. So - even if a horse did not finish in the money, it may have performed well during a portion of the race, hence the (+) label - it may have faced too fast a pace and could not sustain its moves against that pace, it may have encountered trouble early or late, it may be returning from a layoff and working into form, it may be in a wrong distance or surface or off track condition but may still be making an effort worth noting. The variety of effort is shown by the various markups above, not simply: (+).

0 races are everything else, i.e. no colour, no moves or no moves which significantly improve position.

So - instead of adding 3 more symbols + 0 (+) instead RDSS goes into more details about the quality of performance in each race. The end result is the same thing (IMO) - you can see movements of a horse through its form cycle, against which 1st and 2nd call pace can it either set the pace or close, and what pace is too fast.

Other markups indicating quality of past performance:

- Early horses who fought for the lead at any call (E or EP types) within 1/2 length have their beaten length symbols underlined and italicized. These are Fighters (we have a Running Style designation F to bring this more to your eye). These horses will usually run as fast as they can to get the lead and often wear themselves out if they can't get the lead, or can't shake the challenger.

- horse was held at odds of 6-1 or better: past performance odds are bold

- distance or surface of past races compared to today: indicated by colourings on those columns (i.e. is a given race with good or partly-good performance similar to today's surface/distance, or forgiveable)

- final time Adjusted Speed Ratings: staggered to show relative speed, and differential from best; coloured to show similarity of surface.

- PoH and PoR Total Energy - compared to how the horse performed in a given race - how fast was the pace of that race? If the pace was too fast (compared to other races where it has fared better) - this tells you more about WHY a horse did not do well in a race. Will today's race be that fast?

Just some tools to help you assess a horses current Condition, aside from the energy measurements from calculating Velocity, energy disbursement and deceleration.

Ted

Good reply Ted. Should be cut and placed in an FAQ (or somewhere where is doesn't get lost).

[DocSartinLearner]

Hi folks,
We are handicapping in the 21st century, though, not just handicapping and winning. We are searching for playable races, play or pass. We want also to find a contender/contenders that have some value to bet on.
We want to see a past performance paceline indicating the horse ran on a synthetic surface with the use of symbol.

Thanks.
DSL

[mowens33]

I don't chime in a lot, but I am paying attention!
Great stuff!!
thanks, Mike

[dogkatcher]

I've been playing with my toy and haven't used all the parts
it seems.

Thanks, Ted, Bill, and contributors.

RDSS the only way to fly.

Good Luck, All

[mowens33]

Golden Gate
Race 5
$7 EX Box 2-3-4

Total $ 42

[mowens33]

wrong thread