Has Anybody Here Heard Of....

[infrontby1]

The gentleman who won last weekends' BC Challenge mentioned in a Q&A article on DRF.COM that he uses a software program known as Jim Clark’s In-Form Sheets.

Has anybody ever heard of this?

Can't seem to find any additional information about this on google

[shouldacoulda]

After reading the paragraph, it looks like the sheets are separate from the software which he did not name. I can't say I blame him either.
What is your approach to handicapping?

Coming from a harness background, the first thing I like to look at is pace analysis. Then I also look at a couple of other things. There’s a software program I’ll look at and I always use Jim Clark’s In-Form Sheets, which often give me a different perspective than my other handicapping

[kingfin66]

Are you referring to Peter Behr? I sat at the same table with him at the Orleans Fall Classic in 2011. At that tournament he did not have a computer with him and was using only DRF print outs. A lot can change in 2 years. Very nice guy BTW.

[infrontby1]

So then who is Jim Clark?

[ManU918]

After reading the paragraph, it looks like the sheets are separate from the software which he did not name. I can't say I blame him either.

Can you post the link to the Q&A? Thanks

[shouldacoulda]

Can you post the link to the Q&A? Thanks
http://www.drf.com/blogs/qa-breeders-cup-betting-challenge-winner-nhc-seats-grabs

[ManU918]

http://www.drf.com/blogs/qa-breeders-cup-betting-challenge-winner-nhc-seats-grabs

Thanks! I appreciate it.

[Robert Goren]

There is a James Clarke from England that has some sort of horse racing/gambling connection according to LinkedIn. I no longer have a premium membership there, so there little else I can tell you. Perhaps somebody here has a premium membership there and could find out more.

[banacek]

I believe that Jim Clark is from Canada. The web site (in-formsheets.com) for the sheets doesn't seem to be active, but since the winner mentioned them they must be available somewhere (Woodbine?). If you check page 7 of this from a few years back, you can get some information.

http://www.internationalhorseracingdigest.com/images/IHRD_Oct_2010.pdf

[Inglewood Flamingo]

http://www.brisnet.com/samples/ifh.pdf

[appistappis]

the guys behind it are from woodbine....I remember somehow i ended up on there original mailing list a couple years back.

[antigeekess]

I can't find anything about those sheets, but I did find some contact info for winner Peter Behr, if you want to call him and ask him. :)

http://www.londoncriminallaw.com/behr.html

And yes, it's the right guy. Here's his picture getting the check:

http://www.drf.com/blogs/breeders-cup-contest-goes-down-wire

A lawyer. Anybody surprised?

[infrontby1]

Thanks guys for all your responses.

[HuggingTheRail]

I can't find anything about those sheets, but I did find some contact info for winner Peter Behr, if you want to call him and ask him. :)

http://www.londoncriminallaw.com/behr.html

And yes, it's the right guy. Here's his picture getting the check:

http://www.drf.com/blogs/breeders-cup-contest-goes-down-wire

A lawyer. Anybody surprised?

If he is a lawyer, it will be $500 just to get him to answer the call...

[Midnight Cruiser]

So then who is Jim Clark?

who is john galt?

[Red Knave]

who is john galt?

He's an objectivist. :)

[netbet]

Peter Behr was on the Steve Byk radio show last week.
He does mention the In-Form Sheets and that they currently are only being distributed to a select group. The software is CompuTrak from BRISNet.

You can listen to the archived show...
Behr with Steve Byk (http://www.thoroughbredracingradionetwork.com/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_detail&agid=1620&year=2013&month=11&day=07&Itemid=35)

Have a great day.

Patrick

[infrontby1]

CompuTrak?

Isn't that an archaic software from like 8-9 years ago?

With all that modern software out there, this is what wins a major contest.

Maybe it is better to fall back on the simpler things that are available out there to pick winners

[netbet]

CompuTrak?

Isn't that an archaic software from like 8-9 years ago?

With all that modern software out there, this is what wins a major contest.

Maybe it is better to fall back on the simpler things that are available out there to pick winners

That was my initial thought. I am not familiar with CompuTrak but there must be something that he uses as a guide? Does CompuTrak offer pace figures?

[infrontby1]

Not, really, it's a computer printout that uses data from brisnet files and spits out ratings such as early pace, late fraction, form, workout ratings, etc. According to the site, the last update was in 2006

[Tom]

He told Byk he uses it to point him to horses he might not otherwise look closely at. He said it was FREE at Brsinet, but I don't think that is true.

[SOUTHERN SLEW]

Here is a very interesting interview with Jim Clark
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/32487827/Informed-_and-Enriched_-with-In-Form-Handicapping-I-was-brutally

[SOUTHERN SLEW]

Here is another interview with Richard Englander a very successful horse owner that uses the in form sheets
http://www.internationalhorseracingdigest.com/stories/issue2-8


Month Published:
Sept/Oct 2009


By:
Larry Simpson


It wasn’t too many years ago, that Richard Englander was a multiple Eclipse Award winning owner in North America. In fact, in 2000, his first Eclipse year, horses owned by Richard won a staggering 405 races with purse earnings of over $9.6 million.
Q: So I guess you could say that you use some of your knowledge in handicapping when you are claiming horses / acquiring horses?
A: When I claim horses, I look at different handicapping tools. The newest handicapping tool that has been introduced to me, the In-Form Sheets, has the potential to be very useful in locating value. I’m an avid reader of the Daily Racing Form and over the years I’ve developed different techniques that have been successful for me.

Q: When your handicapping besides the In-Form sheets is there another? I know you’re a big fan of the Ragozins?
A: I like the Ragozin sheets for when I’m claiming dirt horses. I also think the Ragozins are good for claiming synthetic horses. As far as turf horses, I don’t use the ‘Rag Sheets’ at all. With turf horses, I use the Racing Form. I like using the Beyers, and I pride myself as a good student of pedigrees. I also rely on youbet.com for sire and dam statistics, not only for handicapping, but when I claim as well.

[shouldacoulda]

The website is down at www.in-formsheets.com

[antigeekess]

I'm tempted to hit him up in email, actually. He 'might' actually surprise us and respond. Why not?

Anybody on here with some street cred wanna do it? If not, I shall rely on charm alone. :)

[infrontby1]

Curious,

What happened to Richard Englander, his last horse that he started according to Equibase was in 2009.

Very successul owner last decade.

[antigeekess]

Curious,

What happened to Richard Englander, his last horse that he started according to Equibase was in 2009.

Very successul owner last decade.

This is the last thing I can find, 12/15/2010.
http://www.drf.com/news/ieah-names-englander-bloodstock-director


(http://www.drf.com/news/ieah-names-englander-bloodstock-director)

[Krudler]

Here is a very interesting interview with Jim Clark
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/32487827/Informed-_and-Enriched_-with-In-Form-Handicapping-I-was-brutally

Couldn't get the entire interview without a docstoc membership so I jumped in my "Wayback Machine" and found a copy of it here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20110125055635/http://www.in-formsheets.com/news/informed.pdf

There are a few other articles on the site as well. Here's the URL from around January 2011 in Archive.org: http://web.archive.org/web/20110116220739/http://www.in-formsheets.com/

[BIG HIT]

Very interesting articles

[netbet]

Krudler,
Thanks for the article. Very interesting stuff.

[thaskalos]

Couldn't get the entire interview without a docstoc membership so I jumped in my "Wayback Machine" and found a copy of it here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20110125055635/http://www.in-formsheets.com/news/informed.pdf



I guess sleazy system peddling is alive and well. I thought this sort of "Dan Pope" or "Dave Powers-type" advertising copy was a thing of the past.

[Jim Clark]

Infront: took me a number of days to get logged in and receive permission to post. thanks for digging up the information and searching. I posted the note below - new to this so I do not know how many times?

Folks, pleased to introduce myself as the guy you were looking for Jim Clark, President and Founder of the In-Form Handicapping System and the in-formsheets. You are correct in that we are not operating commercially at this time but are offering my handicapping tool to a select group of long time users/customers including Peter Behr. Hopefully our website will be back up and operating soon.

[cato]

Jim: Thanks for your post and your kind offer. And congratulations on backing/helping the winner at the BC Betting Challenge!

Best, Frank

[PaceAdvantage]

Infront: took me a number of days to get logged in and receive permission to post. thanks for digging up the information and searching. I posted the note below - new to this so I do not know how many times?

Folks, pleased to introduce myself as the guy you were looking for Jim Clark, President and Founder of the In-Form Handicapping System and the in-formsheets. You are correct in that we are not operating commercially at this time but are offering my handicapping tool to a select group of long time users/customers including Peter Behr. Hopefully our website will be back up and operating soon.Jim, welcome. Not sure why you posted the same thing four times, but we'll chalk that up to beginner's learning curve.

Also, I must point out that your reply was edited. It is not proper for you to be soliciting users to contact you unless you are an authorized advertiser.

Thanks.

[Krudler]

Welcome to the forum, Jim.

I've recently read an article from your old In-Form Handicapping website, Informed (and Enriched) with In-Form Handicapping. In that piece, you mention the power of a scratch angle:

“We’ve been following this for seven or eight years and it’s a huge handicapping angle,” insists Clark, “A scratch board horse is one who has been scratched from a race previous to today’s race. It may have been a trainer scratch, steward scratch, vet scratch or off the turf. The percentage of horses winning off a scratch board is less than 5%, so you can pretty well toss them.”


I'm curious to see if this angle is still viable nowadays and, to that end, I started the "Do Horses Win Only 5% When Returning After a Scratch?" thread on PA to elicit the views of other handicappers.

Seeing as you're now a PA member, what are your current thoughts on this angle? Do you stand by what you wrote in that piece (an article that seems to be about 4 or 5 years old)? Might racing have changed in a way that makes the angle no longer valid? Is a scratch still a scratch or might you make a distinction between a vet and trainer scratch say?

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thanks,
Krudler

[Jim Clark]

Folks, I can emphatically say that the scratch board is a "must" use in terms of analyzing a card of racing. When playing the horses it is the first piece of information I look at and overlay onto my racing form and in-formsheets. The % of winners off the scratch board has not changed much over the years > vet scratches running back and winning are still less the 5%. Stewards scratches not much higher followed by trainer scratches and off the turf. Of course, there are some trainers that can and do win off the scratch "board". A real tell tale for me is how well a horse works between races, the spacing between the works and the entered race and if there is a drop down or change in class/condition, surface etc. From my experience a horse is generally "pointed" to a race and is trained differently and geared for a top performance. Being "scratched" for any reason alters a horses regiment and routine often in a negative way. Hope this helps.

[Robert Goren]

I was wondering about horses scratched yesterday or the day before at a different track. of course I miss most of these(because I don't bother to check), but the few I have run across have always lost even those at low odds.

[Jim Clark]

New to the forum so not sure if you saw my reply yet > the scratch board is a must use as part of the handicapping process. Add to your process and I can guarantee it will assist in not only narrowing the field but also produce value when you have heavily favoured vet scratches.

[Robert Goren]

I have a question which I should I know the answer to but don't. Bris lists scratches for the horses in at the bottom of some their PPs. It is up to date to the date the PPs become first become available. Is their some place to get a list of the horse in today who scratched since the PPs became available. I know I could just check AQU scratches for WED,THUR and FRI for a horse run at AQU on SAT, but what if it was entered at PARX. I really don't want to go through every track running on the off chance it was scratched at some place other than AQU in the last couple of days.

[jennywilsonhrs]

Thanks for all the information especially the suggestions on where to locate the sheets including the link to the sample sheet given by Inglewood Flamingo. Handicapping can certainly be a lot of fun as well as lucrative. :)