Quickhorse Do it yourself

[tgoo426193]

For any of those familiar with Quickhorse, I could use some help. While I'm not a complete novice at programming, I am by far, not near the end of the learning curve just yet. As you may well know, one must do much of their own programming within this utility. :bang:

Here is a copy of a question/comment, I posted over on QAs own forum. I'll be watching here as well for any support. Thx in advance. Here it is.


OK gang, Newbie here @ Qhorse, and Mike mentioned that there doesn't seem to be much participation here in the forum (that would be the QA forum), although, he noted for me to maybe take my question to the forum. With that said...

Fairly simple request and I'm not asking for anyone to build me columns for free. Just want to know if the "Component" exist to do so.

MY NEEDS = I want a column that tells me the "average" of the "top 2 Bris speed ratings" from the "3 most recent" races.

In example - last 3 ratings were 40, 10 & 60. Program of course picks 40 & 60, Adds them = 100, Divides by value of 2 = 50 (Raw Average using 3 races would = 36.6)

This formula eliminates a possible single bad race in the last 3 from bringing down the average, and creating, in effect, a "false average", had all 3 ratings been used.

I DO use the "X Most recent" component and make a "speed rating column" for each of the 3 most recent races, with which I can then make a Method with those 3 Columns. And, I've done that, but it adds columns and confusion doing the math in your head for each horse.

I CAN add those 3 ratings or I CAN average those 3 ratings within a single column, but, I CAN NOT further dissect each of the 3 ratings in an earlier step, to use just 2 of the 3 ratings in the final column results

OR CAN I??? This is my question. Does the "Component" (or combination of) exist to do the above, and, am I just not seeing it within the program choices?

Is there an Conditional "IF" statement that needs to be used?? Maybe in combination with the "X" Value number popup??

IN SUMMING THIS UP - If the combination exists, it can be used to build an infinite number of valuable columns to display data on speed, class, race ratings etc. hidden within the raw data.

I'm sure if the combination exists, it (or they) can be used to do many tasks other than just eliminating "bad" races from an average figure.

Thx in advance for any input here!!

[Pensacola Pete]

I haven't much experience with Quickhorse. I mainly work with Quickdog, but the format is the same. For what you want, you'd find the BRIS speed rating in the list and then:

Click on STEP ONE:

a) SELECT_LOWEST

b) SELECT

c) 1 (for first lowest)

d) CREATE/EDIT A STEP FILTER OR A STEP CONDITIONAL STATEMENT

e) CREATE/CHANGE IT

f) On Line 1, you'd enter 3 for "A Maximum of" and 1 for "A Minimum of" which confines the step to the last 3 races. Then right-click out.

g) ACCEPT THE STEP/ENTER

--

For STEP TWO, you'd do all of the same things, except that you'd choose 2 for second lowest at "c" and you'd use ADD and then ACCEPT THE STEP/ENTER at "g", so that the two figures would be added together.

--

Then you'd click on STEP THREE and type the number 2 in (it will automatically enter it into STEP-3A box), then press ENTER, then:

a) DIVIDE "STEP A" BY "STEP B"

b) RANK HIGHEST IS BEST SCORE

c) ACCEPT THE STEP/ENTER

--

Now click on "TEST IT" -- if you don't do that, nothing will be saved.

You should now have a column with the average of the top two BRIS ratings in the last 3 races. It can rank them highest to lowest and sort that way if you want.


Paul Luippold has an article about how to use RPN (Reverse Polish Notation, the "language" that Quickhorse and Quickdog columns use). You can find it here:

http://home.comcast.net/~luippold10/paulsrpn.htm

Quickhorse doesn't get much activity on the Quickdog forum, but you can try asking the same question in the Quickdog forum as well. Paul used to create columns for users for a fee. I don't know if he still does.

[tgoo426193]

Thx so much P Pete. I get how this stuff works real quick, but have never done any deep builds. I didn't really know how those Lowest & Highest components applied figures. Real easy when someone shows you once. Mike at Quickhorse would not even speak about it?????

I just ask him to tell me if the components existed to do what I wanted and he would not even say yes or no. To tell you the truth, as I said, I would have never found it if he did say Yes anyway.

Just that one sample may open a lot of doors. If I have a question on another component, I'll post again. You were a ton of help and I Thank You again.

BTW, I saw right from the Get-go what you were doing and in my mind, I questioned using the "Lowest" component. I went ahead and did it anyway, and sure enough, that gave me the average of the 2 lowest of the 3 most recent rankings.
I wanted the average of the 2 highest, so I just went back and used the "Highest" component. No sweat good buddy. Got it now.

[FocusWiz]

Not trying to get people to "teach" me this, but I created a similar formula a while back but could not convince myself that I understood what it would do if there were only 1 prior race. I think it would give me half the single race's ranking. I was thinking it would need to have some kind of IF condition to use the single race when only one exists.

Can either of you comment on that or how it might be achieved?

[tgoo426193]

Not trying to get people to "teach" me this, but I created a similar formula a while back but could not convince myself that I understood what it would do if there were only 1 prior race. I think it would give me half the single race's ranking. I was thinking it would need to have some kind of IF condition to use the single race when only one exists.

Can either of you comment on that or how it might be achieved?

It gives you this rating = ????

I think that means insufficient data?

I went to a Maiden race and checked it out. whether there was 1 past race, 2 past races or no past races, it gave me the ????

Those with 3 past races had a numerical rating

At least tells you to look into it rather than giving a false rating I guess

[Pensacola Pete]

Mike at Quickhorse would not even speak about it?????

BTW, I saw right from the Get-go what you were doing and in my mind, I questioned using the "Lowest" component.

That's my error. I use times in Quickdog, and "LOWEST" of course is what's needed there.

Not trying to get people to "teach" me this, but I created a similar formula a while back but could not convince myself that I understood what it would do if there were only 1 prior race. I think it would give me half the single race's ranking. I was thinking it would need to have some kind of IF condition to use the single race when only one exists.

Can either of you comment on that or how it might be achieved?

There's no conditional for not having enough races for the column-step to use. If there aren't enough races to use, the program reads out "????", which is an unknown, and it ranks that at the bottom.

[FocusWiz]

When I was doing it, I was trying to create a separate formula if the count of prior races was 2 or 1, using a formula like the one you posted as the default if the number of prior races was more than 2. The logic isn't hard and I think RPN can handle it, but I decided I needed more time to try to figure this out and have not had time to go back to it. I still think it can be done in QuickHorse.

[Flysofree]

The reason I gave up on QuickHorse is the following.. On 2 seperate occasions it did not download all the horses entered in a race. I had to do a Rebuild or whatever it's called if not working properly.. Yes it added the horses after doing that.. But I would not have known there were missing horses had I not had the Bris PP's open. So I don't know where the problem was but make certain you have ALL the horse entered before handicapping.

[bugboy]

Fly, did you click on button on the bottom that says "page here for more entries in this race". You might have, but just checking.

[Flysofree]

Fly, did you click on button on the bottom that says "page here for more entries in this race". You might have, but just checking.

Yes Of Course.

[FocusWiz]

I am quite surprised by this since after testing for over a year, I have never seen this problem.

Could you mention which tracks and which antimalware you are using? I have had no problems with Avast!, BitDefender, or Norton. I have never seen missing horses from any of the thoroughbred tracks I've tried, although, there have been times where it has apparently noticed changes to something already supertuned.

Do you download each day? I have suspected that there could be horses added after the initial cards are published by the tracks, but I have never been able to ascertain if that actually occurred.

[Flysofree]

Norton is what I use... Hey I don't know where the problem was..I used the program for about 9 months until that happened on back to back days... It may never happen again..Good luck to you.

[Pensacola Pete]

Symantec (Norton) will often throw a false positive for certain strings, recognizing them as malicious. You'll need to create an exclusion for c:\jaidogs and/or c:\jaihorse .

[Flysofree]

Symantec (Norton) will often throw a false positive for certain strings, recognizing them as malicious. You'll need to create an exclusion for c:\jaidogs and/or c:\jaihorse .

I mean no harm here, but I HIGHLY doubt Norton had anything to do with a couple of horses not being included. One of the features of Quickhorse "click here " if something did not download properly. I wanted badly for this product to work for me as the yearly price is very good. I know others have had success and I had some also early also, but well...enough said.

[FocusWiz]

Personally, I appreciate the alert.

I have seen no problems, but it does not mean I did not miss something. I use three machines and often compare results among them.

Do you recall the tracks, dates and races involved?

I would like to see ifI missed something.

[Flysofree]

Sorry I don't recall... Possibly Aqueduct or some track running in March-April.

[barshoe]

does anyone know if you can print the pp...

[Pensacola Pete]

Quickdog doesn't print past performances, even if you use BRIS files instead of the free data. There are of course other ways to get past performances from BRIS files. Quickdog does have a print feature, but it only prints the readout from the methods used.

[barshoe]

THANKS...