Hall Speed and Pace figures

[First_Place]

Hello all. Anyone care to explain what they are? How they are computed? And who is Hall?

Thanks much.

FP

[NoDayJob]

This may be of some help.

http://search.netscape.com/ns/search?fromPage=NSCPToolbarNS&query=hall%20speed%20and%20pace%20figures

NDJ

[Equineer]

Very likely... the developer of All-Ways Pro, Gary Hall... easily the most successful developer of commercial handicapping software.

http://www.frandsen.com/

[MikeH]

I haven't used Allways in several years, but from my feeble recollection:

The Hall speed and pace figures are calculated the same way that other speed and pace figures are done - using pars and track variants to adjust the times. However, they are VELOCITY based (I think...)

Their best use comes when you have a horse switching back from routes to a sprint. The Hall pace figure for this horse works very well in comparing how fast the horse will be when compared to the final Hall figure for horses coming out of sprints.

[First_Place]

Thanks much! Any users? On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate All-Ways Professional software? If you believe their advertisements, it's the best thing since sliced bread.

FP

[betchatoo]

Originally posted by First_Place
Thanks much! Any users? On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate All-Ways Professional software? If you believe their advertisements, it's the best thing since sliced bread.

FP

If you can afford it (not just the software, the files are expensive) All-Ways is a great program. It offers almost any kind of info you could ask for about the horses in the race and has several innovative features found nowhere else. I use it as my primary handicapping tool

However, there are other good software products that don't cost as much and use far cheaper files. So you need to weigh the cost against the use you will get. If you haven't, I would try the free (non-professional) version that's available first and if you like it and it works well for you, move up to the pro version

[First_Place]

Appreciate it.

FP

[garyoz]

i've used Allways off and on since 1996. The program is ok, but IMO doesn't measure up to all the hype in the Bris advertisements and promotions. If you do a search on the PA board under "regression" or "Allways" you will find some detailed discussion of the statistical issues inherent in the program. They are mostly in the handicapping software threads. There are other issues with ALW, such as paceline selection--which defaults to the last race far too often. There may also be some internal reliability issues in terms of calculating some of the values.

I have a relatively large race file data base for NYRA, and the Hall based figures generally don't outperform the Bris figures, but the difference (based on eyeballing) doesn't appear to be statistically significant.

If I were just starting out with software I would take a close look at the programs that use Handicapper's Data Warehouse (www.horsedata.com). I think you get more bang for you buck. Just an opinion.

[First_Place]

Ah yes, paceline selection. Pick the wrong line and--excluding dumb luck--you lose.

Will do a search of the messageboard regarding All-Ways. Thanks for the imput.

FP