The Master Handicapper V 1.02

[Myhorse1_X]

Does anyone out there have a program called The Master Handicapper Version 1.02.

I am particularly interested in this particular version because it uses the BRIS files and not the ITS files.

MyHorse1

[Bob Harris]

Sorry MyHorse...I looked thru my diskettes and I just have the latest version (2.11).

To be honest, I don't ever recall a version of TMH using BRIS files...I remember the program before that (The Essential Handicapper) used BRIS files but I don't remember having that option with TMH...we dialed into a BBS to get our files from ITS.

If I'm mistaken and there was a version which took BRIS files, be sure to procur the hardware lock with the diskette or it won't run.

Good luck,

Bob

[Lefty]

The Master Handicapper(Michael Pizzolla) as far as I ever knew only used files you had to get from Mike and not Bris or ITS. If it ever used those files, it's news to me.

[Buckeye]

But I traded it in because I was told that the latest version WOULD update the pars automatically. It did not. My version that I traded in would use the BRIS (drf- $1/ track) file. I also have a version of TEH that I cannot use (it too will accept the BRIS file) because the installs got lost on the diskette. ITS told me that they cannot help me to replace these. Called something like "everlock". Is there anyone here who might suggest if there is anything I can do to make this TEH run?

Thank you.

Buckeye

[Rpd]

Buckeye,

Is that maybe similar to the issue I have with old Sartin programs. They run on a 386 but not on anything newer. Called Shane and was told there was nothing they could do......BUT......if I wanted to buy new programs, they would be more than happy to oblige. Programs like Thormation, etc.

Thanks,

[Buckeye]

Rpd,

Not exactly the same thing. The version of TMH that I currently have is I beleive the latest version, and it WILL run on my etower 466is in DOS and in Windows 98. The problem is, it won't accept BRIS files and the pars will not update and I don't know where to get even a current set of pars.

My old version of TEH WILL also run on my computer, but like I said, I need to "refresh" the install count on the diskette in order to load it on my computer. I bought this version in about 1992 and ITS told me they couldn't "find" what I need.

Buckeye

[Tom]

I have a version of TEH on an old computer that I cannot "unlock" to move to a newer computer. My tuff luck. That was the main reason why I chose not to buy the updated version of Magic.

[Myhorse1_X]

Buckeye:

There is a program called "Password" that eliminates the necessity of certain Everlock programs. I believe it is EV21 and EV22.
You might check on the internet for a company by the name of
Copyware, Inc., 152 Nelson Circle, Newmarket Ontario Canada.

Directory the diskette with the program in drive A, and there will be two files begining with the words EV and that is the version.
Copyware will tell you if their software will work. You must be sure that you are the original owner to not break the law by using this program.

MyHorse1

[Myhorse1_X]

Bob Harris:

That is my problem. I have an original diskette of Ver 1.02 that uses the Bris files, but my program lock broke off one of the pins and the program will not run anymore.
ITS said that the program is an old one and they do not have any program locks for that program anymore.

I made my own pars and varients for the program and had good success with it. I sure wish I could find someone that still had a good program lock.

MyHorse1

[Dick Schmidt]

RPD,

Let me know (in a private e-mail) what programs you are having trouble with and that are no longer being sold or supported. Maybe I can help.

Dick

[Bob Harris]

Originally posted by Myhorse1
Bob Harris:

That is my problem. I have an original diskette of Ver 1.02 that uses the Bris files, but my program lock broke off one of the pins and the program will not run anymore.
ITS said that the program is an old one and they do not have any program locks for that program anymore.

I made my own pars and varients for the program and had good success with it. I sure wish I could find someone that still had a good program lock.

MyHorse1

I've had some success locating old copies of TMH for friends...if you throw your request out to the racing newsgroups I'm fairly sure you'll find someone with a copy they aren't using anymore and willing to sell...the trick would be finding a hardware lock for the version you are interested in.

For those wanting to update their pars: If you know another TMH user with newer pars, you can import them if they are willing to help. Every year I would punch in the 10k pars from Gordon Pine into TMH and then export the new pars to my hard drive. I would send this file out via e-mail to other users and they could update their pars by importing what I had sent them...you absolutely must delete the old "Accupars" before you import the new par times. TMH will create new "Accupars" from the new par times only if there isn't anything left from the old pars.

[Myhorse1_X]

Bob Harris:

What other boards would you suggest besides this one?

Thanks.

MyHorse1

[Bob Harris]

Originally posted by Myhorse1
Bob Harris:

What other boards would you suggest besides this one?

Thanks.

MyHorse1

MyHorse,

The following Usenet newsgroups are the ones I've had the most luck with:

alt.sport.horse-racing

alt.sport.horse-racing.systems

rec.gambling.racing

[Lefty]

Question: doesn't Pizzolla support this expensive prgm anymore.?And if not why not? I sure wouldn't buy his latest knowing he doesn't support his old one that was supposed to be "the best ever."

[Bob Harris]

Originally posted by Lefty
Question: doesn't Pizzolla support this expensive prgm anymore.?And if not why not? I sure wouldn't buy his latest knowing he doesn't support his old one that was supposed to be "the best ever."

It's still sold and supported, Lefty. The data files are downloaded thru the ITS site now. Michael uses both TMH and the Master Magician in his daily play. My guess would be that eventually TMH will be updated to a Windows program, incorporating the PBS and PPF numbers from Handicapping Magic so that the best features from both programs are included.

The issue seems to be a broken hardware lock for a short lived version which accepted BRIS files many years ago. I've never known Michael to leave a customer hanging and if asked I'm sure he would be willing to work something out with any user of an older version. At some point, any company selling a product is going to move on.

[andicap]

Bob,
in re-reading Handicapping Magic -- I don't use his methods, but I enjoyed reading the book because I get ideas from everything I read -- I have to question Michael's use of raw fractional times in deciding how contentious the pace will be. (Where he filters on the lead, near the lead, etc.). How can he compare what the first quarters and halfs are going to be at different tracks without taking into account their differences.
He'll say two horses can run a 110.4 half but one could come from Santa Anita and the other from Aqueduct.

[Bob Harris]

I really need to get my copy of HM back...I have more stuff on loan than most libraries!

I don't recall what was explained in the book...I do know that in practice he incorporates running style and raw fractions into his calculations. Other players such as Jim Bradshaw do it this way and it seems to work well enough.

When scanning for fractions which a particular horse can set or press successfully, you would always want to be conservative and throw out aberrant times...similar to what you would do when coming up with a fulcrum horse.

You are correct in saying 2C times from one turn routes would be deceiving if matched up against two turn routes. I have found that the New Jersey tracks run fractions which are misleading too.

All in all, once you know the handful of problem areas, raw times work just fine in my opinion.

Got to call in some bets and make a quick run to Sacramento...have a great day!

Bob

[Doug]

The Handicapping Magic method is pretty much an all around handicapping methodology.

When you just look at how you arrive at the ratings I am sure (in this day and age) that raw times are considered no good.

I started using Handicapping Magic about 7-8 months ago and althoough was doing ok I stopped because I felt the same way about raw final times.

I am not a real big fan of fractional times or final times anyway, whether adjusted or not. I am sure you can find many cases where if you had not adjusteed the times you would have had the winner and vice versa.
If you absorb the enitire Handicapping Magic methodology, soft focus, etc. Then when you are doing your ratings you may see things in the past performance of the horse that kind of stands out. I found that once I got a handle on the rating method that I could handicap a race in about 5 minutes and then have my contenders to look at kfor value, running style preference, etc.

Heck, when you have all these sophisticated computer printouts (which I get too) you then have decisions to make about your contenders.

IMO, in the book the phrase SOME WILL, SOME WON'T, SO WHAT, NEXT. is applicable to any horse racing methodology whether computer generated or not, whether adjusted time or not.

What the heck, if you do not like to handicap with the form the you can spend $500 andhave the computer do the work for you (which would leave a little something to be desired IMO), but you got your ratings, you have an odds line, and all you have to do is make your betting decisions. Before I did that though I would make sure I understood how the ratings were arrived at.

Agree with Bob Harris that there are those that are just as successfull with raw times as with adjusted times.

Not to mention there are some very small adjustedments for distance in Handicaping Magic.

Boy, I think I will go back to Handicapping Magic now.

Doug

[Lefty]

I bght Essential Handicapper and have no qualms with service that's why I was surprised about all this talk of getting pars and such. I guess i'm off the mailing list now cause all the advertising I ever got about TMH it used a different racefile other than Bris or ITS. Using these other files would be prefferred; the Bris or ITS, that is.

[Myhorse1_X]

Lefty:

The Essential Handicapper was a prelude to Master Handicapper and came out about 1989. It was on a diskette.
The Handicapping Magic is a recent release. The first version was just OK, and the user had to use a lot of personal decision making to make the program work. About 3 months ago, they updated the Handicapping Magic for a hefty increase in price.

MyHorse1

[andicap]

Thanks for the replies. I have no interest in using Handicapping Magic, but I enjoyed the book. I get handicapping ideas for all types of books and i like the idea of the fulcrum.
I agree that if you use somethign enough you will come to realize when to discount Calder fractions in NY, etc., and even get a rough idea of how to mentally adjust them. Like everyone else, repetition and practice are the keys to success.

[Lefty]

Yeah,I liked Essential because it was just TPR with more bells and whistles and then later he added oddsline. I used it manually didn't opt to download expensive proprietary files. Biggest beef is when you installed it it came off the disk and you had to uninstall by coaxing it back on the disk; sort of like charming a snake back into the basket, anyway, I lost it when I wanted to put it on a newer computer and it didn't uninstall properly. Now I have a .50 disk.
I never bght Handicapping Magic but seems he has revisited some of his older ideas:PBS nos. and Fulcrum. I liked the fulcrum so perhaps the method worthwhile but not going to pay another $500 for a prgm. Perhaps I have enough.

[Tom]

Originally posted by andicap
Thanks for the replies. I have no interest in using Handicapping Magic, but I enjoyed the book. I get handicapping ideas for all types of books and i like the idea of the fulcrum.
I agree that if you use somethign enough you will come to realize when to discount Calder fractions in NY, etc., and even get a rough idea of how to mentally adjust them. Like everyone else, repetition and practice are the keys to success.

Have you tried to make a fulcrum using BRIS pace numbers?
I had some luck if I used the LP number instead of the SR -then add E2+LP (use modified LP) to get a final number. I do this fulcrum thing a lot with the Quirin pace/speed numbers from MPH or HTR - works very well. I forgive pacelines run against pace numbers higher that today's fulcrum+2. Sometime I get nice prices by going back 4-5 races when they are at fisrt look just bad races.

[andicap]

Tom,
I've never tried, but can you give me an example. I couldn't 'quite follow you.
You use LP instead of the speed rating, and E2+LP as a final number??

[modred]

Ok... now it's time. I want to try out different things and need to be able to download the data files from BRIS and get them into the computer and to do this I need a loader type program. I think I can use the random access mode because looking at BRIS files they are all 1435 fields wide and each line is a record. Does anyone have any ideas or has done it before? I want to write mine in Visual Basic 6 or Visual Basic. NeT later. When I get it done I'll post it on my website so everyone on this board can have access to it and at no charge.

[BillW]

Originally posted by modred
Ok... now it's time. I want to try out different things and need to be able to download the data files from BRIS and get them into the computer and to do this I need a loader type program. I think I can use the random access mode because looking at BRIS files they are all 1435 fields wide and each line is a record. Does anyone have any ideas or has done it before? I want to write mine in Visual Basic 6 or Visual Basic. NeT later. When I get it done I'll post it on my website so everyone on this board can have access to it and at no charge.

Eric,

I don't know about visual basic but your assumption on the BRIS files are correct. You can look in the "library" section of the BRIS web site for a file description. TSN uses the same format (+/- a few fields that are included/missing in one and missing/included in the other) so you can write your importer to work with both.

Bill

[Big Bill]

Tom,

Back on May 30th you posted the following:

Have you tried to make a fulcrum using BRIS pace numbers? I had some luck if I used the LP number instead of the SR -then add E2+LP (use modified LP) to get a final number.

I didn't understand what or how you were using the BRIS pace ratings as you described. Andicap didn't either as he asked for an explanation too.

Can you give us an example of how you make a fulcrum using BRIS pace numbers?

Thanks in advance, Big Bill

[Derek2U]

guys please .... that HM guy is a total fake liar ... i dont care
how many of u report sighting him making BiG BetS ... he's a total
fraud ... he's got Zero to offer you so stop plz stop making that
idiot seem real he's counterfiet ...

[Lefty]

Werll, Bob Harris, you read derek2; so desist this moment from making profits with HM. Quit it.

[BillW]

Originally posted by Derek2U
guys please .... that HM guy is a total fake liar ... i dont care
how many of u report sighting him making BiG BetS ... he's a total
fraud ... he's got Zero to offer you so stop plz stop making that
idiot seem real he's counterfiet ...

Derek,

Rather than ranting, please explain.

[Myhorse1_X]

Dered2U:

Have you even met Michael Pizzolla??? Have you ever been in the room with him??? Have you ever been in the Sports Book or watched him make bets???./

If you have not, I don't think you should pass judgement on someone you don't know. I know Michael, and have known him for a number of years and I will tell you one thing, Michael is one of the smartest persons I have ever met. What he puts into his books is what he believes and what he uses. He has the quickest mind of anyone I have ever met.
I don't use his software, but I have read his book and it is what he is telling you is truth. Michael has made money both in business and at the Race book. I have been with him when he has hit trifecta after trifecta, just using his own software and the Racing Form.
Michael is a fine person, and I hate to hear anyone knocking him when it isn't deserved. Take it from me, Michael Pizzolla is a real person who makes fantastic money betting the horses and earnestly tries to convey his knowledge in his book.

I consider him my friend.

MyHorse1, ( Bob Emery, Tulsa, Oklahoma)

[GameTheory]

I have noticed an odd amount of venom towards MP regarding HM, even from people who aren't under the influence like D2U. I hit a juicy longshot on the very first race I applied these methods to. What's the problem?

[Tom]

andicap and Big Bill-

Let's say Horse A runs a BRIS EP and LP of 90/ 86 =176 won the lead.

Horse B ran a 87/ 89 = 176, three back at the second call.

This makes the pace of race for B 93 (2pts per length, 3 lengths
back). So the race was three points faster than the fulcrum horse.
Add 3 points to Horse B's speed rating, 176+3=179.
B is getting credit for running against a faster pace.
I have hit some nice ones using this method, but other races I have no horses at all in contention! Random and Mixed results, and a lot of hand work, so I don't do it too often, but I was curiouus if anyone else had tried this or something similar.
It is much easier to do this using Quirin pace/speed numbers.

[Bob Harris]

Originally posted by Lefty
Werll, Bob Harris, you read derek2; so desist this moment from making profits with HM. Quit it.

Even though Monday and Tuesday were fantastic, I went 0/9 today and was thinking about switching software anyway...Derek's inside knowledge of Michael's betting habits has convinced me.

Let's see, maybe if I add the jockey's win % to the horse's weight and subtract the post position....

[BillW]

Originally posted by Tom
andicap and Big Bill-

Let's say Horse A runs a BRIS EP and LP of 90/ 86 =176 won the lead.

Horse B ran a 87/ 89 = 176, three back at the second call.

This makes the pace of race for B 93 (2pts per length, 3 lengths
back). So the race was three points faster than the fulcrum horse.
Add 3 points to Horse B's speed rating, 176+3=179.
B is getting credit for running against a faster pace.
I have hit some nice ones using this method, but other races I have no horses at all in contention! Random and Mixed results, and a lot of hand work, so I don't do it too often, but I was curiouus if anyone else had tried this or something similar.
It is much easier to do this using Quirin pace/speed numbers.

Tom,

I calculate PBS/PPF in both BRIS and std. times. The BRIS numbers show higher IV on analysis, so I use those as a primary indicator. I use the STD. times (The way MP describes in the book) as a sanity check. If the 2 results are greatly skewed, I am more careful.

I do caution that I am doing this by computer and therefore losing a bit of quality that would be present in a manual calculation. The form cycle window loses a bit, for sure.

Bill

[Doug]

Michael is a fine person, and I hate to hear anyone knocking him when it isn't deserved. Take it from me, Michael Pizzolla is a real person who makes fantastic money betting the horses and earnestly tries to convey his knowledge in his book.


I just plunked out the $500 for Master Magician software. Haven't used it in action yet, but the tapes are great.

Michael sounds like a genuine person on the tapes and if he his a liar, fraud, etc then he is very very good at it and if he is as good at helping me become a winning player, then thats ok.

Doug

[NormanTD]

Well, I figure I should jump into this one, too.

I've known Michael since about 1989 or 1990 when I met him at a TEH Siminar in New Jersey and although my time at handicapping and playing the horse over the last 12 years has been more than sporatic, I can attest that Michael has always been available for phone calls, emails, one on ones, etc.

I had the opportunity to also observe his betting and betting records for a week long Master Class in about 1993 (or 1994) and I remember only one day he did not show a positive return on his betting. And the returns were not small.

I am using Master Magician and to date, I have found it to be the best package I've ever used. A large part of this success is due in no small part to the Handicapping Magic book which took all of the black box features out of the software for me.

$500 is expensive, true, but the time I save in the handicapping process is well worth it. If this program could save you 200 hours of handicapping per year and you figure your time is worth at least $2.50 per hour, then it pays for itself. If it saves you 100 hours, are you worth $5.00 per hour? Let's say you you think you're worth $20.00 an hour, if it saves you 25 hours then you're even.

Well, as a consultant, my going rate is about $60 per hour so if the program saves me just 8.3 hours per year, then it had paid for itself in that one year.

So what's your time worth?

[Jeff P]

Modred,


The first set of programs that I wrote to analyze horses were written in Microsoft Quick Basic. (That should tell you how long I've been into this. My current stuff is written in VB6.0)

Data files from BRIS and others are nothing more than comma delimited sequential text files. You can write a module that reads the file itself and assigns the fields you want from the data provider file into your own variables. This is very easy to do. File formats are available for free on the BRIS website. For example, in the BRIS DRF Single File format, there are 1435 fields per horse.


Here's a quick code sample that shows how to read all of the data fields for a single horse.


dim myField(1435)

open myFile for input as #1

do while not eof(1)

for j=1 to 1435
input myField(j)
next j

loop

close #1


If you were to display myField(45) you would see the name of the horse. Download a free sample file from BRIS and play around with this a little.

Of course, you will need some further code in order to break program logic at the end of each race and to do number crunching for your own formulas, but reading the data file itself (and thus avoiding manual input) is not hard at all.

[modred]

Thanks JeffP

I tried to make the code you wrote in your post work in QuickBasic, but it didn't seem to want to access the bris file . If you have the code modules in VB6 could you send it to me at esweari@cox.net. I have VB6. Thanks again for your help.

[Zaf]

Originally posted by GameTheory
I have noticed an odd amount of venom towards MP regarding HM, even from people who aren't under the influence like D2U. I hit a juicy longshot on the very first race I applied these methods to. What's the problem?

I had the same experience. I have been experimenting with the methods in Handicapping Magic for about six weeks now. In the first week I tabbed a $125 exacta, a $232 triple and a $2300 triple. I have not been able to duplicate that success from there on. But I still think the method has a lot to offer. I use the numbers as part, not all of my handicapping routine. The PPF numbers were involved in all of the scores above. The jury is still out. I enjoyed the book and will continue to experiment with the method.

ZAFONIC

[Tom]

The ideas in Magic and the use of raw times is contrarian to the mainstream, so good pices are there to be had - if you have the faith in the numbers and the patience to wait for good spots.