TRACK VARIENTS

[delayjf]

I'm sure this topic has been brought up many times, but my search of "track Varients" came up empty.
Dave / Dick might you direct me to some of these posts. I'd also be interested in your perspectives on track varients. Dick, I know you were with Sartin in its formative years, I'd be interested in your perspective on Track Varients. Do you make your own for the track(s) you play? Is this indeed the best way to construct the varients. I've heard nothing but good things about Cramers numbers / varients, but I am dubious as to how one could construct varients with great accuracy for every track in the nation. Could you shed some light on this?

[BillW]

Delayjf,

Try search on "variant":)

[delayjf]

Thanks for the heads up, I'm sure it will help. I wish I could spell.

[Dick Schmidt]

Delay,

I sympathize with you on your spelling problems. Until I found a spell checker that works on posts before they are posted, I was limited to one and two syllable words.

As for track "variants", I'm not exactly sure what you are referring to. Variants usually try to reflect how slow or fast a track was on a given day of racing compared to itself. However, it sounds like you are referring to track-to-track adjustments. To answer your question, I used to do T-T adjustments and used the daily variants found in the Racing Form. I use neither now. I download data into HSH from HDW and let 'er rip.

I'm not entirely sure how Jim Cramer makes his adjustments. He tried to explain it to me once, but I fell asleep. All I know it that he spends hours fitting all the data in the country into his adjustment procedures. The results are the most accurate figs I've ever used, and I trust them completely. This is the sort of thing computers are made for.

As you can tell, I really don't care about how things (programs) work, so long as they produce the results I'm looking for. I make the bets, I cash the tickets and I'm a happy camper.

Dick

[delayjf]

Dick,
Thanks for the reply, your not the only one singing Cramers praise. Ken Massa says the samething. I can only assume that the both of you have spent long hours creating your own variants and have now discovered that Jim's process is just as accurate without all the pain.
I used to make my own beyer variants so I have an idea as to what is involved. In my comparisions of the Bris numbers vs the Beyers, I found the Beyers numbers superior. I assumed the difference to be projected figures vs par figures.
Still, the prevailing theory is that custom made variants are better than those massed produced. Do you feel that way, or rather to you feel they are not that much better and therefore not worth the time, given the quality of Cramers work??