DRF charts

[karlskorner]

For anyone who saves charts. DRF now publising their charts (free) in HTML, PDF to members.

I was using Equibase, but these are much more descriptive and use less paper.

www.drf2000.com/charts/cindex.html

Karl

[ridersup]

Karl

Just checked out the DRF charts and they are indeed more concise. However I did note a couple of problems at least for my purposes.

First of all they do not show race conditions. This might be ok for large tracks but smaller tracks are full of condition races. Tampa cards claiming races at 4 lifetime conditions at 5k, 7k, and recently they added l0k and l2k to their condition races. They also have condition races for NW 1 and NW 2 in 6mos at the 4k level and every once in a while sneak in a 5k race nw 1 in 3mos.
I use the charts to make variants when I am not able to go to the track so without the conditions listed in the results I have to go to TSN to get a program showing the actual conditions of the race.

Secondly the trouble lines are easier to read on the equibase chart as there is a line for each horse which is usually quite descriptive.

The only quarrel I have with either of the two charts is that they only remain accessable for a short period of time. Seems like they could archive the charts for a longer period.

But hey if its free its for me.



Ridersup

[karlskorner]

Ridersup;

For years I cut the charts from the DRF and pasted them into a notebook. Along came Equibase and it made my job easier. My home base is CRC, GP and Hia. So I only have to follow one circuit.

My main purpose for keeping charts is "key" races, an evasive theory for many, but I have done very well with it. I also make some trip handicapping notes and paddock observations on the charts.

The comment lines in the DRF are a little more explicit than Equibase, but either will do. DRF supposedly is coming out with a new format in April and these charts will be part of it, thats why you won't find them mentioned in the DRF main page.

There was a time Equibase kept charts for an entire meet, but a couple years back they changed to the past 5 days, same as DRF is doing. You might want to download and save the charts, which I have done in the past when I did'nt have time to print them, then you can recall them as needed.

Karl

[Tom]

I download charts from trackmaster-they are available forever and take up little room on my hard drive. Also, they can be loaded into Access and there is a lot of great data in each file, including pace ratings, speed ratings, parts, times in 100's.....for $1 a day, it is agood deal. And they have a free track profile program that you can download and print out a good variety of profiles. I used to manually enter all the race data every day for FL and AQI-now i can follow 5-6 tracks easily.
Tom

[ridersup]

Karl and Tom

Who said competition isn't healthy. Who would have ever thought that we would be able to get racing forms for a dollar and programs and charts free. What a country.

Karl. Cut my teeth on making variants for CRC from 88 to 95. Then got shipped north for the summer by the Mrs. and it became more difficult to do. I also clipped charts for a couple of years to try and find key races and I agree they are definitly worth the effort. It seemed to me at the time that best resuts with key races were with the younger horses in maiden and maiden claiming races. Currently I keep daily variants for Tampa and have done fairly well trying to uncover key races before the fact. When I see a day that is consistently slow 4 to 5 and then up pops a maiden claimer that runs a fast 5 race all the horses involved in serious running in the race go into stable mail.

Tom. Have had a trackmaster account for pp's for some time but seldom use them. Going to check into their charts. Thanks.

[karlskorner]

Ridersup

The best horse I ever caught out of a key race was Little Whitey (on the grass about 4 yrs. ago Nov.) paid $143.00. His offspring, Hey Whitey, in now running here.

Jim Lehane (who's name has been mentioned on this board) wrote in his book "Calibration Handicapping" about "key" races, but couldn't get a handle on it.

We have e-mailed back and forth. Something I discovered and he wrote about in his book, if 2 or more horses go on to win out of a particular race and the winner of that particular race lead all the way and "GAINED" in the stretch, you can stand by the window and collect on the next horse that comes out of that race. There is no rhyme or reason for this to happen, but it does time and again. I have tried to catch them earlier, but to no avail. I have to have 2 horses go on and win. I have collected many double digit mutals from this.

Karl

The big problem with all online charts is their incompleteness. DRF's hardcopy charts are still the best in the business. I still miss having the overweights data, dates since last race, etc. included in the electronic versions. If I recall, even the product you pay for, such as TM's, is lacking this important info. But hey...the rest of the online stuff is free, so one can't expect too much.

Boxcar

[Jake]

Boxcar,

Curious how you use the overweights data? I have always looked at it on race day, but never thought to followed it in subsequent races....



Originally posted by Boxcar
The big problem with all online charts is their incompleteness. DRF's hardcopy charts are still the best in the business. I still miss having the overweights data, dates since last race, etc. included in the electronic versions. If I recall, even the product you pay for, such as TM's, is lacking this important info. But hey...the rest of the online stuff is free, so one can't expect too much.

Boxcar

Jake:

I kept an updated book with all the Jocks' weights on a particular circuit listed in it. This could be done easily enough over time by noting the overwieghts everyday. For example, if a horse was supposed to carry 112, but the jock riding him was listed as "2 lbs. over", then I'd know his body weight was 114. I'd enter this number into the book. Then what I'd do when perusing the pp charts is watch for jockey changes and large shifts in dead weight -- and sometimes there would even be substantial shifts in dead weight without any jockey change. A very subtle weight angle and pretty good one, as most trainers do fear too much dead weight on a horse. In fact, often they'll gladly trade dead weight for live weight.

Boxcar

[Jake]

Boxcar,

Thanks for followup. I always felt that at 3lbs over or higher that this might be a negative indication of trainer intent. Especially when in a route or when the same trainer had earlier in the week won with an apprentice jockey. Never tracked this with an adequate sample, though, so still not sure.

Originally posted by Boxcar
Jake:

I kept an updated book with all the Jocks' weights on a particular circuit listed in it. This could be done easily enough over time by noting the overwieghts everyday. For example, if a horse was supposed to carry 112, but the jock riding him was listed as "2 lbs. over", then I'd know his body weight was 114. I'd enter this number into the book. Then what I'd do when perusing the pp charts is watch for jockey changes and large shifts in dead weight -- and sometimes there would even be substantial shifts in dead weight without any jockey change. A very subtle weight angle and pretty good one, as most trainers do fear too much dead weight on a horse. In fact, often they'll gladly trade dead weight for live weight.

Boxcar

[pasco]

Lately I am unable to download the free charts

and view them offline.I use explorer 5.0.Oh i can

download the drf charts.Can anyone tell me whats up

Pasco

[MikeH]

Pasco -

I didn't have any problems yesterday or today using Netscape 3.0, Netscpae 4.7 and Opera...

[pasco]

thanks it must be explorer 5.0.i'll download

netscape and try it.pasco