What happed to these handicapping programs?

[Speed Figure]

Equisim, Synergism, All-in-One, Diamond System, The Capper, Power Online. I'm sure there are far more programs that we talked about in the pass. What happen? seems like most of these things just died out.

[JustRalph]

Equisim is still out there. http://thorotech.com/


but the author, Nathan, moved on to some other things in his life. I know he is still available for questions the last I looked. I see his BB/Forum is still up, but with very light activity.

[LottaKash]

Hey Speed, All in one, from cynthia publishing is still alive and according to them still doing quite well..........Pandy's Diamond Software(s) are still alive and kicking also.......

Perhaps they are doing so well that the owner/operators of them, just may be keeping their good things all to themselves..........

best.

[JimG]

Hi Speed,

I agree it does seem that way. Most of us that have been on this board for awhile have realized that no commerical program, in and of itself makes us a winner. At best they manage information and give us some unique numbers that allow us to be successful in a simulcasting environment.

I guess its human nature that most of the talk is about newer programs. Newer does not always mean better, it just depends. There are not many newer programs out and I think that is because some of the older ones have a strong following and they manage information and provide solid numbers.

I still get a chuckle out of posts that say this program picked this horse or did not pick this horse, etc. None of the programs I have ever used picked a horse for me. That responsibility falls on my shoulders.

I know there are still people that use Capper, Equisim, Synergism and all-in-one. The fact that there is not much buzz may be a good thing as people have gone onto something else when they did not find the holy grail, therefore, not as many people using the programs.

For a relatively niche sport like horse racing, I think we are blessed with many fine programs that can manage information and give us solid numbers that differ enough from what the MOTO'S are looking at. For people looking for the holy grail to pick the winners in an automated fashion for them, a commercial program out of the box will always be a disapointment. With much work by the user, some programs can facilitate that process greatly. Fortunately, most will not do the work.

Jim

[Tom Barrister]

Equisim, Synergism, All-in-One, Diamond System, The Capper, Power Online. I'm sure there are far more programs that we talked about in the pass. What happen? seems like most of these things just died out.

Powerline is gone. Steve Wolson stopped marketing it. You can probably still get a copy from him.

Equisim is there but not being developed anymore.

Diamond is still there, and Bob is still active.

All-In-One is still there and uses HDW data.

NetCapper (The Capper) is still around and uses HDW data

[completebill]

Just as a suggestion, you'd probably profit from using the "search" feature on this forum---You'll find, I believe, a number of references/discussions of these programs.

I'm probably one of a small minority, being a NetCapper user since it's inception. I've previously posted about my success using the program.

Gordon Pine, who wrote the program, is an amazing guy. He's worked with me extensively over the years, helping me to "tweak" it, to the point now of solid profitability. Gordon was the origanal programmer, for Cynthia Publishing, of All-In-One, which id still on the market and, I believe, supported.

[john w]

I use the NetCapper daily at the race book and have made a very nice profit, for me it works

[Dick Schmidt]

Synergism is still alive and kicking, used by a select number of mostly professional handicappers. You can access it on:

www.synergism-sdp.com (http://www.synergism-sdp.com/)

Dick

[raybo]

Hi Speed,

I agree it does seem that way. Most of us that have been on this board for awhile have realized that no commerical program, in and of itself makes us a winner. At best they manage information and give us some unique numbers that allow us to be successful in a simulcasting environment.

I guess its human nature that most of the talk is about newer programs. Newer does not always mean better, it just depends. There are not many newer programs out and I think that is because some of the older ones have a strong following and they manage information and provide solid numbers.

I still get a chuckle out of posts that say this program picked this horse or did not pick this horse, etc. None of the programs I have ever used picked a horse for me. That responsibility falls on my shoulders.

I know there are still people that use Capper, Equisim, Synergism and all-in-one. The fact that there is not much buzz may be a good thing as people have gone onto something else when they did not find the holy grail, therefore, not as many people using the programs.

For a relatively niche sport like horse racing, I think we are blessed with many fine programs that can manage information and give us solid numbers that differ enough from what the MOTO'S are looking at. For people looking for the holy grail to pick the winners in an automated fashion for them, a commercial program out of the box will always be a disapointment. With much work by the user, some programs can facilitate that process greatly. Fortunately, most will not do the work.

Jim

I have said this before, the best handicapping program for any player is the one he writes himself. You don't have to be a programmer to do it. You don't even have to use a computer, initially. The learning curve is defeated as you go along. You can start with a pencil and paper and once you get something solid in mind you can then use your computer to automate the process in order to save time, headaches, and errors.

Excel is an excellent program for doing this. Sure you have to know how to use Excel, but it's not that difficult. If you are pretty good with math you can write the formulas you need and if you can "record" macros (a recording of all things done with the mouse and the keyboard), you can automate things like: copying/pasting, sorting, filtering, grabbing data files, grabbing individual races, clearing data, running tests of many races with one click of the mouse in order to check out new theories, and much more. There are many Excel forums where you can ask questions, get code for macros that cannot be "recorded", etc..

Start with one thing that you know is true like, "a horse must be able to handle the expected pace of the race and still have a kick or must be able to set the pace and hold on to the wire", then build on it, adding other things that are true as you go along.

It's a process and takes some time but the rewards are many, a better understanding of what works and what doesn't, you know what's in the program and how things are derived, you have the ability to modify it in any way you choose as things change, etc..

But the biggest reward of all is the satisfaction of knowing that it's all you, you created it, it's not going to be beat into the ground by the public or other users, and you know how to use it and what it can do and can't do.

[shoelessjoe]

TPR Professional Edition by Hambleton and Schmidt

[jorge jaramillo]

I didn't know there was a professional edition of TPR..??

[Lefty]

several years ago I got a flyer for the Professional ver of TPR. He was going to use his own propietary data files. It was several hundred bucks. I reasoned if he went out of business I would be left with a .50 cent disk. Yup he went out of business.

[Secretariat]

Emailed Wolson last month, and he spoke about a new POL 7.0 next years with multiple new methods, and some kind of Refinements feature. Who knows?

[RonTiller]

Tom Hambleton actually had a program called TPR 95. It came out not long after Windows 95 and was designed for Windows, hence TPR 95. This program was the next evolution of his Win Formula program, with Michael Perry programming both programs (the same Michael Perry who did ThoroVision). Tom was working at HDW at the time and TPR 95 used our proprietary data files. I don't recall if Dick Schmidt was involved with this program but he may have been. As I recall, Dick was using Dave Schwartz's old Notebook program around that time.

I don't recall why we stopped posting files for the program - it may have been that Tom just moved on or he got tired of doing tech support.

I just realized I've been in this business a long time.

Ron Tiller
HDW

[Tom Barrister]

Tom was working for HDW in 1995? I remember him living in Vegas in 1994. He was selling his program back then. I don't remember what kind of files it took.

The last I heard, Tom gave up on the horses and went to driving a cab. I don't know if he's still doing that.