Older DOS handicapping program

[redeye007]

I was just wondering if anyone has ever heard of this older dos handicapping software. It's called Prof Jones Thoroughbred Platinum Level V. It was out of Boise Idaho and they have been out of business for quite some time now. I have been using this product since 1990 with some fabulous results. It has to be run on an older machine with a cpu speed of less than 200 mhz so I have it installed on a slower computer using windows 98. For example yesterday 4 of it's top picks won in the last 6 races at SA. Unfortunately it requires manual entry of data from the racing form but it still appears to be doing well.It's a shame they went out of business because they might have been able to convert it to a windows based program using drf files eliminating manual entry. As long as it keeps picking winners I'm happy. :)

[wookie]

yes i have this one as well"

I am trying to find a programer know.
I even look up his address on google 1940 west state st idahoi.
I live in okl.city :) :)

[redeye007]

yes i have this one as well"

I am trying to find a programer know.
I even look up his address on google 1940 west state st idahoi.
I live in okl.city :) :)

It's a great program. Used to pick some huge longshots but with all the dutching software out there it's difficult to get the big odds anymore. the program sometimes comes up with ridiculous longshots that actually win and skyrocket payoffs. I do especially well in maiden claimers with it and play superfectas. the largest being one for 11k and 18k both just a box of the top 4. 2 weeks ago it picked a 4k super at SA using the top 4 with the top pick winning. I sure hope that dongle keeps working. :)

[keith70]

Search for Warren Henry on here, it may have been his software, hard for me to remeber back that far.

[Warren Henry]

Search for Warren Henry on here, it may have been his software, hard for me to remeber back that far.

Sorry, that wasn't my product. My primary product was called The Statistical/Probability Handicapper (or S/P Handicapper). I also sold a lot of a product called "The Pace Machine"

[hozdaddy]

redeye.....i have a copy of professor jones thoroughbred level 4 from 1994...when it was working, it did extremely well on exactas for me. it used bris files for input, did not have to do it manually. back when we loaded it manually, it would take 4-5 hours to do a card. i tried loading it on my P3 computer but it comes up with a "run time error". i'm wondering if i tripped the copy protection or have a bad disk or something, but i thought the dongle and the key disk were supposed to take care of the copy protection issue. would love to find "professor jones" to get this situation squared away again as i was extremely pleased with the results i got when i used it. do you think it might work if i got an older machine that ran dos?

[wookie]

yah"I found my after 14years' ONLY I cant find the key" I just found aOld 67k
windows 98 I have 5/4 and a 3.3 and they work but i cant analyisis.
my programer thinks he needs to see all of the program" I have moved three times in twenty years" and lost the key .are there any name or numbers on yours? if so could you let me know"?

Thanks Wookie

[hozdaddy]

redeye......after doing some reasearch on the web, i found that there is in fact a problem with running it on a faster computer. the "runtime 200" error i get when trying to install to my hard drive is a problem with the compiler used, Pascal 7.0. so i guess i'll look for an old 486 dx33. i've already found a version of dos 6.0.

[hozdaddy]

wookie....on my key, there is a little silver circular thing inside it that has "copyright 1993"..... "Dallas" "C2"..... "9326 575AW"......... "DS1420-5"..........then on the plastic casing it has "DS 1410"....... "9404F" and "D41194"
Good Luck

[redeye007]

redeye.....i have a copy of professor jones thoroughbred level 4 from 1994...when it was working, it did extremely well on exactas for me. it used bris files for input, did not have to do it manually. back when we loaded it manually, it would take 4-5 hours to do a card. i tried loading it on my P3 computer but it comes up with a "run time error". i'm wondering if i tripped the copy protection or have a bad disk or something, but i thought the dongle and the key disk were supposed to take care of the copy protection issue. would love to find "professor jones" to get this situation squared away again as i was extremely pleased with the results i got when i used it. do you think it might work if i got an older machine that ran dos?

Prof jones software was written in Borland turbo pascal and will not run on a fast machine i.e. 200megahertz or higher. On a fast machine it will generate the run time error or division by zero so it has to run on a slower machine. I have mine running on a 166 and 133 megahertz cpu machine. unfortunately borland is out of business and so is the prof. I did a long search and there appears to be no fix for this crt timing error which produces the division by zero on machines faster than 200mhz. I have a 3 ghz cpu machine and can't run it on that one. find youself a 166 or 133 mhz machine and you'll be back in business. the machine I'm using are running windows 98 and I just exit to dos mode to run the prof. I just posted the super high five at SA for 4/17 race 8 using the prof. the 10/1 top pick is the ultra pick based on 9 race results of this type of race. It will be interesting to see how it does.:)

[headhawg]

Here are a couple of links that provide information about the Turbo Pascal problem and possible fixes:

TP compiler bug explained (http://www.geocities.com/franzglaser/tpsrc/ml_crt200.html)

The download links are broken on that page so try this one for the fixes:

TP bugfix files (http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/pas-r200.htm)

Obviously these may not work but could be worth a try.

[hozdaddy]

redeye....when you load manually, how long does it take you for a race or a day's card? do you do a whole card or just certain types of races?

[hozdaddy]

redeye....i see where the you had the 5th race exacta with a 3 horse box for $15.40.....as i said, the exacta was my preferred play with the prof.

[redeye007]

It all depends how fast you can type. I'm an average speed typer and have to look at the keyboard. a single race takes me about 10 minutes. the key to accuracy with the prof is to make sure your fractional adjuster is accurate. I just go to drf.com and get the quarter and half calls for sprints and the half and three quarter calls for routes and try to get at least 10 races at the distance and find the average so early speed will be accurate regardless of distance. Santa Anita has been tough. If you have level 5 you can go to the weighting section and set the database weight for your system for an off track system for aws that works really good. I just turn on 1st speed and 2nd speed and leave the others off and have 1st speed set to 0-50 and 2nd speed set to 0-25. I was amazed at how well this works when races are taken off the turf. create your own system for maidens using the same factor values as the defaults except set UDS class to -45 +45 and use a wildcard value of 60 for animals dropping in from msw that have never run in a mc. the weight fo the wildcard should be 0-99. It works good for me. funny thing is the program worked really good in so cal before this artificial surface was installed. I notice that the trainer keep bouncing the animals back and forth for main to grass trying to fool everyone and collect good odds I guess so I may try an all dirt track since SA closes in 2 days and hollywood is a aws track. Ultra has been nailing some good winners in the last week including a $33 winner but nothing bigger. It's weird but the other day the ulrta 2nd pick won 5 in a row and the 6th one missed that I need for the pick 4. :D I will start posting the profs top 4 picks for standad analysis and top 4 for ultra analysis and you can see how they do. sometimes if there is a big gap between the top3 ultra selections and the rest of the field and one of those 3 is a longshot it may win. the 3rd ultra pick paid $55 the other day but I didn't use it so you gotta watch the tote and see it there's is any extra value out there.

[redeye007]

redeye....when you load manually, how long does it take you for a race or a day's card? do you do a whole card or just certain types of races?

I'm using 2 computers at once. I have the bris $1 pp's on my main computer screen and I input the info on the slow computer next to it. as far as what races I do it all depends what I want to play. I normally do the last 6 if I want to play the pick 6 or the last 4. I stay away from short fields.

[wookie]

I rember my key made of metal" I Have the five version"

hey redeye can you give me your pick for ssxtoday"? like to see"
wookie

[Maxspa]

All,
The discussion on this thread has given me the urge to unpack some handicapping materials and find this software. I remember it had an excellent manual and when it was first offered for sale, the program was one of the best available!
Maxspa

[redeye007]

I rember my key made of metal" I Have the five version"

hey redeye can you give me your pick for ssxtoday"? like to see"
wookie
I posted them in selection section under late pick 4 for SA 4/18. Of course 3 out of 4 again for the umteenth time. the prof had the late dd cold for $25. I just couldn't make a case for the winner of the 8th but figured a longshot would win it. the winner was 6/1.

[redeye007]

All,
The discussion on this thread has given me the urge to unpack some handicapping materials and find this software. I remember it had an excellent manual and when it was first offered for sale, the program was one of the best available!
Maxspa

level 5 thoroughbred cost $799.95 at the time which was a lot of money.

[hozdaddy]

redeye.....did you have the bloodstock data link in your version? i have a BSLINK program which is a translator software to update jones database with downloaded BRIS data files. i spoke with tech support and they don't have the programmer files from jones anymore but they do have the comma delimited files which BSLINK gives you the option of using. i am wondering if this option is just not applicable anymore.

[redeye007]

yes I have the brislink but never used it. a friend used it a few times and he always had to review and edit the info cause it had a ton of errors. personally I wouldn't use it plus the files cost the same as an allways file. I'm winning at the track the old fashioned way-by typing! :D

[redeye007]

now that santa anita has ended I think I will focus on a real dirt track. the results precision was so much better than the poly track surfaces. santa anita was becoming a guessing game for me. will the closer win? will early speed last? is the class horse in condition coming off a layoff? one thing I did learn about the prof and polytrack was when it rains and races are taken off the turf, speed is a good predictor of the winner. nailed some nice $12-$20 winners when the races were taken off the turf.

[hozdaddy]

redeye....i'm not that up on the new surface.....can track maintenance give the polytrack a bias? also how would past performances at santa anita integrate with races run on dirt at hollywood. would you have to wait awhile and build up a database of dirt races?

[redeye007]

hi, the only real bias I have noticed was when races were taken off the turf for some reason. I did a database analysis of the races on theses days and noticed that 1st speed and 2nd speed dominated these races even in maidens and it lasted for 3 or 4 days and then things were back to normal. late closers were doing well also so you couldn't leave them out of your exotics if the best runners looked vulnerable especially in races beyond 6 furlongs . the best thing to do is just watch for a week or so and look for patterns for factors that are supporting winners in certain races and don't doubt the program when it comes up with longshots. a lot of nice longshot winners were coming from the top 2 ultra selections. be sure to update your track records for winning times and fractional calls and also jockey , trainer, and post bias stats. I'm trying to decide what track to play next. I believe my SA ultra files could work at hollywood park and they have the largest pools. do you have level 5 with the weighting section? sometimes the standard selections will surprise you and the top picks will win 4 of 6 in the pick 6 with some boxcar payoffs. I can't count how many pick 4's I lost cause the 4/5 favorite that I singled lost.

[John]

I thought that XP computers would handle any Dos programs.

[RichieP]

I thought that XP computers would handle any Dos programs.

Vista will handle them also when installing "Dosbox"
http://www.dosbox.com/

[hozdaddy]

tech support at bloodstock recommended dosbox.....i had a problem running prof jones in dosbox also.

[redeye007]

tech support at bloodstock recommended dosbox.....i had a problem running prof jones in dosbox also.

Hi, were you able to find a fix for the runtime error 200 on a fast computer?

[hozdaddy]

Hi, were you able to find a fix for the runtime error 200 on a fast computer?

no...but there is a community college getting rid of complete computer systems for $50 , so i'm going to go and hopefully i can score a slower computer.

[redeye007]

no...but there is a community college getting rid of complete computer systems for $50 , so i'm going to go and hopefully i can score a slower computer.

look for the old pentium 66,100, 133,166. not sure if the pentium 200mhz will work but it might. amd 386 cpu is good . I tried to find a p133,166 or 200 laptop on ebay but the ones I saw for sale were no good. you need one with an ac adapter cause the battery is probably no good and the batteries are over a hundred bucks. the ones I saw were sold as is with no hard drives , no floppy drive, no ac power adapter. they were crappy and were not worth the asking price. every now and then someone sells one in the classified sections of the papers. dos 6 or win 95 or 98 is good for an os. I'll keep an eye out on ebay and pm you if I spot one.

[redeye007]

no...but there is a community college getting rid of complete computer systems for $50 , so i'm going to go and hopefully i can score a slower computer.
http://cgi.ebay.com/FIJUTSI-LIFEBOOK-C353-LAPTOP-NOTEBOOK-WORKS-PENTIUM-II_W0QQitemZ370190743994QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLaptops _Nov05?hash=item370190743994&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1240%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C 240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

check this out. I not 100% sure what the fastest speed the prof will run at.

[redeye007]

http://cgi.ebay.com/FIJUTSI-LIFEBOOK-C353-LAPTOP-NOTEBOOK-WORKS-PENTIUM-II_W0QQitemZ370190743994QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLaptops _Nov05?hash=item370190743994&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1240%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C 240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

check this out. I not 100% sure what the fastest speed the prof will run at.

I just found out that this pentium 2 runs at 300mhz. someone will have to chime in as to whether or not you can run the prof at 300mhz without getting the runtime error 200.

[redeye007]

http://www.laptopoutlet.com/delacplap166.html

here you go. I'm running the prof on a 166mhz computer :cool:
go for it.

[damascus]

I run the level vi version of the prof on a dell 380D. I have one as a backup for when this one breaks (some day!) It will not run on anything faster than 200mhz. I use the Brislink download tool to save the data-entry time.

I have played around with other programs, but I still come back to this one; it is easy to modify parameters. It's one drawback is that it distorts speed + or - for odd distances, such as 8.2, 8.3 and 9.5 furlongs in database analysis.

I have spent the better part of 5 years trying to fix the runtime 200 problem, but now I just use old laptops.

[DeadHeat]

Vista will handle them also when installing "Dosbox"
http://www.dosbox.com/

This is good advice. Dosbox is free. You can change the timing to slow down the computer and works well. No need to buy more computers to run it. Should take care of the errors too.

[redeye007]

I run the level vi version of the prof on a dell 380D. I have one as a backup for when this one breaks (some day!) It will not run on anything faster than 200mhz. I use the Brislink download tool to save the data-entry time.

I have played around with other programs, but I still come back to this one; it is easy to modify parameters. It's one drawback is that it distorts speed + or - for odd distances, such as 8.2, 8.3 and 9.5 furlongs in database analysis.

I have spent the better part of 5 years trying to fix the runtime 200 problem, but now I just use old laptops.

I notice that speed distortion too at those odd distances especially 8.3. the only thing I guess you can do is run ultra and try to tweak the handicapping system for that distance. I've had some excellent results using it to play supers in maiden claimers at any distance.

[Tom]

Maybe Dos Box will solve my problem?
I cannot print from my old MPH program on the newer machines.
I would like to be able to print out the races, but just can't get it done.

I used to have a nifty program that re-directed the print output to a text file
which was very useful, then, one day, it just stopped working. that was nice because I could output to text then parse the numbers out and put them into Access.

[off'nclear]

I might actually be able to contribute something. (I'm amazed!) The program we used for YEARS, when upgraded stopped direct printing without DOS printer and didn't recognize USB. Print to file (Word, for me), then I could print.

I hope that made sense. But, I really think I just showed less than brilliant. (Again)

When I relate various experiences, people laugh hysterically and insist that I'm just so darned funny and insist I make these things up. I insist that if I were to make up a story, I would be the smart one, not the dim wit.

[fast4522]

Tom,
I can fix your printing problems, first program pipes data to USB from LP1,
second pipes USB into a PDF, or direct to paper. If you have not done this yet we can do the email thing or the phone thing but in either case will have you burning up trees in no time
Steve