Any tips on homegrown software ?

[gonin02]

I'm thinking about making a simple database program as a pet project.. Maybe use something like Access and VB. No prediction engines, no analysis, just something to track past results.

For those who have tried this, any advice on where to get data from ? I was thinking equibase ? Also, there must be some kind of standardized format the data is given in..correct ? It'd be kinda tedious to manually enter it all in...

thanks for any advice..
Kev

[Rick]

In my opinion, 99.9% of the information you can get is totally worthless. Yes, people can tell you how to get massive amounts of information but that's really not very useful. My solution was to do small pilot studies on all of the handicapping factors that I thought might be significant and discard those that didn't do well. Experience helps A LOT in choosing factors. I discovered a few factors that really work and combined them to make a good selection method. I don't claim that it's the best, but then I'm not selling anything and I don't need to modify the results because I'm writing a book or giving a seminar.

In the past I entered the few factors in a home grown database and determined the best weighting for them. Occasionally, I try to improve the method by testing a new factor in combination with the basic method. There are two ways I usually do this. One is by checking the ROI of horses ranked first both in the basic method and first in the candidate factor. Almost always, adding a new factor increases the win % and decreases the ROI substantially. If I find something that doesn't decrease the ROI much I might try the second test. That is to look at the top two on the basic method and see how the highest ranked on the new factor does of those two. If it doesn't improve the ROI (it almost never does), I don't consider using it. In the rare case where it improves the ROI, then I'll try to establish a weighting for it and test it for at least 6 months. So, if I build a database it has very few factors in it. Don't fall into the trap of trying to build a database with everything in it. Very few of those who have done so have discovered anything useful.

[sjk]

I have parsed Equibase charts and analysed the data in Access for many years. I enjoyed the challenge of training my computer to handicap the races for me. If you enjoy that sort of thing and are willing to invest the time, it can prove very interesting and rewarding.

[Rick]

sjk,

You've probably put in a great deal of effort and learned a lot and I don't mean to diminish the value of that in any way. But don't you think that the amount of time to do it that way is enormous compared with looking at a smaller number of factors? My point is that, for someone starting out trying to find winning factors, it's quicker to do it my way than to try to analyze everything. And, you'll have to admit that doing what you've done requires a much higher level of technical expertise. I really always wanted to do it the way you did but never was willing to invest the time required. Also, I think that it's really important to be able to come up with some positive results without too much effort. That's the thing that really keeps you going. If it's too hard to do, it never gets done. But maybe I'm lazy.

[sjk]

The first few years I was working on this, I probably spent over 1000 hours on it (which I enjoyed doing). I learned enough about database development that I have done a lot of Access programming for other applications at work since then.

I guess I choose the only approach that came to mind at the time; certainly not the only one and probably not the easiest.

[Rick]

sjk,

I wish I'd done what you did but just wasn't willing to spend the time. But, I found something that worked anyway so I'm happy with that. Actually, I probably spent more hours in the 70's checking systems manually before computers were widely available. So, it's more a matter of losing my youthful energy than anything else.

[BillW]

gonin02,

If you just want to keep charts, contact Game Theory - a poster on this site. He has written a piece of software that I believe will do what you want in a turnkey fashion (and gives it away!).

Bill

[gonin02]

Thanks for the heads up on Game Theory's software... yes, it does parse the results from equibase, but it outputs them in HTML format.. still tough as nails to parse out (at least for me).

Thinking about this whole project again, I suppose it would be nice to have some sort of number crunching involved. After all, here we with these computers that can do all sorts of things, yet I still read the form and make my selections with a pen and paper.. But maybe that's what makes this game so fun..

[GameTheory]

I have two programs -- one downloads the charts (and leaves them in the same format, more or less) and the other is a parser and will output the charts in .csv format or any other way you desire for database importing. The parser isn't all that user-friendly, but will do the job, and is a hell of a lot easier than starting from scratch...


Click on the website button below this post.

[gonin02]

Hi Gametheory..

I found the parsing tool... great work !

Originally posted by GameTheory
I have two programs -- one downloads the charts (and leaves them in the same format, more or less) and the other is a parser and will output the charts in .csv format or any other way you desire for database importing. The parser isn't all that user-friendly, but will do the job, and is a hell of a lot easier than starting from scratch...


Click on the website button below this post.

[Brian Flewwelling]

I have a program that will download Equibase Charts, Entries, and Workouts then parse them into Acceess. It also d/loads TSN Instant Programs to get the Race description (Classes like nw1x, etc) and program numbers.

i am willing to share with others who are willing to share their thoughts and suggestions.

I also have a program that creates Race Programs from that type of data which i am willing to share. (By 'type of data' i mean there is a set of intermediate steps involving a very large database from which the data for the Race Program is selected.)

Brian

[gonin02]

Sent you PM

Originally posted by Brian Flewwelling
I have a program that will download Equibase Charts, Entries, and Workouts then parse them into Acceess. It also d/loads TSN Instant Programs to get the Race description (Classes like nw1x, etc) and program numbers.

i am willing to share with others who are willing to share their thoughts and suggestions.

I also have a program that creates Race Programs from that type of data which i am willing to share. (By 'type of data' i mean there is a set of intermediate steps involving a very large database from which the data for the Race Program is selected.)

Brian