EquiSim by Thorotech
 

Hello Handicappers,

Are there anyone out there using this software with any success? I would like to hear anyone thoughts on this software.

Thanks,
Topgun

I know JustRalph was/is always a big fan of this program...he will probably have something to say about it...

I have always heard good things about it but never delved into it too much myself...is it still supported by the developer?

AFAIK Nathan still supports ES, but doesn't have any plans to release a version 7. The latest (very stable) version -- 6.0.0.17 -- came out in 2010. The forums are not real active but also not totally dead. The dedicated users there are very supportive.

It used to be my favorite program. Lots of good stuff in it -- great UI, and lots of handy features like the File Organizer and several PP display options (including our own JR's Magic Marker!). ES also has a way to create custom formulas. This is one of the best features, but does require a basic understand of programming. And users would share their formulas which was cool. That was one of my favorite things about it. Optionally you can purchase an additional module (DB Direct) that lets you export data from ES into an Access database for more research capability.

So, why is it no longer my favorite? Short answer is I don't handicap much anymore. To make ES a viable program requires that you create a database. You need Bris data and results files. (I think it now works with .jcp files.) If you only play a track or two then it's not too bad in terms of affordability. Beyond that it gets pretty expensive imo. And you can't mix files because the data is different. If you commit to Bris .drf you have to stay with it or start a brand new database with you new data files. And users really need to d/l all of the races for each track even on days that you might not play. So if you're a weekend warrior or only play on occasion, ES probably is not right for you. And it pains me to type that as Nathan is a great guy (from what little I know of him) and ES is a really, really good program. It's just not for everyone.

Hello Topgun:

Equisim, I am quite sure is still alive and well. Yes, JustRalph can tell you a great deal about this program as he is very attuned to its many attributes. Both he and I have been fans of the Equisim program and its developer Nathan Miserocchi since its inception or early stages of development. Outstanding program that even allows the user to most effectively utilize results in a database to create their own effective and most lucrative plays. Many excellent users have even developed their own formula views (algorithms) which were awesome at fitting many types of plays like a glove to find those horses that one may often miss utilizing universal maxims or standard techniques often considered to be within traditional handicapping.

Wonderfully put together program by a Top Notch (Total Class Individual) in Nathan M.

At your convenience, if you are so inclined you can visit his site and reach out to him (I believe that he may still even offer a Demo Version) at:

www.thorotech.com

All the BEST!

equisim
 

Loved that program back in the day. Will the program run with today's technology?

HarryS:

Yes, the program runs perfectly fine on any Windows OS... It runs perfectly on Windows 7, 10, etc.. I still use it constantly along with several other handicapping tools (software) in my play. It works just as effectively today as it did when Nathan M. originally developed the program. :)

Dam HH..

Do you know about every software made?

:lol:

Mike

EquiSim
 

PA,

I appreciate the reply back about this software.

Thanks!

I used to use ES and it was a very good program.
I still have a copy -not sure of the version. Does anyone know if Nathan still sells upgrades?

I would like to try out the part where you can put BRIS numbers into formulae - never got to that part of it.

The only thing I will add, these guys have covered it well, is do not ignore longshots that do well in the simulator. I bought my wife a new car once using the sim picks on Preakness day :ThmbUp:

The only weakness in using the simulator is that it doesn’t deal with track to track adjustments very well. Class is a factor here also.

Example:

Horse coming from Mountaineer to a Nyra etc. that horse can look golden in the sim off a big race at the mountain, but the tracks surfaces are so different, they run like shit in NY or out west. But it can go the other way too. Once you get used to it, you can spot horses that are going run better than the sim predicts. It just takes practice.

I highly recommend picking your own pace lines. The app lets you automatically do it, but if you pick the pacelines based on how you think the horse will run today, you will get more price horses once you get the hang of it. The app will sometimes pick a paceline for a horse, where the horse had a terrible trip, you want to choose another in that case.

I don’t play much anymore, but when I do I’m looking for longshots that do well in the equisim simulator. Especially on Breeders cup or Triple crown cards. They aren’t out there like they used to be, but while in Vegas last year on business we found some time in the sports book. ES pointed me out a nice $50 horse from the sim......a front runner who stayed on.....it was fun.

Tom

Nathan does sell upgrades. I recently bought the upgrade. I had bought one of the real early versions around 2002, before the Formula View version. I was using another product at the time and didn't really get into that much. After all these years Nathan honored the upgrade price. I haven't bought the Data base program yet, but probably will.

I know a little bit about basic programming but not enough to build a program from the ground up. Instead of having to code import, storage, display, printing, scratch, paceline selection and many other routines, one can concentrate on the formulas and what and how you want information displayed on the grids. This looks like a good platform to build a program the way you would like it to work and look. I've always like the way Multicaps looked and worked. Something along that style with more information and arrange differently. I like information display on a grid with ranking numbers beside the rating figures. Also, would like to be able to sort on most columns. I think those things can be done in EquiSim. Now I have to make time to upgrade my programming skills.

Before I bought the upgrade, I downloaded the demo and tried it out on a file I had from Oakland Park Jan 28. I downloaded the demo version, loaded the file, took out scratches and ran the simulator with no adjustments. The sim charts had the winner of 6 of 9 races right on top, including 3 longshots. Hit the last pick 4. Unfortunately, I ran it on Jan 29. It may not have another day quite that good, but it made for a good selling point. I upgraded.

Race1: 5 Surprise Prize 25.60 12.00 8.40
Race4: 8 Oso Ready 8.60 4.80 3.20
Race6: 1 Five O One 3.40 3.00 2.40
Race7: 10 Big Red 37.60 13.80 8.60
Race8: 2 Awesome Gal 31.00 11.00 6.40
Race9: 4 Like a Haint 9.80 5.20 4.00

$.50 Pick 4 (1-10-2-4) (4 Correct) Paid: $5,276.75

Nice work, ky:ThmbUp:

Let's just say that I have tried a few in my day, yeah. There are still some I haven't tried so I am making a bucket list. Eventually I would like to finish my own program and then maybe my collecting of handicapping software will be finished. :)

Beautiful KY Racer:

ES (Equisim) can be a deadly and extremely accurate horse racing software program. It is very precise in its approach and and the programs developer is "Top Shelf" in every regard. :)

Can someone put some screenshots of what it looks like?

Thats cool HH....

I would love to make my own ..one day...if I ever learn a language..lol

if you ever need a partner , let me know

Mike

This might help:

http://www.thorotech.com/equisim/features.html

No messages or up-dates since 2010...

no chat room......

big incentive to send check....

looks like owner stepped away and hopes people buy an old program....
and hopes peeps not use credit card/ paypal ...so that they cant fight for their money back

this is a red flag for me...

Mike

Credit cards and PayPal take a nice chunk out of your revenue.

Your unfounded allegations are disturbing, to say the least. I haven't heard one bad word about the product or the man behind it in all the years I've been running this board. And I'm fairly certain they have never advertised here, so it's not like I'm trying to protect an advertiser.

I appreciate a healthy skeptic more than anyone, but you seem to be looking for black clouds where none exist here.

Yes, it's an older program, and hasn't seen an update in quite some time, but that doesn't mean it isn't useful. As long as it still works, as at least one user here has already confirmed, I don't see the problem...ESPECIALLY since it appears he offers a FREE DEMO to let you try before you buy.

And if one is that worried about being stiffed after purchase, one CAN use PayPal...the difference in price is only $18...

The guy is a hundred percent stand up guy and a fantastic programmer. His life took a turn away from racing due to some personal tragedy and he took a job out of state and moved.

He worked for a government defense contractor if I remember

He was the real deal. I sat with him and watched him wager, including online with him while he hit a pick 6 at Fairgrounds

Many of us on this board would enter a chat room with him and play on Friday nights back in the day. Including a night where 7 Equisim users sucked up about 90% of the win pool and a trifecta pool, on a turf race, to the tune of about 35k if I remember right.

It was a different game then. I haven’t talked to him for a while, but he’s just being nice by still keeping the stuff up online. He’s not getting rich or ripping anybody off. I met him and his wife in person when I lived in Ohio. He’s a good guy.

PA,

This is my opinion, sir...people can heed or not!!!!
its up to them..

We recently had someone put up a web site that the product looked interesting to purchase

Someone ( respected on here TOM) bought it and now has to try and get his money back from PayPal....

Also you defended Pace-View , and people are waiting for their money back too..

So what the hell is wrong with putting up cautions????

Mike

ThX FOR THE INFO...NOW PEOPLE CAN CHOOSE WHAT TO DO..

mIKE

I defended pace-view? I don't think so sir...please point out to me where I told someone to ignore everything that was going on and buy the program anyway.

Didn't happen.

I asked to close it several times....

So? Was it not eventually closed?

People ask me to do things all the time here...sometimes I do them, other times I don't.

Obviously, when you first asked, I didn't think it was necessary.

And the only reason I closed it was the speculation about Greg was getting way out of hand.

Keeping the thread OPEN, and continuing to inform people about the actual status of the site and the program, would have been a better idea, without all the speculation about Greg himself.

Keeping people informed is a good thing.

I certainly understand the skepticism and caution about EquiSim. If I didn't already own ES and didn't have some interaction with Nathan I would probably be thinking the same thing as mikesal. It's not a $20, $30, or even $50 program, so if anyone has doubts about a program that hasn't been updated in 7+ years then don't spend the money.

I gave my reasons for why I no longer use it, and it's certainly no "black-box-click-a-button-and-spit out-40% winners-at-a-$12 mutuel" kind of program. (Good luck finding that kind of software anyway.) I liked it a lot because the features it had suited my style of handicapping. That may not be true for others so try the demo. As JR said, Nathan is just not the kind of guy to rip people off. He probably doesn't care if he sells another copy of ES (nor do I care if someone buys it), but afaik he still supports it.

As with anything, caveat emptor.

When I was a new user to Equisim and very new to the use of databases this "brilliant man" spent several hours of his own time on the phone with me explaining and breaking it down to me in a way that I the new user of his program and total novice where database structures are concerned could even easily understand. I can't think of the last time that I met someone as nearly brilliant, selfless, and equally classy as the programs developer is as a human being.

I have been in Federal Law enforcement for 27 years, and, with the intent of full disclosure, I work around people that are let's say less than newsworthy or noteworthy in their general approach in my immediate environment every day that I am on the job. I just feel compelled to say that the person being referred to in this post couldn't be from any further than he is from the opposite side of the spectrum than those folks previously mentioned. He is as "Good as it gets" and a total stand-up guy in every sense of the word.

Back in the day when betting the horses was fun (and profitable) I also posted on the Equisim board. Add my thumbs up as to the honesty and level of product support provided by Nathan M.

JR,

I remember that night. It was sweet for sure. Add me to the list of people who would vouch for Nathan and Equisim. Like Ralph, I do not play the ponies much anymore except for helping a partner at times with online contests. When I do need to handicap some races, Equisim and JCapper are my software(s) of choice due to the fact they can be personalized via formulas and I have spent hundreds of hours over the years working with them. In this day and age of software, newer does not necessarily mean better, just newer.

Jim

Equisim is a first class program whether you use the DB capabilities or not. Its worth it just for the Formula View. I just had to buy a new tablet and forgot my password to download and install Equisim 6.0 and Nathan promplty replied and sent me the link. Good program and good guy.

Hey JimG:

I too can honestly say that I remember playing with you guys on more than one occasion when we had our own little mini seminars going so to speak. Those were the days and man oh man sadly the races were so much more playable at that time than they are today... I can't help but Long for those days sometimes.... :)

I still use it works great on my old windows 7 & 8 machines. Mainly use the formula view feature to export .csv mega data to be crunched by excel. Great adjunct to my handicapping ! :headbanger:

Z

Guys...

OK....I my take on Equisim is now confirmed and its a positive program to purchase.
I would have done this on any question that I would see if it reads "Whats your opinion of XYZ?

Sorry if I got some people upset.

Mike

I've been handicapping with EquiSim for 16 years now and I've never found any program that will do everything that EqiSIim will do.I tried other programs through the years like HorseStreet and JCapper but EquiSim best fits what I want to see in a program. With the Factor View function you can write your own program with everything layed out just the way you want it. There was a time when every time I read a new handicapping book I would write a new FV to do
what the book's author suggested. I done everything from Sartin feet per second to Sheet numbers but currently use a FV that I wrote about 6 years ago every day.
I know users of the program that only use the simulator and fine tune it daily
and they make money using just that little part of the program.

I'm a very happy long time user of the program.

Longshot

Does not seem to work with windows 7 64bit.

It works on 64 bit computers if you download the free Windows XP Mode
from Microsoft.

Install the XP Mode as directed.
Right click on the desktop icon.
Click on Properties at the bottom of the menu.
Click on Compatibility tab
Check box "Run this program in compatibility mode for."
Select Windows XP (Service Pack 3)

Longshot...
I have JCapper and seen HH in action
I like the idea of making your own formulas
How creative can you get?
Like this for example...
Can you take the average E1 for last 5 races
Add best E2 from last 2 races
And add best 2 of last 4 races speed rating?

Mike

Seems to work with those instructions now, thanks. Checking it out now.

Ok, got it to work. The 3d simulation is very amusing. I ran a few old cards through it. It didn't predict very well on most of them but maybe it works better with "training", I don't know but it looks like a nice program.

Pick your own pacelines......then run the sim. When you get used to picking pacelines that match how the horse runs today, which means you are thinking form cycle etc......it gets better. It’s a learning curve, but not very long.

Btw, it’s a great program for reading bris pp’s. Lots of options for reading pp’s