TimeformUS Track Condition Ratings
 

Good feature - will be helpful. :ThmbUp:

Here is ONE guy in the game who is not resting on his laurels!:ThmbUp:

So Tom,,your playing Laurel now?? :lol:

'Track Bias' is a major handicapping factor and a topic of discussion.

This is an interesting feature.

Australia used to have 5 track condition ratings (Fast, Good, Dead, Slow Heavy) although in reality it was only 4 as Fast was almost never used. A few years back they switched to the 1 to 10 designation for track conditions. I find this 1 to 10 rating system to be overkill and still stick to the old 4 rating system. In fact a 2 rating system of wet vs dry might be all you need

One issue with a 1 to 10 system is it fragments your data. You will today be racing on a 7 rated track and most of the field has never raced on a 7 rated track. So what do you do? Use data from 6 and 8 rated tracks??? But that takes you back to the old 4 track rating system anyways where you are bundling the data from 6 to 8 into one rating

10 designations means horses have to have lots of starts before building up any profile across all 10 ratings

Check out there article in the thread. There are huge differences between wet and dry. The example I show has MVR going from a 1 to 10 just five days apart, and both are on fast tracks. I'm not pretending there is a big difference between a 7 and an 8, or a 3 and a 4, but I do think there is some value to be had here.

Also, particularly on turf, the current labels are subjective and often misleading, even flat out wrong.

I like this topic and the discussion as we go forward.

Hi CJ,

Appreciate the latest improvement in the TimeformUS data and the meticulous detail you put into creating the SUPERB pace figures. Seems the Track Condition rating can be useful in a number of different ways as mentioned in the write-up.

Couple questions in reference to the Track Condition Ratings:

1) Have these ratings changed the way your pace figures are calculated, or are they more of a reflection of what was already built into the pace figures ?
2) Do you know if the Track Condition data will be added to the TimeformUS charts (please :))?
3) Do these rating change for each race or are they an estimate of the track condition for the entire day ? For example, the synthetic tracks can change as the weather changes (gets hotter or cooler) during the card. Are the ratings flexible enough to account for those type of changes during a race card? Hope that makes sense.

Thanks,
Tom

Hey Tom,

Thanks for the nice words.

1) No, not at all. It is largely based on the variant which is as you say, already built into the figures.

2) Yes, it will show there, hopefully soon.

3) They can definitely change throughout the day and often do.