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[46zilzal]

Still amazes me that people won't investigate for themselves ideas that permeate many other software packages, but are in a big hurry to denegrate the fellow who has his name on the idea. The methodolgy borrowed from many other sources, but brought it all together into one systematic approach that is working still today (since about 1982) as well as ever. I began with it in 1986 with a program called Phase III and it does take a long study period to "get it," but once you do, it never stops amazing you. However one may characterize Howard Sartin, he revolutionized the way races are evaluated and he referred to his ideas as the Handicapping Revolution in his magazine The Folllow Up. Many in the original group of instructors (Brohamer, Purdy, Pizzola, Dick Schmidt) once away from the parent organization PIRCO, used the method as their base, and them imparted their FLAVOR to it. The origianal early TPR (called a "smoke screen) was released in the book Pace Makes the Race.

It is simply a incremental velocity/deceleration evaluation of a race with the idea that MOST horses are "stuck" in a certain style of running, or energy distribution (short or long) that cannot be changed that much by the rider or trainer and one looks for mis-matches: whenever a horse is forced to run in a energy distribution where it has NOT done well in the past, once can usually eliminate them. The cheaper the horse, the more they are locked into a single style (there are exceptions in classy sprinters, i.e. Groovy a need to lead monster).

I have discovered an idea that Tom refered to as early/late relativity and at some speed favoring tracks, one can refer to that energy distribution almost by itself to elucidate the winner.

I moderate a yahoo group called Sartin Alums and there is another called Pace and Cap and at BOTH, various people discuss ways that they use the software. Being a born iconoclast and "fidgeter" I experiment constantly and have found many new correlations, particularly in FORM CYCLES. (I have written here about a horse having a three race drop in total energy and an increasing % median as often going off form). The lastest version is called Speculator 160 and there is a Windows based one in the works. The original programmer (Guy Wadsworth) passed away early this year and another programmer is working on the next generation, so it is alive and well.

The message is far more important than the messenger.