Quote:
Originally Posted by classhandicapper
I may have said this earlier, but I think what you really want is a database with all the PP and result information available so you can do research that answers all the handicapping questions you have and possibly find some potentially profitable areas.
...
I have to tell you though. I've learned an amazing amount of stuff from my database.
|
I agree that databases are amazing. Back when I was using a program called Speculator, the data files were not password protected like with RDSS, so I could write quick programs to parse thru all my data files and check against my results database and in an hour or two I could write something, run it against the data and then see if the angle in question was any good or not. Which was fun to do.
After trying every angle I ever read about, I finally concluded that there were no easy angles. My best results came when using any of the Sartin programs and going thru the screens I like and comparing the horses thru the software.
But you are absolutely right in having a database that you can reference.
My health is not great, so I only handicap a day or two per month, and then a couple weeks at at time during Keeneland and Saratoga. If I really wanted to do handicapping as a full time profession, the first thing I would do would be to write a program to parse the result files on Equibase that have the 1/100ths of a second recorded and then use those parsing program to autofill a MySQL database. Next, I would take some of the algorithms I got working with Howard Sartin along with some things I have come up with and put them into an Python program running on Android that could download PP's from Brisnet or whoever, and then supplement my own database with these PPs so I could handicap off my phone or tablet which would be more convenient than carting my laptop around. Finally, once my database had about 6 months of files, I would write a neural net to start looking at the data and different values derived from the data and trying to fine tune formulas for different races. Once the neural net showed a consistent profit, I would link my android based program to it and then when I was looking at the races in real time on my phone, the software hosted on my home computer looking at real time odds could make its recommendations and then I could either go with them or my own handicapping. In theory, if I did not live in Nevada, I could create my personal ADW type service and let the software bet on its own. To get all this designed, coded and tested is probably about 18 months worth of serious work, which is a non trivial task.
