ADW's & free PPs; DRF & TimeformUS

[Aerocraft67]

I spent $15 on TimeformUS pps before I realized that they no longer came for free with wagers in my TVG account. DRF has a promotion with free TF pps, no minimum wager, so I made the switch to DRF Bets. I'll have no trouble picking up the $300 bonus with late summer and fall meets, and the "10% takeout" on win and place bets is a clever promotion. I don't wager enough to get meaningful rebates.

I still have a Twinspires account. I like the interface and a few aspects of the free-with-wager BRIS pps, particularly the race summary. The BRIS stats on post position, running style, pedigree, and class are useful and unique. Even the Prime Power ranking is useful as an alternative ML of sorts. Sorting the field by live odds rank seems so simple but Twinspires is the only place I can find it.

DRF's Ticketmaker is useful but a little clunky, it seems to be on the DRF platform rather than the DRF Bets (XpressBet) platform, so I get lots of repeat login requests when wagering directly from Ticketmaker. Seems essential for horizontal wagers, which I may try more now, but I've been more of a vertical guy. There's interesting vertical functionality with a value calculation on the probables and comprehensive layout of all the combos. It trades off simple checkboxes and key box options for the ability to select out specific combos. I really like carving out specific combos without conceding to symmetric key boxes or adding up lots of individual combos.

When I saw Mike Beer go back to DRF and TimeformUS analysis hosted there, I didn't see much commentary on PA. Anybody have a view on what transpired there and where the DRF/TF relationship is headed? I guess it's no surprise then that TVG no longer has the TF promotion given the DRF hookup.

One TVG promo I'll miss is the win bet refund when the horse runs place or show. I'm sure there's a clever way to work that into exacta strategy.

Unlike most horse bettors, I never used DRF pps much, although I like the picks and qualitative analysis in Closer Looks. I've dabbled with Formulator a few times, but it kind of turned every race into a rabbit hole of analysis. I've refined my game a bit since, so I'll try a few cards with the new account promo I got.

Interesting that TF now withholds the previous race data from the free/free-with-wager versions. It is handy to have everything in one place. I suppose I could just pony up the six bucks or whatever to get that, but I have more data that I can analyze as it is with free pps.

[lamboguy]

i decided to maybe become a weekend warrior after the summer meets this year. i have been betting racing for 40 years non-stop. i was getting timeform from TVG and i also had been paying for a real good set of pace numbers for the last 10 years that i also am going to give up after the summer.

it can get pretty expensive to pay for all the tools you need to bet this game. and doesn't make sense unless you are a huge bettor.

my biggest problem today is that my memory isn't as good as it was years ago when i didn't need anything but a program with the names. today i need the printed tools and ability to watch replays, and i still lose.

i am going into the Saratoga meet with 30 monster 2 year old's. i've never had an inventory that big to bet on in my life for that meet. its going to make for some very wild races because those horses are going to be bumping into each other and could open the door for almost any other horse in the race to win.

this will be great for the track, but very challenging for me.