Quick Horse Revisited

[Flysofree]

Has anyone looked at the program recently? Any opinions - info. My only question is: In the past performances is the last race always show even if it was a "troubled" race?

[turninforhome10]

If it is not a bad chart line, or if the user filters are turned on so that the the last race is filtered out. Otherwise the last race will be there. I usually use the last 6 outing when dealing with objective data and the last 3 outings when dealing with objective values. Been using QH for 6 years now and the product just keeps getting better.

[Flysofree]

Originally Posted by turninforhome10

If it is not a bad chart line, or if the user filters are turned on so that the the last race is filtered out. Otherwise the last race will be there. I usually use the last 6 outing when dealing with objective data and the last 3 outings when dealing with objective values. Been using QH for 6 years now and the product just keeps getting better.

I'm learning it... Have you ever found that the filters sometimes change without your changing them?

[turninforhome10]

Originally Posted by Flysofree

I'm learning it... Have you ever found that the filters sometimes change without your changing them?

Yes, it has to do with how you set your track profiles. Say you tune a method to use 3 past performances. How you set your filters for that method will override the filter set for the other methods if they have not been tuned. So if you tune one method and set its filters you must check the other methods and set them accordingly. At least that is what I have found. Understanding how to make your profiles is the hardest part of the curve, IMHO.

[Flysofree]

Originally Posted by turninforhome10

Yes, it has to do with how you set your track profiles. Say you tune a method to use 3 past performances. How you set your filters for that method will override the filter set for the other methods if they have not been tuned. So if you tune one method and set its filters you must check the other methods and set them accordingly. At least that is what I have found. Understanding how to make your profiles is the hardest part of the curve, IMHO.

Thanks... Is the Default setting for Races 10 and 1 or 5 and 1 ? I know they can be changed and are changed with tuning.. But I/m asking without tuning?

[turninforhome10]

Set the number of PP's you want and then Save Profile. The default is 5.

[Flysofree]

Originally Posted by turninforhome10

Set the number of PP's you want and then Save Profile. The default is 5.

One more question: Is the Surface Condition Filter Default set at YES?

[FocusWiz]

Originally Posted by Flysofree

I'm learning it... Have you ever found that the filters sometimes change without your changing them?

One thing that may be a "learning curve" problem is the track profiles piece of the product which controls which filters are used. I had to learn this quite the hard way.

The first time you look at a race with a new profile, it will either take the default values (if it is the first race you viewed today) or it will adopt the values from the last race you looked at for that same track.

Let's say you use distance as part of your profile. If you set up a filters for a 6f race, it will store them. Lets say you then look at a 7f race (same surface and track) for the first time at that track. Since no profile yet exists, it will copy the one from the 6f race. Same thing if you now look at an 8f race. It will inherit the profile from the 7f race that inherited it from the 6f race. Everything uses the same profile and gets set to the same filters. You think everything is great.

The next day you open the same track and find a 5f race which you never set up filters for. It does not inherit the filters from the last race you looked at the day before. It starts out as a default. Then, lets say you look at a 7½f race (another distance you never viewed). It will inherit the default you looked at in the 5f race.

Now, just to confuse yourself, the next race you look at is another 6f race. Since this race had the filters set up yesterday, they will still be set up today. Now, perhaps the next race is a 10f race which you never looked at for that track. Since the last race was a 6f race with the filters set up, it will carry them forward to the 10f race.

I went nuts trying to figure out why half of my profiles had the default set of filters while the other half had the filters I wanted until I figured this out. Once you mess everything up like I did, finding out which ones need to be fixed is a pain. I think I set up something to create profiles for about 5,000 different track/surface/distance combinations to try to eliminate this chance of this problem happening. However, it comes back again if I am not paying attention....for example when Mahoning Valley started, I had to be very careful to "seed" it with lots of profiles so that the likelihood of opening up the first race with one that is "new" is very small.

[Flysofree]

Originally Posted by FocusWiz

One thing that may be a "learning curve" problem is the track profiles piece of the product which controls which filters are used. I had to learn this quite the hard way.

The first time you look at a race with a new profile, it will either take the default values (if it is the first race you viewed today) or it will adopt the values from the last race you looked at for that same track.

Let's say you use distance as part of your profile. If you set up a filters for a 6f race, it will store them. Lets say you then look at a 7f race (same surface and track) for the first time at that track. Since no profile yet exists, it will copy the one from the 6f race. Same thing if you now look at an 8f race. It will inherit the profile from the 7f race that inherited it from the 6f race. Everything uses the same profile and gets set to the same filters. You think everything is great.



The next day you open the same track and find a 5f race which you never set up filters for. It does not inherit the filters from the last race you looked at the day before. It starts out as a default. Then, lets say you look at a 7½f race (another distance you never viewed). It will inherit the default you looked at in the 5f race.

Now, just to confuse yourself, the next race you look at is another 6f race. Since this race had the filters set up yesterday, they will still be set up today. Now, perhaps the next race is a 10f race which you never looked at for that track. Since the last race was a 6f race with the filters set up, it will carry them forward to the 10f race.

I went nuts trying to figure out why half of my profiles had the default set of filters while the other half had the filters I wanted until I figured this out. Once you mess everything up like I did, finding out which ones need to be fixed is a pain. I think I set up something to create profiles for about 5,000 different track/surface/distance combinations to try to eliminate this chance of this problem happening. However, it comes back again if I am not paying attention....for example when Mahoning Valley started, I had to be very careful to "seed" it with lots of profiles so that the likelihood of opening up the first race with one that is "new" is very small.

THanks!! This is a Huge help.. I did not know it had to be reset for each distance... I thought just the track...

[Flysofree]

I wish there was some way to reset the ENTIRE program with all past races to the default setting. Each and every handicapping method also has it's own filters, which will be impossible for me to erase in my lifetime. I have tried deleting the program and resigning up with a new email address. That does not work as it still recognizes the computer. I don't mind paying a new yearly fee, now that I understand, but I can't get rid of each and every profile from each and every track including each and every race distance and each and every formula. There are millions of combos..

[FocusWiz]

Originally Posted by Flysofree

I wish there was some way to reset the ENTIRE program with all past races to the default setting. Each and every handicapping method also has it's own filters, which will be impossible for me to erase in my lifetime. I have tried deleting the program and resigning up with a new email address. That does not work as it still recognizes the computer. I don't mind paying a new yearly fee, now that I understand, but I can't get rid of each and every profile from each and every track including each and every race distance and each and every formula. There are millions of combos..

QuickHorse has the flexibility to have a profile for each set of conditions you want to track. For example, you set up a profile for exacta selections and you can use all or certain conditions, sprint versus routes or actual distances, race grades, tiers or levels. You can have a different set of Quickhorse Method Filters for each combination of these. Not that it is a good idea to have all of them the same, but I can understand that desire so that you have a starting point from which you can deviate. As far as I know, there is no way to set the default such that it defaults to what you want as the baseline settings.

About a year ago, when I discovered I had this problem, I used a brute force method to fix it.

What I did was I deleted most of the old profiles and then forced QuickHorse to create new ones modelled after a filter I wanted as my standard filter.

This was some time ago and I am doing this from memory, but I hope I can provide enough of a start to help you.

In my setup I used conditions, distance, and race grade. I also had two major "Methods" that I used.

Every time a race was opened at a track, method, condition, distance, and race grade that was new, QuickHorse would create a new profile based on the last one used. This is how I created the mess (since any time the first race of the day was a new combination, it would get the defaults), and I used this to resolve it (along with the scripting feature which is not for the faint-hearted).

Here are the approximate steps

1. I deleted tons of my profiles (they reside in directories that begin with "TP_", end in the file suffix ".dat" and have codes for Method/track/surface/distance/grade)
2. Then I started with Aqueduct and tried to set up as many short distance profiles as I could think of. (I needed to find races with 4f distances in order to set up that profile)
3. Then, once I was sure that I had some 4f profiles set up for Aqueduct, I ran a script that did the following:

   For each profile
   For each Method
   for each Track
   for each surface/distance/grade I could think of
   I ran a "tune" of that combination

Since I ran this in distance order, this established filters for any new combination that was based on one of those short distance filters I set up.

Attached is a snippet of the Script file I built to do this. Some things to note:

• I used "50" as the number of races to tune, but I probably could have used "5 or less and had this script run faster.
• Although I used lots of distances, there are likely some oddball distances that I missed. Generally if 99% of the filters are good, unless something odd comes up in the first race, this should not be a problem
• I used "DIRT" and "TURF" for most tracks, there are codes for synthetic, Inner Turf, and Inner Dirt at some tracks
• I used 7 grades, but I probably would have added a few if I knew what I was doing.

I am not sure if any of this will help you, but it certainly has helped me. I have not seen any "disappearing" filters since I did this since they all start out with what I set up for the 4f races at Aqueduct.

Just a note...this ran for hours and created thousands of profiles, but it was worth it to not have the defaults show up any more (until Mahoning Valley was added this year )

[Flysofree]

It's a little over my comprehension level with scripts. I may understand the general idea, but am lost from there. Yet it is a nice tool.
Column Building is my next goal... hopefully. But not even sure I know how to do that. I have been able to clear all the old profiles for Aqueduct. That's the only track I am using at present.

[FocusWiz]

if you are just focusing on a single track, either take note of the codes at the top of the screen or print out a listing of the track profiles you have already created and verified as having the filters you want. Since a new profile inherits the profile from the last one used, the problem occurs mainly when the first race of the day is a new profile you've never encountered. Since there is no prior race viewed, it gets the default values and you may need to fix that before going to another race.

[FocusWiz]

For those who were following, my understanding is that this is likely to be changed in the near future such that the last track profile used will be re-read to create the default startup track profile so that the behavior described in this thread will not occur. When a new version is available, you will usually be notified upon startup of the application (or shortly thereafter).

[FocusWiz]

I got the change (which sets the last used profile to the default) in the latest update to QuickHorse. If you update, you should see it too.