A Day at the races with RDSS

[Trotman]

I had the pleasure of having lunch with Ted Craven of RDSS yesterday at Woodbine. For both of us I believe this was a first opportunity to kick around a few idea's having not met before. We did more talking than any betting but
in the end Ted owned Aqueduct for at least the first 5 races but our conversation won in the end. The first thing and most I'm impressed with Ted is he listens never once did he use the bravado of how good his program was over any other, in fact no other software came up. We discussed pace shapes of races, tandems, we filtered based on criteria and myself discovered this was what I wanted in a program. For every scenario I posed Ted went through the program with my scenario in mind and then went back to the programs selections. This program has vision beyond what I have seen and discussed with users of other software. If you are looking for a black box I don't believe you will find anything out there, but if you have the vision and outside the box thinking that RDSS has which got me thinking then you have to have this. I have always been a pen to paper handicapper but studied and asked questions with regards to most of the software out there and maybe I feel that RDSS fits with my idea of the way I go about handicapping, in any case RDSS fits my way of play and I think you should give it a long hard look.

[Space Monkey]

Trot, I envy you. I'm an old school handicapper that has been trying different software programs for the last couple of years. I've struggled through the learning curve most of the time. I know that if I was able to spend 1 day with someone knowledgable with the program, I would get it. It never happened. You were lucky. Kudo's to Ted.

[CincyHorseplayer]

Ted's a great guy.And lends his time almost to a fault.I had an information overload about a year ago with so many new things,but have returned to Pace and Cap and started to sift through all the info slowly!

[pktruckdriver]

I am very envious of you, as I too would love to spend a day with Ted learning and talking RDSS.

Well, someday I will get to Woodbine and see that Northern clan up there, and will cherish every minute of it.

Patrick

[Trotman]

I'm not a rush out got to have it guy nor do I go into anything with blinders on. I have always been a pace handicapper so what made this meeting so special and informative for me was I had idea's and questions based on my way of handicapping and months of thought, and for 5 hours one on one with Ted my decision was made that
RDSS was for me the best. I have talked over the winter with Ted on the phone and through e-mails and you're all right with how willing he is to help. This was a one on one I wish any of you could experience.

[Ted Craven]

Trotman,

It was likewise a pleasure to spend a day at the races with you. You clearly have a long history and deep love of horse racing in Southern Ontario, both thoroughbred and harness; I learned a lot from our time together. And clearly I'm not exploiting those AQU Doubles and Pick3s properly! I think we left some serious $$$ on the table, yes?

For the record, I feel compelled to comment on on thing: RDSS is referred to as 'my software' and on one hand it certainly is. I created this Windows software in its current form, I am making it available, supporting it, teaching it, etc - but it is a direct implementation of Sartin's Validator program, and Wadsworth's Speculator follow-on to that, and embodies some of Jim Bradshaw's Match Up techniques, and as such is Sartin's creation, Sartin's ideas and Methodology, and (to a certain extent) Jim 'The Hat's' approach to matching horses, along with all the other contributors to the Methodology over the years, not just mine. RDSS will continue to evolve the concepts of the Sartin Methodology and hopefully add new, useful tools to support winning play. We all (should) pay homage to who those who were our individual teachers and mentors, and to those thinkers who contributed to the game before we got here; for myself, I'm saying I need to remember who 'brung me to the dance' and then move forward from there.

Trotman, maybe next time an evening following the buggies!

cheers,

Ted

[ranchwest]

Originally Posted by Trotman

I'm not a rush out got to have it guy nor do I go into anything with blinders on. I have always been a pace handicapper so what made this meeting so special and informative for me was I had idea's and questions based on my way of handicapping and months of thought, and for 5 hours one on one with Ted my decision was made that
RDSS was for me the best. I have talked over the winter with Ted on the phone and through e-mails and you're all right with how willing he is to help. This was a one on one I wish any of you could experience.

It's good that you knew the questions to ask. So many times people have a great opportunity, but then realize they aren't as ready for the conversation as they would like. When things work out well, it's great.

[Trotman]

Ted yes you're so correct with respect to Doc, Wadsworth, and Jim The Hat and the many others and mentors along the way,and your work with the software today and how it keeps evolving from the original Sartin methodology. And now it is under your watch and in very good hands.

[Arlo]

Are there RDSS users who are consistently profitable? Not software engineers or mathematicians, but just (for lack of a better word) average folks? Once they get a grasp of the program can they bet confidently?

[DRIVEWAY]

Originally Posted by Arlo

Are there RDSS users who are consistently profitable? Not software engineers or mathematicians, but just (for lack of a better word) average folks? Once they get a grasp of the program can they bet confidently?

Absolutely. Rumor has it that they brought the Brooklyn Bridge with their profits.

[46zilzal]

Originally Posted by Trotman

I had the pleasure of having lunch with Ted Craven of RDSS yesterday at Woodbine.:

Now is a really bad time to try out incremental velocities as hardly ANY of these horses have had a race since November and, it is guess work.

Which lines do you use? Who's barn is the most fit? Josie Carrol or Reade Baker?
Who wintered down south Steve Attard or mark Casse?

To save you an awful lot of frustration,WATCH what used to be training races at distance almost NONE of these horses will run the remainder of their season.

Once the season gets running, look EVERYDAY at their webstie to see how deeply the vacuum cleaner contents (that is what the track there looks most like) have been plowed as there are two standard mechanisms.

[Trotman]

First off yes I believe anyone can have success with RDSS and secondly 46 we did not play Woodbine but Aqueduct

[46zilzal]

Originally Posted by Arlo

Are there RDSS users who are consistently profitable? Not software engineers or mathematicians, but just (for lack of a better word) average folks? Once they get a grasp of the program can they bet confidently?

For people who know how to wager it is profitable but they are in the minority

[46zilzal]

Originally Posted by Trotman

First off yes I believe anyone can have success with RDSS and secondly 46 we did not play Woodbine but Aqueduct

NOT if you follow that STUPID dogma like "NEVER use a line when a horse was beaten more than 7.5 lengths",.etc even when it has been show to be completely bogus, the dogmatists will try and teach you that it is sound when EACH situation where it shows up must be evaluated distinctly.

Another dumb one is using best of last three on the turf as the Pizzolla window has negated big time.

Best of luck trying to learn something with limiting RULES.

I refer to Micheal Pizzola in Pace Makes the Race, p. 158 "To those who must have a mechanical approach, I can only tell you that you are sentencing yourself to mere competence at best. One of my favorite quotes is attributed to Lao Tzu, the compiler of the Tao Te Ching. He said, "When the great Way is lost, there arise codes of conduct and behavior."

Use the Sartin methodology like you would play a musical instrument NOT like you would press buttons on a video game.

[46zilzal]

Ted, you really need to put back the longshot detector screen so people can sift through the false positive closers in slow early paced races.