Couple of suggestions

[beyerguy]

1)  The negative thing makes the graphs a little tough to read.  I know you\'ve talked about changes in the past.  Just adding points to every figure eliminates this problem.  I\'m sure there is a reason you haven\'t done it, just curious what it is.

2)  Why not incorporate today\'s weight into the figure?  For example, a horse last out ran a 2 carrying 120, today is in at 114.  Adjust the 2 to reflect what the horse would have run at today\'s weight.  Instead of adjusting evey figure to a standard weight, leave them weight unadjusted in the database then adjust them when they are entered to today\'s weight.  Hope I was clear.

[OPM]

I don\'t think that wt issue was too clear.  Then you would have to adjust every race the horse ever ran. The wt thing is relative.  If every horse in the race is carrying 120 why would you need to adjust?  The figs are based on 115 and this makes it easier to deal with.  I don\'t know how you would leave the wt unadjusted in the database?  Maybe you would want the horses top adjust to today\'s wt?  The only problem is every race has about 25-30% of the horses overweight, what do you do then?

[TGAB]

We\'ve thought of making a 5 point shift for the database--adding 5 points, and may do it. JB hasn\'t decided as yet. The problem is that everything in the past--the intro seminar, past races in the archives, TGIs, would have to be changed to reflect the new data points and to a large extent this is not mechanical, but rather a labor-intensive job. It\'s on hold for the time being.

As far as weight adjustment, what you suggest is impractical. There is no such thing as figures unadjusted for weight--weight is INTEGRAL component of the figure calculation. To adjust for today\'s weight might result in a constantly changing listing of what a horse ran (assuming different starting weights). And as OPM points out, overweights occur frequently.

The figure a horse earns reflects the effort it put forth in a race. What it did, it did and it did it carrying whatever weight it carried. No sense changing that. It\'s accurate and that\'s the most important factor. If a horse runs 2s, it runs 2s. Just because a horse earned the 2 carrying 120 and it carries 114 today doesn\'t mean the horse won\'t run a 2 today. It may.

[beyerguy]

Thanks for the clarification, I had some misunderstandings about weight in the figures, but have since read up on things and it is clearer now.  

I understand about the 5 points thing being labor intensive.  To be honest, with some of the figures horses are running now, 5 may not be the right number or you\'ll face the same problem in the near future.  Maybe 10, or even 15, would be better.  Just thinking out loud!

[P.Eckhart]

If a 2 is stored in the TG dBase and a form lookup shows 120lbs was carried - is it true to say excluding all weight considerations from the calculation the horse ran a 3?

[TGAB]

P.Eckhart wrote:

> If a 2 is stored in the TG dBase and a form lookup shows 120lbs
> was carried - is it true to say excluding all weight
> considerations from the calculation the horse ran a 3?


Absolutely not. What you\'re doing here is adjusting the figure using a base of 115 lbs for exposition sake. I use to do this in the race of the week but deleted it after quite a few complaints--too confusing. You can make this adjustment if you so choose but remember the figure was earned under the conditions present which certainly is not absent all weight considerations.