New data

[Hern]

I think my nuclear physics class in college was easier to understand than all this new information that is being provided.  Picking winners can\'t possibly be that difficult, is it?  Personally, I like to have fun when I am handicapping and all this gibberish is a bit overkill, don\'t you think?  More is not better.  I mean, we are dealing with racehorses and the human element, not molecular atoms.

[Boscar Obarra]

  Science is easy.

  Handicapping and making money at it is hard.

  That\'s why Einstein stayed away from the racetrack.

[Kingfisher]

But Einstein was in fact quoted as saying that \"God does not play dice with the universe\", implying that natural phenomena follow certain rules, that it is not just chance.

On the other hand, another of his quotes is \"If we knew what we were doing, we wouldn\'t call it research\".

Clearly this is a research project in process, and what is quite enjoyable is that we all get to participate in its development as well as monitoring its progress. But as TGJB said, it won\'t replace handicapping, its just another facet of information to  use to handicap. Ultimately it still all comes down to how each of us processes the information available to us. And each of us gives different weight to different variables, which is the essence of handicapping.

[TGJB]

A predictable phenomenon we have observed here over the years is an immediate negative reaction to anything we do that is new. Horseplayers (including one curmudgeon in this office) are creatures of habit, and have complained even when we started binding the hard copy product. After a relatively short time (usually about 3 days handicapping per person) they get used to whatever we have added, and either fit it into their handicapping or don\'t.

This phenomenon was ultimately responsible for the demise of the Racing Times, since the average DRF user then was a whole lot less sophisticated than the average TG user. The DRF ultimately ended up using most of the Times innovations, and horseplayers adjusted because it was the only game in town.

Get a hold of a DRF from 1990, look at the articles, and see if you think you could use it to handicap. Then give the new data a chance. If you still want simplicity, just ignore everything to the left of the graph.

[marcus]

I would venture to say that alot of people posting on this site remember the Racing Times - I sure miss the publication and feel that if they were around now , the the Racing Times would still be a little ahead of the curve and well positioned in the right direction for the future of racing similar to the way Thorograph is currently refortmatting and adding \"new\" features to it\'s product .
 I attended college level classes in a Summerhill based program  , auditing course\'s at some of the area\'s finest schools and all this \"new data\" stuff still makes good sense to me ...
Keep up the good work Thorograph - one can never have too much of the right kind of imformation to make important decisions with !  
Also how about that *Copper Trail looking like a bet in todays Queens Plate .
 Lets say a few people all get Harley Davidsons and ride down deep into Mexico\'s west coast and figure out whats all the buzz about in racing and in life etc.



Post Edited (06-28-04 22:25)