OVERVIEW B.L. SOFTWARE designs, develops and markets software to handicap thoroughbred, harness and greyhound races. Since its 1983 introduction, the software algorithms, or the way mathematical equations are solved, were continually fine-tuned to offer the racing fan very powerful and low cost handicapping software with increased predictability. B.L. SOFTWARE'S HANDICAPPER and DATABASE MANAGER for HARNESS RACING runs under Windows 3.1 or Windows 95.* The program consists of three modules; Entries Database Module (Harness) Past Performance Database Module (Data-Harn) Predictor (Predict-H) Just enter the current race and past performance data for 5 entries from the racing form or program into their respective databases. Run the Predictor and get the predicted WIN, PLACE and SHOW entries! Also, our own Speed Factor is calculated and printed for each entry. You can ADD, DELETE, MODIFY and SEARCH RECORDS in the database. You can enter as many past performance records for each entry as you desire, within the limits of your systems storage capacity. Let your personal computer do the number crunching it was designed to do. Get the results to CASH not TRASH those tickets!! B.L. SOFTWARE has customers world wide and is ready to welcome many more. Visit our WWW home page at http://www.infi.net/~blsoft or for your convenience you may email us at blsoft@infi.net for any questions you may have. 1. INSTALLATION WINDOWS 3.1 1. Log on to directory that files were unzipped. 2. Click on Install 3. Follow installation instructions. 4. Read the readme file....then 5. READ MANUAL!! WINDOWS 95 1. Log on to directory that files were unzipped. 2. Click on Install 3. Follow installation instructions. 4. Drag the Harness, Data-Harn and Predict-H icons from the Harness Racing window to your desktop. Close the Harness Racing Window. 5. READ MANUAL!! 6. Be sure to run modules from the desktop icons. 2. PAST PERFORMANCE DATABASE (Data-Harn) Before handicapping a race, you must know where to locate data in your racing program or form. Then select a race to be handicapped and enter the past performance data for each entry. You may enter data for as many past performance races you desire, for each entry. However, you must enter data for at least one race. The following minimum criteria should be met for each past performance race selected; 1. Not a qualifying race, trial etc. 2. Did not have an accident, disqualification, did not finish, etc. Click on the Data-Harn icon. A sample record will be displayed for DUKE RODNEY. HORSE: DUKE RODNEY TRACK: DMV DATE: 07/21/95 RACE NR./CLASS: 05/CLAIMING DISTANCE: 8.0 POST POSITION: 2 TROTTER/PACER (T/P): T DRIVER: JOHNSON STRETCH: 6.00 FINISH: 0.00 MEDICATION: N BROKE (Y/N): N FINISH TIME: 1.592 FINISH POSITION: 1 WIN: DUKE RODNEY PLACE: MERRY WAY SHOW: CRACKLE Get/Beg/End/Next/Prev/Rept/Modify/Add/Del/Tally/Filt/Help/Quit FIGURE 1. 3. The following is the definition of each field including the menu commands shown at the bottom of FIGURE 1. HORSE: Name of the entry. TRACK: Abbreviation for the track as provided. (See the README file.) if abbreviation is not listed, use the abbreviation as shown in the track program or racing form. DATE: Date of race. Use month/day/year convention. RACE NR/CLASS: Race number and class of race. For example; 10th race at DOVER DOWNS, CLAIMING race, would be entered as DD/10/CLAIMING. DISTANCE: Length of race in furlongs. The vast majority of harness races are 1 mile. 8 furlongs= 1 mile. POST POSITION: Position at gate. Not cloth number. TROTTER/PACER: Running gait of horse. DRIVER: Name of driver. STRETCH: Number of lengths behind/ahead of leader at top of stretch. Examples; At top of stretch horse is.......... 1. in the lead by 2 3/4 lengths. Enter -2.75 2. behind 1 length. Enter 1 3. ahead by a nose. Enter -.05 4. behind by a nose. Enter .05 5. ahead by head. Enter -.1 6. behind by head. Enter .1 7. ahead by a neck. Enter -.2 8. behind by a neck. Enter .2 9. nose to nose. Enter 0 FINISH: Number of lengths behind/ahead at finish. Entered in fractions. Examples; At finish......... 1. winning horse finishes 4 lengths ahead of place horse, enter -4. 2. place horse is 4 lengths behind winner, enter 4 3. horse is 61/2 lengths behind winner, enter 6.5. 4. winning horse finishes 1/2 length ahead of place horse, enter -.5 5. win by a nose. Enter -.05 6. behind by a nose. Enter .05 7. win by head. Enter -.1 8. behind by head. Enter .1 9. win by a neck. Enter -.2 10. behind by a neck. Enter .2 11. dead heat. Enter 0 MEDICATION: If horse was on medication at race time. BROKE: If horse broke stride during race. FINISH TIME: Finishing time of horse. Example; horse finishes in 2.05 3/5 seconds. Enter 2.053. FINISH POSITION: Position in field at finish. WIN: Name of winning horse. PLACE: Name of second place horse. SHOW: Name of third place horse. 4. When adding and modifying records, certain numeric fields in the record will have default values assigned. These values can obviously be changed to the actual data, as required within a given range. The following shows the default values and range for each of these numeric fields. FIELD DEFAULT RANGE DISTANCE 8.0 7 - 10 POST POSITION 1 1 - 14 STRETCH 0 N/A FINISH 0 N/A FINISH TIME 2.500 Seconds 1.000 - 3.000 FINISH POSITION 3 1 - 14 Refer to the menu at the bottom of FIGURE 1. Entering the first letter of each menu item executes commands as follows; (G)et: Retrieve a record by subject horse. When you select G, you will be prompted for the name of the horse. All the records for the horse will then be displayed in alphabetical order as the (N)ext command is selected. (B)eg: Go to the beginning of the database. (E)nd: Go to the end of the database. (N)ext: Go to the next record. (P)rev: Go to the previous record. (R)ept: Print/display reports menu. See REPORTS MENU. (M)odify: Edit the current record. To leave Modify, press ESC or go to end of the record. You will be prompted to save or not save changes.. (A)dd: Add records to the database. To leave (A)dd press ESC. (D)el: Delete records from the database. CAUTION: There are five past performance records in the database. DUKE RODNEY, IRISH PUB, MILFORD, PART TWO and WARM WIND. ZZEND is a master record. These records must not be deleted. (F)ilt: This command sets the filter and allows you to retrieve on any field. Example: Select F. This sets the filter on. The screen will clear and cursor will be at the empty horse field. Assume you want to find all records for MILFORD Enter MILFORD and press the ESC key. A record will appear for MILFORD. (If MILFORD was not in the database, a NONE FOUND message would appear). Any additional records for MILFORD would be displayed by using the (N)ext command. To cancel the filter, select F and then C to cancel. (T)ally: Gives number of records in database. (H)elp: Lists commands and key actions. (Q)uit: Displays the update menu. 5. REPORTS MENU Upon selecting (R)ept from the past performance menu, a menu will be displayed. REPORT FORMAT #1 REPORT FORMAT #2 REPORT FORMAT #3 HORSE HORSE HORSE DATE DATE POST POSITION DRIVER NAME RACE NR/CLASS DATE TROTTER /PACER TRACK BROKE FINISH POSITION MEDICATION FINISH TIME Select 1, 2, 3 or press M to RETURN to the database. Each report contains the information as shown for each format, sorted alphabetically by horse name. You can display or print the information. PRACTICE EXERCISE A Past performance data has been provided for horse, DUKE RODNEY. Enter data for the remaining four horses as follows; FIELDS IRISH PUB MILFORD PART TWO TRACK DMV DMV DMV DATE 07/17/95 07/18/95 08/15/95 RACE NR/CLASS 05/CLAIMING 10/STAKES 11/CLAIMING DISTANCE 8.0 8 8 POST POSITION 3 6 3 TROTTER/PACER T T T DRIVER HOPE SMOLTER ARMOND STRETCH 2.00 3.00 1.00 FINISH 0.00 -2.00 0.00 MEDICATION N N Y BROKE N N N FINISH TIME 1.590 1.594 1.591 FINISH POSITION 1 1 1 WIN IRISH PUB MILFORD PART TWO PLACE GRAND ONE CRYSTAL MAIL TIME SHOW TRI CITY SHANNON KNOW ALL FIELDS WARM WIND TRACK DMV DATE 08/10/95 RACE NR/CLASS 08/CLAIMING DISTANCE 8.0 POST POSITION 5 TROTTER/PACER T DRIVER SANCHEZ STRETCH 2.00 FINISH -1.00 MEDICATION N BROKE N FINISH TIME 1.593 FINISH POSITION 1 WIN WARM WIND PLACE WHISPER SHOW HOLLY VINE After entering data, practice using the various command keys. CAUTION: If you modify or add any records, be sure to re-enter the data as above and/or delete the new records. Now press Q to quit the Past Performance Module. All data will be compiled and written to files for use by the Predictor Module later. 6. ENTRIES DATABASE (Harness) After entering past performance data, the next step is to enter data for horses to be handicapped into the entries database. Click on the HARNESS icon. A sample record will be displayed for a horse DUKE RODNEY. HORSE: DUKE RODNEY DRIVER WINNING PERCENTAGE: 19 DRIVER: GIBSON STARTS: 23 TIMES IN MONEY: 13 WINS: 6 Beg/End/Next/Prev/Modify/Add/Del/Tally/Help/Quit FIGURE 2. As shown in FIGURE 2, there are 3 new fields in the Entries database. STARTS, TIMES IN MONEY and WINS. The definitions for the other fields and menu commands shown above are the same as those given for the past performance database. STARTS: Number of starts year to date. TIMES IN MONEY: Number of times finishing Win, Place and Show for year to date. Cannot exceed number of starts. WINS: Number of Wins year to date. Must not exceed Times in Money. Like the past performance database, when adding new records, certain numeric fields in the record will have default and range values assigned. FIELD DEFAULT RANGE DRIVER WINNING % 0 1 - 100 STARTS 0 0 - 999 TIMES in MONEY 0 0 - 999 7. PRACTICE EXERCISE B Data has been provided for horse, DUKE RODNEY. Enter data for the remaining four horses as follows; After entering data, practice using the various command keys. FIELDS IRISH PUB MILFORD PART TWO WARM WIND DRIVER WIN % 9 21 13 8 DRIVER BACKUS HORATIO CRAWFORD THELA STARTS 12 22 17 9 TIMES IN MONEY 3 17 8 2 WINS 1 5 3 1 CAUTION: If you modify or add any records, be sure to re-enter the data as above and/or delete any new records to continue your practice session. Now press Q to quit the Entries database. All data will be compiled and written to files for use by the Predictor Module later. NOTE: When you complete the practice session, be sure to delete the 5 sample entries given above. DO NOT delete the record ZZEND. Also, when handicapping a new race, be sure to delete the records from the previous race, unless you want to use an entry or entries for race simulations. Simulations will be discussed later. NOTE: You can print individual records from the Past Performance or Entries Database and Predictor by displaying the record on your screen and pressing the PRINT SCREEN key once. The data file will be transferred to the WINDOWS CLIPBOARD and saved to your system. You can then open and print the file using a wordprocessor. THE PREDICTOR (Predict-H) O.K. You are ready to get the predictions! Click on the PREDICT-H icon. Lets assume this race is run at DELMARVA. When prompted for Track, enter DMV. If you made any data errors in the entries or past performance databases, you will get one or more error messages. If not, a screen will be displayed, with the WIN, PLACE and SHOW predictions. See FIGURE 3. 8. B.L. SOFTWARE HANDICAPPER and DATABASE MANAGER FOR HARNESS RACING V5.0 COPYRIGHT 1995 B.L. SOFTWARE MILFORD WIN DUKE RODNEY PLACE WARM WIND SHOW [1] PRINT PREDICTIONS AND B.L. SOFTWARE'S SPEED FACTORS [2] RETURN TO ENTRIES DATABASE [3] RETURN TO PAST PERFORMANCE DATABASE [4] QUIT TO SYSTEM SELECT __ FIGURE 3. The predicted winner is MILFORD, DUKE RODNEY for place and WARM WIND for show. Select 1: Enter the DATE of RACE and TRACK/RACE #/CLASS when prompted. (Optional entries). You will then get a printout showing the track, race number, class of race, distance (default 1 mile), date of race, WIN, PLACE and SHOW predictions, including B.L. SOFTWARE'S SPEED FACTOR for each horse in the race. This factor is the result of an analysis of speed related data for each horse and may be useful for comparing their speed characteristics. The LOWER the SPEED FACTOR the better the speed characteristics of a given horse. A useful tool for the SPEED HANDICAPPER. Select 2: Returns program to the Entries Database. Select 3: Returns program to the Past Performance Database. Select 4: Returns to system. CAUTION: There must always be at least five and no more than 14 entries in the Entries database before running the Predictor. ZZEND is a master record. DO NOT delete this record. 9. RACE SIMULATIONS B.L. SOFTWARE'S HANDICAPPER and DATABASE MANAGER has built in flexibility. You can vary past performance and/or entry data for any given race to determine effects of the changes on race predictions. You can assemble your own racing field using any of the horses in the past performance database. Select any 5 to 14 horses. Enter the data in the Entries database. Assign you own driver winning percentages, starts, wins and times in money, as desired . When handicapping an actual race you can even add another horse or horses of your choice. SUMMARY Know how to locate data in your racing program or form. Select the race to be handicapped. Click on the Data-Harn icon. Enter past performance data for each horse in the race. Enter data from at least one past performance race. Click on the Harness icon. Enter the current race data for each horse. Click on the Predict-H icon. Enter the track and get the WIN, PLACE and SHOW predictions. Easy as 1,2,3! GOOD LUCK! B.L. SOFTWARE P.O. BOX 13474 CHESAPEAKE, VA. 23325 (804) 420-8380 EMAIL ADDRESS: blsoft @infi.net HOME PAGE: http://www.infi.net/~blsoft 10.