Crazbadger


Sorry for late reply and thanks for the offer. The weightings and form factors I use relate to several aspects of form that won't be captured (I suspect) through the TAB data inc jockey ratings, barrier stats for various distances etc. I've got Excel sorted now so I can change the weightings for each form factor and see what impact is on POT - flattening out the weightings (ie: same weighting for all form factors) at all distances below the longer distances >1800m produced the best POT which surprised me - maybe a quirk as only 250 races....I thought barrier position for starters would have been a key factor but not the case...

Out of interest what programming tools/language did you use for your analysis software?

Hi Sparky,

Short of you wanting to create for release software you need not to go anywhere else then excel. The reason most people write software in VB or other languages is that they are looking for security of code which sadly excel does not provide in any serious manner.

My program which calculates speed ratings for past 20 starts of each horse , import the data, processes all form analysis as well as paterns, assembles and updates the database was writen in excel, it contains about 150,000 lines of code and will do everything I need to do. This also includes a jockey database. Well a list of bout 1500 names the term database is just a scary term for a list of names :)
There are ways that you can use to get jockeys , crtachings and many other aspects , in excel, I can help, the site where you get your form has a forum and you can contact me through there on PM.

As you already mentioned that you create macros in excel then you are already familiar with the VBA enviroment it is not that far a step to create the code yourself.

I know that the question was not asked of me, but I can assure you that you will not be missing anything if you stick to Excel as your probraming platform. The best thing is that you dont need to buy anything you can just start ! It allows you to create interface so its not just a blind macro you can have buttons check boxes input boxes .... everything that you interface with in a normal program.

My advice is to start reall slow, create silly Helo world programs and other things to lear the methods then travel in baby steps so that you are not overwhelmed by the task.

Michal