OK here's mine. Two very even races. Look for value punters!!!

race 6 3.30
seln mgn price name
10 0.0 $6.1 GRUNDYS CROSSING
9 0.5 $7.6 PRETORIUS
7 1.0 $10.8 LORD VOLKSRAAD
13 1.2 $11.8 NOBLE RED
8 1.2 $12.1 YOUTH

race 7 4.10
seln mgn price name
6 0.0 $7.9 CHARNWOOD GREEN
3 0.1 $8.1 MR LOFTY
2 0.3 $8.8 UNDER THE BRI-NZ
9 0.5 $9.8 RULING EYES
7 0.7 $11.4 MODERN ERA


and I had Tuareg priced at 11.50. Tough race. How I wish Cool Trent were still in it, that mighty steed.....

Requisite has firmed from $16.00 to $9.00...i got him fixed @ $16 though, and Tuareg @ $7.00

Race 6:
Youth $4.20
Lad of the Manor $5.00
Requisite $6.50
Grundy's Crossing $8.50
Count Ricardo $11.50

Race 7:
Modern Era $5.00
Under The Bridge $5.50
Mr. Lofty $6.50
Charnwood Green $7.50
Fonome $8.50

just in case of late scratchings bc of the rain my next two picks in race 6 are 3,2 and in race 7 are 8,10

MR6:

8. Youth $2.60
13. Noble Red $6.50
3. Lord of the Manor $8.50
10. Grundy's Crossing $11.00
6. Count Ricardo $12.00

MR7

2. Under the Bridge $4.50
6. Charnwood Green $5.00
5. O'Canarvass $6.50
3. Mr. Lofty $7.00
7. Modern Era $8.50

If the track's only dead, what's with all the late scratchings? What's it really like over there?

Without Cool Trent
3 Mr Lofty 2.20
7 Modern Era 2.85
2 Under the Bridge 6.70
5 O'Carnavass $20

Duritz.
Apologise for causing Duress.
I backed at least 2 winners from your ratings early when you began posting.
Somehow you have fallen away.
Surely you can't claim Mr.Magoo at rating $9.60 as a winner.
Or Party Pie at $16.00
Neither of these 2 horses were anywhere near that price.

And know that I have been playing on this forum for almost 10 months and have noticed when people make a huge statement regarding a selections chances,the opposite usually occurs.
Believe it is caused by the forum curse.

I'm sure Sportznut,a favourite poster with almost everyone will back me up on the last statement.

And like the Chome Man said,Much of my bagging is done tongue in cheek.
Thanks for the good wishes and hopefully you get over your current lapse in form.

And I timed out on my telephone connection ... again.
Can someone please advise as to why,when I type in more than half a dozen lines I need to feed OPTUS another 20 cents?

moeee wrote :

And I timed out on my telephone connection ... again.
Can someone please advise as to why,when I type in more than half a dozen lines I need to feed OPTUS another 20 cents?[/QUOTE]

Gday moeee.

Maybe this will help... go control panel > internet options>double click then hi light the connection you wish to alter.. then click.. settings>properties then click the options Tab .. you will se a drop down box with the title "idle time before hanging up" set that to never . press OK and that should do it..

Another very simple way to avoid the problem is to set your mail prgram to check every 5 mins or so to beat the idle that your ISP has sset at their end..

Yep. Remember what I said about looking like a goose when you make a bold statement. I would never make a statement like such and such a horse CAN'T win, because you can be sure that horse would suddenly become Phar Lap, Kingston Town and Tulloch rolled into one.

Thanks for the output XPTdriver.
My hang up when idle minutes comes up in light grey writing meaning I can't adjust the setting.
Might try that Mail thing you mentioned.
Like if I go to the door or toilet and come back,no problems.Only when I want to write a long story.
But it seems if I pay the extra 20 cents,I can write for longer,as I haven't timed out whilst writing this.

These were the top 5 picks going by the consensus of all the ratings:

R6:
Youth 59 pts
Lad Of The Manor 52 pts
Lord Volksraad 35 pts
Grundy's Crossing 31 pts
Count Ricardo 21 pts

R7:
Under The Bridge 60 pts
Mr Lofty 46 pts
Charnwood Green 35 pts
Tuareg 35 pts
Modern Era 34 pts

Well done to Duritz who got the trifecta on R6. There were only 3 of us with Noble Red in the ratings.

Today's results:
Duritz (50 + 42.5) 92.5 pts
Heavyweight (47.5 + 32.5) 80 pts
Sportz (30 + 50) 80 pts
QuickFunBet (40 + 35) 75 pts
xptdriver (10 + 62.5) 72.5 pts
Jimmy (10 + 55) 65 pts
Top Rank (15 + 35) 50 pts
Chrome Prince (10 + 40) 50 pts
La Mer (15 + 32.5) 47.5 pts
Filante (15 + 32.5) 47.5 pts
The mug (17.5 + 27.5) 45 pts
ubetido (15 + 27.5) 42.5 pts
zorro (10 + 30) 40 pts
Chuck (15 + 17.5) 32.5 pts
Dr Ron (12.5 + 7.5) 20 pts
Shaun (5 + 12.5) 17.5 pts
Moeee (10 + 2.5) 12.5 pts

Results so far:
Sportz 350 pts :o
Filante 307.5 pts
Jimmy 305 pts
La Mer 300 pts
zorro 270 pts
Duritz 270 pts
Top Rank 265 pts
The heavyweight 262.5 pts
xpt driver 252.5 pts
Chrome Prince 237.5 pts
QuickFunBet 225 pts
Shaun 220 pts
ubetido 212.5 pts
The mug 212.5 pts
Dr Ron 185 pts
system 137.5 pts
Rabbit 87.5 pts
Maverick1993 87.5 pts
Chuck 32.5 pts
Moeee 12.5 pts

Thanks Sportz,

I'm now sitting midfield in the rankings, locked away on the fence, but bullocking my way out looking for a run. I fear it may be another hard luck story. :D

Well done Sportz and Duritz on efforts today!!!

Duritz,Sportz,Heavyweight and Quickfunbet makes 4.

And I'm not playing no more.

And Congratulations in order to Duritz for putting the bottle away and coming up with all the right answers.

Yeah good day on punt. Betted in five races, backed four winners, including Noble Red of course and Charnwood Green. Hey mooee I wasn't claiming party pie and mr magoo as value winners in my top five, i was claiming both trifectas in my top five, which I did have. After missing the kick in this comp (thanks to the graveyard Caulfield) I have made up some ground. Is there anything left in the tank?

Duritz

PS Cool Trent was scratched because he was preparing for the Australia Cup instead.......... j/k Disappointing though to make a huge call like that and not know if right or wrong.

Chrome, if your sitting midfield, I am sitting just off the pace, just waiting for a run (ie: a race that I actually want). I am a stayer so the further the race goes the better I'll be. Well done to those Noble Red tipsters, this horse has more wins in store.


Good Punting

Yeah, I forgot to add Heavyweight to the page of scribble I was looking at when I posted that.

Don't worry. I don't look at that page when working out the results. ;)

Is that a word? :)

Anyway, yeah, this comp is actually helping me greatly in sorting out the races I concentrate on.

Interesting that nobody has scored zero points for any race yet. To get 0 points, it means that none of your top 5 rated horses finish in the top 5 placings in the race. Wonder who'll be the first!

I'm annoyed with myself for not rating Noble Red in my topfive. If I had of used his rating from his firstup run I would have had him equal second in my selections, but decided to use his ratingsfrom similar distances in previous preparations. I assumed his first up rating was just one of those unusual ones and decided toignore it. Probably his price put me off. It should teach me to go with my own thoughts rather than the betting publics!!!!!!

Sportz, If i had him rated second, how many points would that have been worth???

That's 30 points, but given that you would have also had Youth in the top 3, that's a total score of 47.5 which would have been the equal 2nd highest score for the race.

I don't believe in looking for ONE magical run to use as a base rating. As I've said before, I like to keep it simple. I ALWAYS use the horse's last run no matter what and then I usually just average that with the horse's highest rating recent run under similar conditions to today. I do something a bit different for horses which are 1st or 2nd up though.

all in good time...
 

Sportz my man,...
Just give it some time, the way these ratings are going lately it wont be long before i get the 5 big unplacers..(thats definantly not a word)

LOL that's a ripper of a word.....

What's definantly? :D

Picking five runners to all finish outside the top 5 is very difficult, though I like my chances of being the first to achieve it.

I think we need an opportunity for us all to go out on a limb like Duritz did with Cool Trent and potentially embarrass ourselves. Maybe we could run a "pick a loser" competition. Each Saturday, we could each nominate a horse that we don't think can win. Points could be awarded based on the horse's starting price. For example, someone might nominate a runner to lose, and it duly loses at $3.00(SP). The player would score 33 points. On the other hand, if the horse won, 67 points would be deducted. Just a thought; I'm new here so it might have been done before.

Cheers,
H.

Interesting idea. Personally, I don't really understand the whole 'laying' thing very much and I'm not into saying that this horse WON'T win. I just try to work out what WILL win.

I think that's a great idea Heavyweight. All we need is someone to run it.

Sportz - a note on the laying thing:

Bascially, when you lay a horse, you're a pervert!! Sorry j/k. When you lay a horse, you are essentially being the bookmaker instead of the punter. So, if tomorrow we met at the pub and I said Cool trent couldn't win the hcp it was in, and it was paying $3.0 on the tote, you could say to me "OK, but I really like Cool Trent, can I back it with you?" I would of course say yes, and offer you say $3.50 to entice a bet. Say you had $100 on it with me, that would mean of course that you were backing it at $3.50 with me, to profit $250 should it win. Conversely, it means that I am laying it at $3.50 to you, for a loss of $250 should it win, but a profit of $100 should it win.

That is all straight forward of course. Betfair aren't any different to that, it's just getting your head around it that's the hurdle. If instead of going to the pub you went to Betfair for the imaginary Cool Trent race tomorrow, you might see on the board something like this:

Back Lay
3.0 3.2 3.4 3.5 3.8 4.0
120 500 1200 1000 1120 450

What that means is this. On the left hand side are the best three prices available for you to back Cool Trent at, should you wish to. The best price is closest to the middle, $3.40. The 1200 below it means you can have anything up to $1200 on the horse at that price. That's the combined amount the people who wish to lay Cool Trent at the $3.40 are offering for you to back. Essentially, the people who wish to lay Cool Trent (or play bookie against it) at odds of $3.40 are willing to risk a combined total of $2880 about it winning, ie $2.40*1200 (2.40 being the profit on the bet). On the right hand side are the prices you can lay it at (or play bookie against it) if you think it will lose. The SHORTEST price is the best one for you of course if you are being the bookie on it, and the shortest is $3.50 so you can lay it at $3.50 if you want to.

Basically, that $3.50 that you can lay it at means that someone (or many people) have clicked on and requested odds of $3.50 cool trent, so now the odds are there on the lay side, waiting for someone to lay those odds about cool trent to them.

Does that help?

Duritz.

Yeah. I guess so. Now at least I know what all those numbers mean on that Betfair site. It was like some foreign language to me before now. But I think I'll stick to trying to pick horses to win or place. I don't like the idea of having to pay out extra money on top of my bet if I'm wrong.

If you guys want a 'lay of the day' comp, someone else better run it, I think.

What do you mean Sportz? No one pays out 'extra money' on top of their bet if it is a losing one. Only the winners pay a commission to Betfair, the level of which depends on each individual's turnover.

I'm sorry. I told you I didn't understand it. You probably think I'm really stupid, but I'm only used to betting on horses to win, not lose.

What I'm trying to work out is this. Using the example Duritz made, if you bet $100 on the horse to win at $3.50, you get $350 if it wins. That's easy. But I still don't know how to work out the 'laying' part of it. How much money do you bet and wouldn't you have to pay $350 if the horse wins? That's what I meant by paying extra money.

In the example, as a layer if the horse wins, the layer pays out the $350, on which the winning punter pays a commission to Betfair. However, if the horse loses, the layer wins $100 (the stake money) on which they pay Betfair a commission. In the case of a 5% commission rate (the maximum) then if the horse wins a commission of $12.50 (5% x $250) and if the horse loses a commission of $5 (5% x $100) to Betfair.

And if you're smart enough it is possible to pay both punter and layer on the same horse and profit if the horse loses or wins.

Think I'll just stick to betting to win.

Forget the comission stuff to Betfair - let me elaborate to see if I can get you to get it proplerly Sportz.

Back to the example - you put $100 on the horse at $3.50, collect $3.50. If you want to LAY the horse, but the maximum you wish to risk is still only $100, then you lay it at $3.50 and allow the punter to have only $40 on it with you, because them having $40 on it with you means if it wins you lose $100 (3.50 * 40 = 140 - $40 stake). So by laying it if it loses you would win $40, and risk $100 to do so, whereas if you risked your $100 on it to win you'd profit $250 should it do so. The difference is - of course - that a horse at odds of $3.50 will lose more times than it will win.

Does that help? Keep asking, Sportz, we'll crack it yet.

Duritz.

Ah, that's better. Thanks Duritz. Now I get it.

Good. So, when Heavyweight said if we run a pick a loser comp, he said that

"Points could be awarded based on the horse's starting price. For example, someone might nominate a runner to lose, and it duly loses at $3.00(SP). The player would score 33 points. On the other hand, if the horse won, 67 points would be deducted."

So in a comp like that, the shorter the horse is that gets beat, the better you have gone.

Also, we could run it as a comp where they thereotically LAY the horse to risk $100, at whatever it starts at on the tote. So if it starts at $3.00 and gets beat, they are +$50 (because they would have let someone have $50 on it with them, risking $100 at $3.00) and if it wins they are -$100.

I think it's a great idea - however I must say with all due respect that I don't really have time to run it, if that's OK with everyone. Is there someone who would like to run it?

Duritz.

Duritz/Heavyweight: I'm happy to give it a go along the lines suggested by the Heavyweight along the following lines;

Lays Of The Day Contest
Two races each Saturday nominating between one and three horses in each race that won’t win.

Points awarded according to Official Starting Price based on betting to return $100 (100 points)

If that's Ok, start it this week, nominating one race in Melbourne (which will be the Lightning Stakes) and one in Sydney (which will be the Clissold Stakes).

I'll post under a seperate heading as well.

Okay, getting back to the Ratings Challenge, here's what I think we should do.

I know the Lightning is definitely the biggest race this week, but there's a lot of confusion over the Flemington meeting with doubts on the weather and state of the track and even if it will actually go ahead. As a result, I think we should have a go at Rosehill this week instead. It will be good for a change in any case. These are the two races I've chosen:

ROSEHILL RACE 7 - SPASA NSW FREDERICK CLISSOLD STAKES 1200 M ($101200)
1 DESERT WAR Gai Waterhouse C Munce 7 57.5
2 INSPIRE Clarry Conners J Cassidy 3 55
3 MUSTARD George Crowley R M Quinn 8 54.5
4 PATEZZA Guy Walter L Cassidy 1 54.5
5 DAMIGOS Gerald Ryan J Ford 9 53.5
6 PRESENTLY Bruce McLachlan Z Purton 6 53
7 TIMBOURINA Tony Wildman J Innes 4 52.5
8 UTZON Les Bridge R Stewart 10 52
9 COOL FRONT John O'Shea D Beadman 2 52
10 JAMIESON VALLEY Gwenda Markwell D McLellan 5 52

ROSEHILL RACE 8 - FEB 26, NOVA 969 PARTY MARQUEE HANDICAP 1500 M ($60000)
1 COUNTY TYRONE Kris Lees 9 62
2 JEREMIAD John Hawkes 13 58
3 SATURDAY FEVER Tony McEvoy C Munce 2 56
4 SEUL AMOUR (NZ) Graeme Rogerson J Cassidy 8 55
5 DIAL TONES Jack Denham J Innes 4 54.5
6 LEG IRONS Alicia Willick H Bowman 1 54.5
7 SUNSHINE SAM (NZ) John Hawkes 11 54.5
8 DIAMOND SUN (NZ) Darren Smith D McLellan 6 53
9 DESERT RANSOM John Hawkes 3 53
10 MAHTOUM Kim Moore J Ford 7 53
11 CHAINSAW CHARLIE Gai Waterhouse L Cassidy 10 53
12 KEEPING THE FAITH Robert Price Z Purton 5 53
13 VERB (NZ) Jack Denham C Agnew 12 53

Hope you guys don't mind rating these Sydney races this week. I think it will make things easier.

ROSEHILL RACE 7 - SPASA NSW FREDERICK CLISSOLD STAKES 1200 M ($101200)
1 Desert War (7) $3.99
9 Cool Front (2) $6.49
4 Patezza (1) $8.69
3 Mustard (8) $8.69
8 Utzon (10) $8.95

ROSEHILL RACE 8 - FEB 26, NOVA 969 PARTY MARQUEE HANDICAP 1500 M ($60000)
2 Jeremiad (13) $5.54
1 County Tyrone (9) $7.08
4 Seul Amour (NZ) (8) $7.57
6 Leg Irons (1) $8.88
8 Diamond Sun (NZ) (6) $10.49

Fine with me - any idea what the sydney track will be? Also, I notice in Melbourne that Group 1 Cool Trent is in............... LAY!!!!!