Hi All

I have never really been a punter but always enjoyed a night out at the races. What fascinates me greatly is the analysis of a race.

I have read papers published by Bolton, Chapman and Benter. An interesting read if your into that stuff. I hope to implement the model contained within the papers.

During my research I came across the thread Proportional bet sizes which started out as a good discussion and an interesting read. As there were a few members interested in this topic I thought I would share my progress with this project and maybe get some good (friendly) discussion going about the merits/flaws of such an approach, implementation and any updates which build upon the model discussed in those papers.

I have begun the process of data gathering, well not actually getting the data, but writing the code to get the data. I have found that RISA provides excellent data, but not in the most user friendly manner. To date I have not found a free source of reliable sectional data. Though, if any knows of a place feel free to let me know. There is no shortage of subscription versions, but that is cost prohibitive.

I am now able to generate a list of meets for all states, generate the various URLs and get the race day data. i am still formating the race day data in to something usable. Unfortunately RISA provides data in two ways, tables (nice and easy to work with) and text (not easy to work with).

I am considering two issues:

1. Storage of the data collected
2. How to format some of the data collected

Storing data is something that Excel really isn't very good at. I developed a sharing trading spreadsheet for the ASX share trading game. Excel seemed to struggle with storing and retrieving data for ~110 shares. This lead me to developing a system which stored share data individual workbooks and called when needed. This worked fine for the ASX game, but I think this type of system will be completely inadequate for this project. My options at this stage are to use an Access or a SQL database, both of which are happy to talk to Excel. One concern I do have with Access is its ability to talk to other programs if Excel struggles and I need to move on.

Another issue for consideration is how to format data such as rail position. I have seen the rail position at +3m, neutral, +6m for first half of track and all sorts of other variations. I will need to compile a list of rail position data and have a good look at how to break it down into something that can be analysed.

I will try to keep this thread updated if there is any interest.

Cheers