1. I would like the forums thoughts on the best data to keep in a database.

2. What program would be best to use, e.g Excel, Access etc.

Zlotti[/QUOTE]
Hi!
Depends what you want to do? Do you want to keep a lot of past data to analyse later, or just download the daily races and work on them?
If the latter, then Excel will do fine.
If you want to keep your past data and still use Excel, you must realise that the larger the file the slower Excel will be, with some complex calculations performed on a large amount of data it can actually take a few minutes!!!
On the other hand Access is not easy to use but it's a great database to keep your data in, and it is fast.

Solution one:Keep your data in Access tables, or just simply in a separate folder as .xls files, and use Excel to query them.

Solution two: Keep your data in Access tables and use an external programming language (VB, C++, etc.). to query it.

I myself do this, but I do programming for a living anyway, but I think Excel is just fine for everyday use, after all I know quite a few people who don't even have a computer and doing a lot better on the punt then I ever will!?.