New Member, No Experience

[cmckeever]

Ted told me to introduce myself. My name is Cedric McKeever, Mac for short. I’m an 83-year-old male living just outside Philadelphia, PA about 9 miles from Parx. I’m happily married for 53 years, how time flies when you are having fun. We liked to go to Atlantic City casinos, mostly Showboat, but that closes and because my wife in mobility challenged, we do not do much traveling.
I formally looked at Gulfstream and followed the experts (no bets) to see if they would make any money, but that did not work out. Somehow I came across this program. So, I really do not have any experience in handicapping horses.
I signed up in mid-December and fumbled around trying to get my feet wet. I am not the brightest bulb in the room, so I had trouble trying to learn all the abbreviations and finally stumbled on to the 4 Factor system. So here I am.
I am trying to find out how to post an attachment.



After setting up the configuration described by Ted in his thread on the Four Factor Method (http://paceandcap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13111), I picked out all horses with ranks of 5 or better in either ProfitLine or BRIS Prime *#8, #5, #3)



I then picked out the horses with Three Factors (#4, #7, #2):



Horse #1 had one factor, and the other houses (#9 and #6) had no factors.

The next step is ranking the horses. According to Ted’s instructions we start with the horses with the most factors, in this case, #8, #5, #3 all which have four factors. Since the #8 has two adjacent “1’s” I assume that it has the highest rank. Second would be the #5 horse since it has one “1” and the # 3 horse does not have any “1’s.” So, I figured the ranking would be horse #8, horse #5 and horse #3.
I moved on to the horses with Three Factors. This is where I got confused. Admittedly, horse # 4 only had three rankings, but it has 2 adjacent “1’s” and they are in the ProfitLine (PL) and BRIS Prime (BPP) columns and I thought it would be a better pick since it was the programs first pick (highlighted in red). But I stuck with the instructions and ranked the #4 after the #8, #5 and #3.
So, now I have #8, #5, #3, and #4. I really had no clue on how to pick the last two, #7 and #2. In the list with all the horses, #7 is ranked higher, and it has a blue arrow (whatever that means). Looking at “New Pace,” #7 is at the top of the list and is listed as the nuber2 late runner, #8(my leading pick) being first. In segments #7 finishes first in TS + F3. The #2 has a couple of first places; however, both had bad last races. If I had to choose, I would pick the #7.

[dadams6357]

Welcome
Cedric
To get started ,try downloading the manual for the program.
That will explain what everything in the program means.
Try the following link.

http://sartinmethodology.com/pubs/RD...d_Glossary.pdf

You might have to copy and paste in browser.

Also make a habit of looking at all of the new post.
The Handicappers that create threads that you read. Are usually more
than kind an generous into answering any questions you may have.
Good Luck.
And remember the most important thing is to have fun doing it.
Good luck and best of handicapping.
Don

[AwesomeAgain]

Welcome Mac, My name is Brian and I grew up about 2.5 hours south of Philly in the DMV. Currently reside in Central Florida. If there is any way I can help you feel free to reach out. I will try to answer any questions you may have. Hope you enjoy your stay here.

[Lt1]

Hi Mac welcome aboard. I was friends with Rich Mathie for over 30 yrs and worked daily with him over the last 5 yrs before his passing. In choosing horses ranked in the top 5 of either PL or BPP you will have the winner in that group 90% of the time. This figure has stood the test of time and I can attest to that. Rich also had a key horse system which was any horse that ranked 1-1,1-2,2,1 in either VDC & CSR, or PL &BPP was a key horse. In your example both the 8 &4 are key horses. Richie gave more weight to the PL/BPP side therefore the 4 would be the #1 key and the 8 2nd. Hope this helps youTim

[cmckeever]

Thanks all for the replies. Everybody on the forum seem helpful.

Dadams6357 thanks for the info. I have downloaded the Glossary and there is a lot to learn there. I also try to use the search feature here to find answers, that way sometimes I stumble onto something else I did not know. I will now try to get on here most days and read the new posts. Good suggestion.

AwesomeAgain thanks for the offer to help. I’m sure I will need help. In fact, I have a question, how do I get more cards (I think that is what they are called) to import. I already used one up, I had 5, but I don’t remember how I got them. I was going to use another card again today, but Parx is closed again, weather I think. I only want to bet Parx. I saw somewhere you should be familiar with the track you are betting.

Lt1, thanks for the tip on the key horse. I was thinking that I would bet on the Exacta at Parx boxing 4 horses. I think the cheapest I can get away with is $12.00, that is a little pricy for me right now. If I use a “key” bet the price, I think, is $6.00. I saw that Twinspires is offering $200 to sign up. That would give me 32 free Exacta key bets to practice. Of course, I must pay for the cards but that can’t be too much. I notice you make a lot of informative posts, thanks for your work.

[Lt1]

Mac here is another tip that may help you. When PL & BPP have the same top 3[regardless of order] one will win a or place a high % of the time. Over the summer one won the race 80-85 % of the time. Now that we are faced with more lower class races I completed a 100 races survey and found that 1 of them won or placed 92 of the 100 races. I am working on another 100 races survey and so far one has won or placed 37 of 43 races.86%.
Tim

[MJS6916]

Originally Posted by cmckeever

Thanks all for the replies. Everybody on the forum seem helpful.

Dadams6357 thanks for the info. I have downloaded the Glossary and there is a lot to learn there. I also try to use the search feature here to find answers, that way sometimes I stumble onto something else I did not know. I will now try to get on here most days and read the new posts. Good suggestion.

AwesomeAgain thanks for the offer to help. IÂ’m sure I will need help. In fact, I have a question, how do I get more cards (I think that is what they are called) to import. I already used one up, I had 5, but I donÂ’t remember how I got them. I was going to use another card again today, but Parx is closed again, weather I think. I only want to bet Parx. I saw somewhere you should be familiar with the track you are betting.

Lt1, thanks for the tip on the key horse. I was thinking that I would bet on the Exacta at Parx boxing 4 horses. I think the cheapest I can get away with is $12.00, that is a little pricy for me right now. If I use a “key” bet the price, I think, is $6.00. I saw that Twinspires is offering $200 to sign up. That would give me 32 free Exacta key bets to practice. Of course, I must pay for the cards but that can’t be too much. I notice you make a lot of informative posts, thanks for your work.

Welcome to the club Cedric

Being you said you're new to handicapping,
I would strongly suggest you do a test run
anywhere from 60 to 400 non-maiden races.
( I personally recommend 400 events.
Many of my friends here will tell you
60 to 100 is good enough; and it works
well for them ).

Pay attention to weather forecasts;
especially this time of year since
cancellations are more frequent.

Since you're using Twinspires
be certain to read this ----> https://www.twinspires.com/freepps/
to take advantage of the PP's and reports they're offering
FOR FREE.....as long as you place ANY BET on that day's card.

Also, make sure to place a wager on Twinspires (even if it's a $1 show bet)
once a month or they will charge a $5
maintenance fee each month for inactivity
(that's a recent change in their policy).

Keep in mind:
-RDSS is an excellent tool, but it's not a black box of magic.
(Ted will tell you that too.)

-and, there's a lot to learn about our game.

Mike

[cmckeever]

Originally Posted by Lt1

Mac here is another tip that may help you. When PL & BPP have the same top 3[regardless of order] one will win a or place a high % of the time. Over the summer one won the race 80-85 % of the time. Now that we are faced with more lower class races I completed a 100 races survey and found that 1 of them won or placed 92 of the 100 races. I am working on another 100 races survey and so far one has won or placed 37 of 43 races.86%.
Tim

Tim,

If one of the three numbers is going to win or place, how would you place the bet? If that is an inappropriate question, please let me know.

[cmckeever]

I would strongly suggest you do a test run
anywhere from 60 to 400 non-maiden races.

MJS6916,

I have been working on the "practice races" I downloaded from here; however, they do not have the ProfitLine or BRIS Prime figures to test the 4 Factor system. I assume I would have to buy the cards to test the theory. I forgot how I got the cards, I am going to try to find out how to do that.

Thanks for taking the time to answer and the tips on Twinspires.

Cedric

[Lt1]

Mack depending on what the pay offs will be I usually bet something like this. 1.2.3/'1,2,3,4,5 $24 . payoffs help and bankroll help decide what I do.
Tim