After yet another post on the Rag board showing complete lack of understanding of my posts regarding track speed changing throughout a day\'s racing and the implications, a thought occurred-- there have been several posts from TG customers over the years who used to (and in some cases still) make their own figures. It\'s obvious from the posts on the Rag board that their customers read this board, so, out of curiosity, have any of you spent any serious time making figures?
TGJB,
Relax, you won big this and your customers won big this weekend. There will be plenty of other days where the Ragozin methodology will again be inoperable and Friedman will blow most of the day.
What most of the others need to to take into account is you worked for Ragozin, SAW THE WEAKNESS in their system, split, and formed A SUPERIOR PRODUCT.
In the american business scene this goes on everyday. Tom Seibel left Oracle and formed Seibel Systems. His Enterprise software is the best around. The people at Intel left Texas Instruments and started Intel.
Friedman and company are desperate, they will get in bed with anybody to take you off message.
As far as changing tracks speeds, When Len and Jake don\'t understand them how can you expect their customers. Keep up the good work, congrats on last weekend, and remain focused. We need you to be so over the next two months.
For what it is worth, I confess to dabbling in figure making (for personal use only) but it was over 20 years ago back before I had a real job a wife and kids. It was very challenging and time consuming.
I now much prefer to pay for good figures and spend my time trying to use rather than make them.
Chris
i do something like figures. used to take a lot of time until i automated the whole thing. now it takes about 30 minutes/week.
this got me thinking about when i started. i learned how to program so i could automate some handicapping ideas i had. it turned out to be a simple linear regression system that looked at about five factors. in 1980 at a small midwestern track, this was like finding a gold mine. i had a guy bankroll me 50/50 at $100/day. after the first three months, we were up about a grand.
i still think about how much extra time i would have had over my lifetime if i would have lost. another soul sacrificed at the alter of Pari Mutual.
Obviously not all the Ragozin players saw my post (and others may have simply chosen not to reply) so it would be ridiculous to draw any firm conclusions, but it is at least interesting that a number of TG players (including some who have not posted this time) have made their own figures, but no Ragozin players have come forward to say they have (the only one I can think of off the top of my head who might have is Jim Dennis, but obviously I don\'t know all their players). A lot of the issues in figure making become a lot easier to grasp when you actually are working with the data than they are in the abstract, and it is unlikely that anyone who has spent any serious time grappling with variants would accept the assumptions and broad averages that Ragozin uses-- that is, if they knew how the sausage was made.
TGJB,
I have friends who are Ragozin users and they all tell me the Sheets are like cigarettes, they know they will eventually kill them but they’re addicted and can’t quit using them.
Thorograph is like the Syracuse basketball team, peaking at the right time. Your service is the hottest handicapping and advisory operation in the world. The Thorograph players I talked about in my “Friedmans Implosion Horse Angle” were dead-on. Had Buddy Gil not swallowed dirt and bled in the SA Derby he would have won by at least five lengths, exploding to a new top. Not in an imploding state of regression as he looked on The Sheets.
Friedman says he is going to try and explain the turf figure given to Buddy Gil. He can’t, you know it and so do I.
TGJB,
Seriously, you don\'t find him embarrassing?
I have made figures on and off since I was about 12. Originally I made Beyer type figures only, but eventually graduated to sheets type figures when I worked out the ground loss and beaten length algorithms. I\'ve also dabbled in total velocity figures, and lately spent my time working on my conversions from Europe, Hong Kong and Australia.
There\'s no need for me to make my own figures now (at least for North American horses); I\'d rather buy numbers I trust, and spend my time handicappping. Fortunately it hasn\'t all been a waste of time. Having made figures helps me to spot numbers that are out of whack with reality and has saved me a lot of money over the years.
Marc wrote,
\"TGJB,
Seriously, you don\'t find him embarrassing?\"
If you are refering to Friedman and company the answer is obviously YES. That is why he left and set up his own shop. A far superior one I might add.
Now if that comment was aimed at me, all I can say is for you and anyone else--keep it coming. Because I know there is one thing people can not attack and that is MY FACTS.
I agree with Marc. HP
\"Had Buddy Gil not swallowed dirt and bled in the SA Derby he would have won by at least five lengths, exploding to a new top.\"
This is NOT a fact.
\"Not in an imploding state of regression as he looked on The Sheets.\"
He looked like a horse that backed up off a big race on The Sheets. \"Imploding state of regression\" is a little melodramatic, and also NOT a fact.
HP