Online Handicapping Data
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Our Speed Handicapper™ V5.0 software automatically reads all of the data offered by Daily Racing Form, Post Time Daily, TrackMaster Plus, TrackMaster PP, TSN, and BRIS.
Equibase™ now supplies all online data providers with the raw racing data that each company then formats and supplies to its own customers. (Equibase™ owns TrackMaster.)
Important Point: Each data provider also supplies its own proprietary software which displays the data in a familiar format resembling the Daily Racing Form's printed pages. When you use Speed Handicapper™ V5.0, you will generally use the data provider's software as well, to export the race files for use by the program, and to view the races and print the past performances—so the quality of their software matters.
Speed Handicapper™ v5.0 works seamlessly with all of the current data providers (DRF, PTD, TM+, TMPP, TSN, and BRIS), so the question becomes a matter of how well their own software displays, prints and manipulates the data and how they treat their customers—and to some extent the data they choose to provide—balanced against the cost of their service.
DRF - Daily Racing Form's Formulator 4 provides excellent viewing software. DRF is the only source of the Beyer Figures, and therefore the Beyer Variant feature of Speed Handicapper™ V5.0 is available only with DRF data. For Quarter Horse handicappers, DRF provides wind direction, but not wind speed. (At least, we can't find it among the undocumented QH data and no one at DRF knows what we are talking about when we ask. TSN remains the only supplier to provide both.) Cost is $1.50 per race card, with various quantity discounts. Speed Handicapper™ V5.0 uses both Formulator 4 and less expensive DRF Basic data files.
PTD - Post Time Solutions, Inc. "Post Time Daily" (formerly ITS) software is first-rate for displaying, manipulating, and printing race data. The cost is $1.50 per downloaded race card. Customer treatment is personal and excellent. No Quarter Horse data at all is provided (e.g. for mixed meets like Ruidoso, you receive only the Tbred races for that day.) For Quarter Horse racing, see TSN.
TSN - Thoroughbred Sports Network - TSN software to display and print race cards is virtually identical to BRIS (as is the raw data). However, TSN has some good things going for it: they provide Quarter Horse data with both wind direction and speed, while PTD provides no QH data at all, and BRIS omits speed for some unknown reason (when their data is otherwise virtually identical in structure to TSN) so TSN is a clear choice for Quarter Horse handicappers. TSN is the lowest cost per downloaded race card—50 cents! Which is an excellent bargain if you are willing to deal with the display software which is somewhat cumbersome. Also, their software has never been modified to display Quarter Horse data correctly, so "440 yards" displays as "2 furlongs," but the important thing is that with TSN the QH raw data exists right along with the Tbred—and Speed Handicapper™ v5.0 absolutely kicks butt with it.
BRIS - Bloodstock Research Information Services - Essentially the same as TSN, except download cost is twice as much ($1.00) and they disdain 3rd party developers, so questions like, "Is QH wind speed in a data field somewhere?" go unanswered for all eternity. (As best we can determine BRIS provides Quarter Horse wind direction, but not speed, which TSN does provide.)
Track Master Plus (At last check: $99 initial setup, and various monthly programs for data). Their Track Master software will let you view and sort past performance and "connection" data eight-ways-from-Sunday, if that floats your boat. Try their free software download with a demo race file to see if this is for you. Like BRIS, TrackMaster Plus provides Quarter Horse data with wind direction but not speed. Speed Handicapper™ v5.0, in turn, provides Carroll Quarter Horse Speed Figures, which are the best in the world, period.
Track Master PP is a less expensive and less complete data format, but it may provide all you need for your style. Try their free demo software and files to see if it meets your needs. Speed Handicapper™ v5.0 displays the same information in the "Concise PPs," and "Works" tabs as with TM+ files, while the "Detail PPs" and "Connections" tabs display a more limited array of info than TM+. Your choice.