System Builder Help Content

Systems Basics

A system can be defined as a formulated, regular, or special method or plan of procedure. A horse racing system follows the same principle. People often believe horse racing systems are complex, but actually they can be extremely simple. If you consistently back every selection that meets a certain set of criteria, then this is a horse racing system. Of course, a profitable system is the aim! The HorseRaceBase System Builder V4 is designed to assist those wishing to find a longer term betting strategy and is an invaluable tool for anyone interested in horse racing systems. It allows you to perform extremely complex and indepth operations on a huge amount of data instantly!

Welcome to the System Builder V4

Version 4 includes some huge enhancements based on member feedback, including -

Simple Stats

Initially created for the v3 Builder, this feature has been adjusted to allow transfer to the v4 set up. Simply follow the on-screen instructions and then click V4 to load the data.

Fast Start Feature

Designed to be as simple as possible to use, the Fast Start Feature lists the most commonly used categories/criteria when system building. It can be used primarily for the two following purposes.

1. Building extremely simple systems.
2. As a start point for a more complex system.

Initially the options are all set to include everything, in other words if you did not make any changes to the page then your system would involve backing every horse in every race!

To apply the criteria you require, simply change the set criteria in any of the areas as required, for example if you wanted to include Horses who had won at the track you would go to the Horse Form section and change the dropdown beside Form at Track to "Track Winners - horse has previously won at the Track".

Records in the v4 Builder

Recalling a Saved System

You can recall a Saved System to the builder for further editing or to use as the start point of another system. To do so follow these steps.

Automatic Load From Race Cards/Results/Data

Quite often you may be studying the form or analysing the result of a particular race/individual and decide it would be advantageous to investigate some particular aspect of similar races. The Automatic Load features available in all race cards and results make doing so a quick step. To get to the Automatic Load area click the V4 tab in any race card, result, jockey, horse, trainer, stallion or dam and you will be presented with a list of available options. Choose the criteria you wish to automatically load in and confirm, it will then be loaded as a start point in the v4 Builder.

Trends Transfer

Overview Tab

Add/Edit Tab

The Add area is for adding known data specifications to your system. Available system categories are grouped together and presented with a checkbox beside each - you can hover over any category for more details. Each of the categories are bracketed into a Data Type heading (such as Stallion Data), it is important to be aware of the category you are using and to be sure it does as you wish - for a brief help snippet hover over the category.

The two step process is as follows

1. Tick all the categories you want to specify data for, then press enter or click the Go button at the bottom of the page.
2. Complete the subsequent form as appropriate and then again press Go.

• Example - If you know that you wish to specify Top Weights in Handicaps at Bath, you would tick the categories - Track, Handicap/Non & Weight v Max. You would then proceed to the next page, which will ask you to complete the criteria by filling in the form - In this example you would tick Bath, Handicaps and set both dropdowns for Weight v Max to Top Weight.
• Tick all the categories you wish to add criteria for. Example if you wish to specify Tony McCoy in 2 mile races at Cheltenham you would tick Jockey, Track and Race Distance then press GO

Breakdown Tab

This area is used to show detailed analysis of your system criteria by categories of your choosing. You can select up to ten categories by ticking the boxes. After you press Go you will be presented with the appropriate breakdowns.

The Breakdown tab is an extremely powerful tool, using it you can break down any set of criteria by any category. To clarify this - it does not matter what criteria you have set in your system, it can literally be anything. Using Track as an example, here are a couple of scenarios to further illustrate the point.
1 - Your criteria is Favourites. The Track breakdown shows statistics for favourites by Track.
2 - Your criteria is 3 year olds, ridden by a claimer who won last time out. The Track breakdown shows how many 3 year olds were ridden by a claimer and won their last race at each race track alongside how they performed.

Obviously the purpose of the breakdown is to try and identify key statistics giving a potential advantage when future runners share the same characteristics. It is highly likely you may wish to break the data down several times, adding in information as you proceed (or in many cases realising there is nothing relevant so simply ignoring).

You choose the categories you wish to break the data down by following the same process as the Add/Edit area (ticking appropriate categories). If you choose only 1 category there are options to select criteria and add it in to your system. If you choose several (up to 10) there will be an option alongside each breakdown to 'Close In' (where criteria can then be set).

The breakdown presentation is in accordance with the calculations you have specified in the Customise area. The page can be reloaded to change the data display, for example by sorting it in a certain manner or by stating only criteria producing a certain number of qualifiers is shown. For certain types of data such as number of runners, percentage categories and prize money there are numerous groupings that can be used to break the data down (via the group by dropdown).

The Breakdown(s) displayed apply the system rules you have specified and show analysis of each of the variables of the chosen category that have produced qualifiers. The data shown uses your settings in the customise area & the Apply & Reload form can also be used. As an example if you have system rules stating UK,favourites and choose to breakdown Track, the analysis displayed is for performance of favourites at each race track in the UK.

If you decide you wish to add some of the criteria in to your system, you do so by either ticking boxes or setting the minimum and maximum range (depending on the category). Upon completion you will return to the Overview tab and your system criteria will have been updated.

Breakdown Tab - Include Unset Option

The 'Include Unset' option appears when you breakdown a category that you have criteria already set for. It gives you the option of breaking down all criteria to see performance of both your currently set criteria as well as the criteria not included. For example if you had set the criteria for Tracks as Fontwell and Hexham and choose to breakdown by Tracks, initially only these tracks will be included in the breakdown - choosing 'Include Unset' will mean all tracks are included in the breakdown. At present this option appears in the options box of the Breakdown tab for single category breakdowns of Tracks, Jockeys, Trainers or Stallions only.

Stats Tab

As expected the Stats tab shows statistics for the criteria you have set in the System. The presentation is in accordance with the calculations you have specified in the Customise area. There are three sub-areas within the Stats tab. These are -

• Main - The overall statistics of the System and a breakdown by year.
• Timeline - More detailed date breakdown, including by quarter and by month.
• Season - Analysis by Flat, All Weather and National Hunt seasons (where appropriate).
• Performance - Analysis of longest winning & losing runs. Statistics showing best, worst and average days, weeks, months and years for several scenarios (each table clearly states the contents therein).

Qualifiers Tab

You may wish to have a look at the horses who have ran previously meeting the criteria you have set in your system. These can be viewed and downloaded from within the Qualifiers tab. The presentation shows data relating to each of the qualifiers such as the starting price, the race date etc. Where appropriate the data will be presented as a link, which if clicked will open up a new page with the relevant full record (for example click a jockey's name and his full record will open in a new window).

Qualifiers are shown 200 at a time, there are Next and Previous buttons at the foot of the page to navigate through the records. If you prefer to download the qualifiers, there are two options available. Click either the CSV or Excel button and the data will be transferred to the appropriate file type of your choosing. Note the number of qualifiers included in your download is dependent on your account type.

Now Tab

Each Way Tab

A traditional betting option revolves around backing horses each way. This is when you place 2 points on the selection, one as a win bet and one as a place bet. The place terms in use vary by race. This tab shows the return you would have made had you backed all the selections each way. The official starting price is used for this calculation.

There are a couple of options you can use for further personalisation - these are the minimum odds you would back at (it is unlikely you would back a short priced runner each way) and the minimum number of runners in the race (small fields pay less places).The statistics are shown for backing all, handicaps only and non handicaps only.

Staking Tab

Some systems can provide better returns when applying a staking plan. In this area a selection of plans can be accessed and applied to your system by following the on screen instructions. A short description of each of the plans is below -

• Level% - A set percentage of the bank is used as a stake for each bet. Example if you are backing and set percentage as 1% and start bank as 100 then the stake is 1, if selection lost the next stake would be 0.99 etc

Save Tab

When accessing this tab it is to save your system or apply changes you have made to an existing system.

There are instruction at each stage, the options as below.
• Choose an available slot - select one of your slots from the dropdown menu that you wish to save the system to.
• Give your System an appropriate name - type a name for your system into the text box, it should be something simple to help you identify it.
• Set the initial status of this system - these two dropdowns allow you to mark the system for your own records. Active or Not Active will decide if you want matching qualifiers to appear in the qualifiers page or daily email. Marking as a backing or laying system lets you apply this when viewing qualifiers. These options are particularly useful if you have several systems.
• Enter System Notes (optional) - typing notes for your own future reference can be useful, typing them in to this area will automatically add them.

Dig Tab

You can analyse multiple categories with the digger feature. By taking the existing system criteria you have already set and analysing your chosen categories you can instantly create a report to help analyse and spot horse racing trends or patterns. This is done by bracketing data into segments, for some of the categories this is straightforward (such as jockey) as the programme can simply separate by each criteria type, for others (such as odds) a more complicated behind the scenes procedure is required in order to provide meaningful stats

Sliders Tab

Sliders allows you to test the criteria of the categories set, which are using a between range. For each appropriate category you are presented with 4 "sliders", clicking any will instantly change and update the performance of the system criteria, which is always shown at the top.

For example, if you had Race Distance set as part of your system criteria with values of Between 6f and 7f you will have 4 "sliders" avaliable - the values will be 5.5 furlongs, 6.5 furlongs, 6.5 furlongs and 7.5 furlongs. Going through each of these in turn, is the easiest way to explain.

• Slider 1 - 5.5 furlongs. This will change your Race Distance criteria to Between 5.5 furlongs and 7 furlongs
• Slider 2 - 6.5 furlongs. This will change your Race Distance criteria to Between 6.5 furlongs and 7 furlongs
• Slider 3 - 6.5 furlongs. This will change your Race Distance criteria to Between 6 furlongs and 6.5 furlongs
• Slider 4 - 7.5 furlongs. This will change your Race Distance criteria to Between 6 furlongs and 7.5 furlongs

The advantage of the Sliders function is you can quickly test different ranges and immediately view how it affects the system performance and in the process maximise the potential of your system. Below are some further notes and points to be aware of.

Use Tab

The Use Races is an advanced facility allowing you to use the races in your system and then start a new system with only them in it. An example would be if you had chosen all races with an odds on shot in them as your system. Use Races would mean you could then apply a filter to see how Second Favs got on in these races. Another example would be if you had chosen a certain trainer and then Use Races. You could then see how other trainers got on against him.

Ratings Tab

A common request is to include HRB Standard and other Ratings Machine ratings within systems. This is regrettably not possible as categories just yet. This option however does allow you to set up a system and then transfer the settings into the Ratings Machine to test how your ratings would have performed when applied. Further options will be added in due course.

The "NOT" Option

It may be the case your criteria is easier applied by stating the category DOES NOT equal something, rather than the normal way of stating it does. For example if your system includes a certain trainer but you only wish to include horses not ridden by the main stable jockey this is far easier to set up by stating "Jockey IS NOT X" instead of "Jockey equals A,B,C,D,E,F etc etc". Another example is if you wish to include all tracks in your system except Kempton and Newbury, it is easiest to set this up as "Track - NOT Kempton, Newbury" rather than listing all the other tracks. The NOT Option should be straight forward to understand but here are some further points to be aware of.

• Categories that only have a few options (for example Favouritism) do not have a NOT option as it would be pointless.
• Everything other than the values specified in the NOT rule are included in your system criteria. As an example if you have specified the race distance is NOT between 6f and 1 mile then all race distances below 6f and all distances above 1 mile ARE included

Using text boxes to enter values

In certain categories, entering values is done by manually typing into a textbox. The reason is there are a huge number of possible values. For example Betfair SP has a massive range and a dropdown box with 1.01,1.02....1.99,2.00,2.01 etc etc would not be user friendly and as I do not wish to limit the users input, text boxes are used. To set your criteria just enter the appropriate numeric values in the boxes. Note that entering invalid characters will cause an error and the automatic removal of the criteria.

Restrictions

For various reasons certain categories have restrictions in place. Please be aware of these restrictions.

• Date Restriction 28th December 2011 - the following categories are currently only compiled as far back as this date and an enforced rule will be put in place for all systems including any of these categories.
• Date Restriction 1st July 2012 - the following categories are currently only compiled as far back as this date and an enforced rule will be put in place for all systems including any of these categories.
• Date Restriction 1st January 2003 - Stallion and Dam data. Every horse who has had a run since 1st January 2003 has records for Dam and Stallion complete. The period of some tests cover months prior to the race, therefore you should not rely on stats that may cover a period of time prior to 2003 (as I dont have all stallion/dam data for 2002 and prior) - it is recommended (but not enforced) that you include data from 2004 onwards.

Calculations in the System Builder

Static & Non Static Categories

The Builder allows members to save systems and retrieve daily qualifiers in the My Systems area. In this regard, it is vital you are aware which of your categories are static and which are not.

Failure to understand can lead to significant problems. As an example the most difficult category to monitor is Odds because the odds market changes throughout the day and right up to the off. If you check the qualifiers and have a criteria specifying the horse must be exactly Evens - it is unlikely it will stay at that exact price all day and then go off at the same price. Therefore if you checked the qualifiers every hour for this scenario it is highly likely you would see the qualifiers list changing.

To confirm exactly what is meant by Static/Non Static, see the descriptions below -

• Static Categories - For all categories marked as static the criteria is not open to change. This means your criteria is locked in and there is no area for movement. For example the race track is a static criteria and you can be sure only horses due to run at the track that day will be retrieved. All categories relating to previous races are also static.
• Non-Static Categories - All categories marked as non-static are subject to change - reasons include non-runners, overweight, odds fluctuation and a change in the going conditions. The information I load on to the site in advance of a days racing is based on what is known at the time and therefore ultimately it is your responsibility to ensure you do not miss or incorrectly back any given horse. An example would be jockey - if you have included Frankie Dettori as a system criteria all horses he is down to ride the night before will be flagged to you but you should always be aware that its possible he may either miss or obtain additional rides after this point.

The following categories should be treated with care when building your horse racing system. This is because the system data may change close to the start of the race and the information provided in advance (qualifiers) may in fact change. Some categories are more likely to change than others so please do read carefully.