French Racing Data

[USHANDICAPPER]

Well, a few weeks in to my quest to get good French speed figures I have been stymied and decided I might have to make them myself. A lot of work but I’ve got some down time between now and the French racing season starting up again. Mu question now is where can I get chart data for French racing? I have contacted both the PMU and the official French account wagering site to no avail. Neither Timeform nor Racing Post have charts for every race card, only the stakes races (Listed on up I guess).

I would be most appreciative if someone would point me in the right direction. If that someone wished to collaborate on making figures I would be happy to consider that to. Please feel free to PM me through the board and I can respond via e-mail offline if you don’t want to make the conversation public.

Regards all. <!– s:D –><!– s:D –>

[indocine]

http://www9.france-galop.com/fgweb/fgdefault.aspx

All results are there, but not great for scraping alas.

[USHANDICAPPER]

Thanks very much. You’re right, the data isn’t great for scraping. Do you know where I can get it in some type of data format? I would play for it if I had to.

On a related note, is there any specific reason that nothing like U.S. results/PPs providers Equibase, BRIS, DRF, HDW, etc, exists in France? There have to be people using something other than printed past performances to wager.

Thanks again.

[indocine]

http://www.zeturf.com/en/results-and-winnings/archives

Bit more scraping friendly.

[USHANDICAPPER]

Thanks. That’s a bit better, but no beaten lengths so not good for figure making. I actually stumbled upon the ZETurf website a few weeks back.

I believe Paris Turf is the daily French equivalent to the Daily Racing Form. I had hoped maybe they’d have back charts available for a fee. I poked around there unsuccessfully last week but with the language barrier (even using Google Translate) there might have been something I just didn’t see.

Does anyone know what can be provided digitally by Paris Turf.

Thanks much for all the help.

[indocine]

ZeturfPro might be worth querying them about.

fely who posts here sometimes is french, non? He should know.

[robert99]

Thanks very much. You’re right, the data isn’t great for scraping. Do you know where I can get it in some type of data format? I would play for it if I had to.

On a related note, is there any specific reason that nothing like U.S. results/PPs providers Equibase, BRIS, DRF, HDW, etc, exists in France? There have to be people using something other than printed past performances to wager.

Thanks again.

There is almost zero on racing analysis in France. It never caught on with the public.
Data is minimal. Reading any past form is taken to be exotic.
It is a waste of time trying to do "speed" rating times as the courses run within the racecourse can change and so can the race distances but they do not tell anyone. The going penetrometers are very unreliable and the data is often out of date. They race the Australian way with funereal early gallops then an all out sprint in the straight. So you would need sectional times rather than final times. The only sectional times are from Deauville.

[USHANDICAPPER]

Thanks Robert. All of this is very interesting and news to me. How the hell do they bet so much money then? Their population is roughly 1/5 of the U.S.

I know there are betting syndicates playing into the French pools so data must be available somewhere though its probably not easy to get.

[Slowly Away]

I think our Racing Post has the French results, certainly from the Metropolitan tracks and Deauville, plus the odd listed race from the provinces

There’s far too much racing in France to even think about rating the whole lot…….so I’d suggest that anyone thinking of following it should stick to the Paris tracks and Deauville where all the quality racing takes place

[TheBluesBrother]

The best data available for French racing is from the

English

version of

Zeturf

, for example:

[code:2f3jktw6]http://www.zeturf.com/en/results-and-winnings/race?id=134822[/code:2f3jktw6]

It gives the winning times plus beaten lengths, we have to be grateful for any data, even if it is only minimal

[robert99]

Thanks Robert. All of this is very interesting and news to me. How the hell do they bet so much money then? Their population is roughly 1/5 of the U.S.

I know there are betting syndicates playing into the French pools so data must be available somewhere though its probably not easy to get.

If data is easy to get then many have that data and betting profits fall. I would chose to bet against folks with next to no data any day.
You only have to do a modest amount of own work to make it pay far better than USA.

[indocine]

Do they have a centralised universal handicap like us? I see a lot of handicaps in passing, but not a lot of ratings. How does their (official) handicapping system work?

[robert99]

Do they have a centralised universal handicap like us? I see a lot of handicaps in passing, but not a lot of ratings. How does their (official) handicapping system work?

Weights are allocated by Sociétés de Courses.
These may be single courses or federations of courses in a Region. It is very like the way UK did it before centralised handicapping. With money no object, they employ over 700 in France Galop alone.

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