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Though not unexpected, that is really bad news.
Apart from their innovative nethod of measuring sectionals, which would have been a major bonus to punters had it been taken up by the HRA, it was the only place to get anything like accurate going descriptions for forthcoming races.
Another backward step for the beleaguered cash cow.Sad news indeed. Their innovative approach to racing was commendable. What a pity they never received the financial support from the industry they deserved. Good luck to their employee’s in future endeavours.
Superform, SmartSig1, TurfTrax all now gone and gone with it the beckoning of racing into the 20th Century, if not the 21st. All gave me hope that their continued professionalism and quality would spur racing on to a higher plane.
Once companies like this go, any potential successor has second and third thought of ever trying anything similar. The authorities will point to failure as direct evidence that the public really don’t want all this technical nonsense – racing is just a bit of fun.
At £5 a month TurfTrax was hardly greedy but how can any worthwhile service to the industry ever be funded unless by the industry? Reet Hard makes a very good point about the going data and owners are going to pay out even more on wasted racecourse journeys for a long time to come. Punters, being put away by ludicrous going guesses by Clerks, will also pay in wasted bets as in the days of yore. Once they quit, the levy quits with them.
Superform, SmartSig1, TurfTrax all now gone and gone with it the beckoning of racing into the 20th Century, if not the 21st. All gave me hope that their continued professionalism and quality would spur racing on to a higher plane.
Robert99 seems like you and I have followed the same path Of subscribing to technical racing sites, only to find that the great unwashed don’t want the “detail”, just give me the winner as I don’t want to work for it. As a consequent they find their business models unprofitable.
So basically the rule of 3 is borne out with Timeform, The Racing Post and Raceform remaining as the only “technical” sources of information over and beyond that available in her majesty’s gutter press and the broad sheets.
As they all offer the same basic facts, they are all a much in a muchness! No wonder there are more and more bookmaking companies entering the market, basically there’s no quality data to counteract their opinion.
However I do see a light at the end of the tunnel. As racing information gets “dumb’d down” those of us who are prepare to put the hard work in to identify “angles” may be entering a golden era where your approach is ignored by the crowd as they “like sheep” flock around the methods outlined by the media and the sites identified above.
Administration does not necessarily mean the end, but…
Indeed. It never did our paper any harm, did it.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Superform, SmartSig1, TurfTrax all now gone and gone with it the beckoning of racing into the 20th Century, if not the 21st. All gave me hope that their continued professionalism and quality would spur racing on to a higher plane.
Robert99 seems like you and I have followed the same path Of subscribing to technical racing sites, only to find that the great unwashed don’t want the “detail”, just give me the winner as I don’t want to work for it. As a consequent they find their business models unprofitable.
So basically the rule of 3 is borne out with Timeform, The Racing Post and Raceform remaining as the only “technical” sources of information over and beyond that available in her majesty’s gutter press and the broad sheets.
As they all offer the same basic facts, they are all a much in a muchness! No wonder there are more and more bookmaking companies entering the market, basically there’s no quality data to counteract their opinion.
However I do see a light at the end of the tunnel. As racing information gets “dumb’d down” those of us who are prepare to put the hard work in to identify “angles” may be entering a golden era where your approach is ignored by the crowd as they “like sheep” flock around the methods outlined by the media and the sites identified above.
slipperytoad,
My kindred spirit is an amphibian with troglodyte tendencies??
Your last paragraph is a conundrum as to personal profiting from intelligent hard work, requiring others to accept misinformation and the opposing generality of moving racing on into the data age. Our American cousins were timing races and sectionals over 150 years ago.
My profit ear pricks up when I listen to the "travelled well", "high head carriage", "showed a turn of foot", "showed good or no tactical speed", "trainer / jockey on fire", "will certainly improve its confidence for the win (or commit suicide for the "loss" ?)", "certain to win a little race" etc etc total garbage that emanates a few seconds after the winners cross the line – but never anything useful before. I still want to kick the set in though.
slipperytoad,
My kindred spirit is an amphibian with troglodyte tendencies??
Your last paragraph is a conundrum as to personal profiting from intelligent hard work, requiring others to accept misinformation and the opposing generality of moving racing on into the data age. Our American cousins were timing races and sectionals over 150 years ago.
My profit ear pricks up when I listen to the “travelled well”, “high head carriage”, “showed a turn of foot”, “showed good or no tactical speed”, “trainer / jockey on fire”, “will certainly improve its confidence for the win (or commit suicide for the “loss” ?)”, “certain to win a little race” etc etc total garbage that emanates a few seconds after the winners cross the line – but never anything useful before. I still want to kick the set in though.
Robert. I’ve been called a lot in my time, your comment cause me to chuckle!
If the news paper economics editors were worth their expense accounts then why didn’t they predict the credit crunch “before” it happened? Why is it such a shock to everyone 1 year into “Le crunch”?
Reason – The press try to explain everything after the event. They are only good once “it” has happened. Your last paragraph is my case in point. Racing Hacks and the Racing media are no different. Their comments provide no wagering value at all yet people lap up their “informed opinion” as if it were written on tablets of stone.
Superform and Truftrax were different; both tried to provide objective opinion or provide data in an objective way such that punters can draw their own conclusions and still do their cojones (as in my case).
Alas, we are now in a new era, the pendulum has swung toward those that are happy to have a bet “just for fun” and the turf accounts collect the profits on the back of their ignorance. In some respects I’m no different, hacking away at the game like an amateur golfer trying to drop his handicap. However at least I am willing to experiment with different grips, stances, etc.
For those of us who want to take this game seriously so we can eek out a small profit then I feel its back to the old days (or so they tell me) where pro’s created their own data to gain that all so important edge. At least you are safe in the knowledge that it’s your own data and therefore cannot be taken away by commercial pressures
Let the dinosaurs of Timeform and Raceform continue for those who think the output is of value.
Get a good source of raw data and build your own database (or get someone else) . Coders are available for very small cost these days and if you are good at managing them remotely its simple to build a customised database.
Get a good source of raw data and build your own database…
As a matter of interest, are you suggesting we just take results as read, or that we take into account how those results were arrived at (something which TurfTrax’s sectional times, among other resources, addresses)?
Interpretation of the data is key along with stripping out all the subjective rubbish people get paid to produce for the sheep customers of dinosaur publishers. TurfTrax sectionals had the potential to be useful but with the partial coverage of courses it was of very limited use.
Wouldn’t it be so much better if a fraction of the money being squandered on the Sovereign Series was spent on implementing full sectional timing and a means of giving accurate going measurements.
Granted with differing course configurations / conditions it is not the same benefit as in the States, but it would be a useful tool when a horse re-appears at a track and with time I’m sure there could be a means of extrapolating collateral information between courses and different going conditions.
Wouldn’t it be so much better if a fraction of the money being squandered on the Sovereign Series was spent on implementing full sectional timing and a means of giving accurate going measurements.
Amen to that!
Granted with differing course configurations / conditions it is not the same benefit as in the States, but it would be a useful tool when a horse re-appears at a track and with time I’m sure there could be a means of extrapolating collateral information between courses and different going conditions.
That is one of the misleading statements the anti-progress authorities love to latch on to from pundits who have never used them in the States nor in UK.
Once you start using them you may soon find that it is the variation of UK courses pace, tactics and goings that makes sectionals even more valuable. USA races are mostly all out pace affairs, without tactics, so final times are more important. The horse is much the same from track to track, so you can predict far more easily and reliably how it will perform in today’s conditions from how it did perform at each race stage in past races under differing conditions.I agree wholeheartedly with robert99’s post immediately above.
It is also a myth that sectionals are of little use when they exist at only a few courses. It would be nice to have them everywhere, sure, but if you can deduce from sectionals that a horse is 10 lb (or whatever language you want to express it in) better than is generally realised that is very valuable information however you look at it.
Back to the laborious business of handheld sectionals hereafter, I suppose…
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