Through numerous breeding studies, we can determine a horse’s preference for a particular going based on genetic traits past to it through various ancestries and blood lines.

Breeding not only influences a horse’s physical size and shape but also is a major factor on a horses distance, going preferences plus a whole host of other factors related to the conditions of the race.

With this in mind in the new release we have enhanced the software to include the ability to query Dam Sires. This new feature can be found in a number of areas in the new release

 

System Builder Changes

 A new has been added to the under a new tab we have added to the system builder called “Breeding”.

The Dam Sire is sire (father) of a dam (mother); equivalent to a maternal grandfather

In the previous release, the Sire and Dam search criteria were available under the “Horse” tab however in this release these fields have been consolidated under the “Breeding” tab and therefore new systems and angles are now open to you.

The Dam Sire field(s) function exactly the same as the Sire and Dam fields within the system builder and this feature is reflected in the following changes:

• Presentation Tab.
• List of country of breeding choices in Breeding Tab
• Added country in brackets to next to Damsire name on the following screens
  • Racecards, Race Results, Horse Form, Prior Form and Post Form.
• Damsire is now a field in the exporter.
• Added Damsire to system builder preferences tab.

 

Form Book Changes

With the new release, you can now have the choice of selecting the horses Damsire in the following areas:

 

• Horse Form Tab

 

• Prior Form Tab

 

• Post Form Tab.

 

• Race Card and Results Views. 

 

If the Damsire column is not shown in any of the tabs above you can select it by positioning your mouse over any of the column headings, right click your mouse to display the “show fields” window per the image below:

Below is the scope (time span) of the information within the Proform Database

• Owners are complete in entire database
• Sex of horse per run is from 2007 onwards
• Damsires and Damsires breeding country complete from 2001 onwards
• Sires and sires breeding country complete from 2001 onwards
• Dam and dam breeding country complete from 2001 onwards
• Original number of runners complete from 22nd May 2014
• Exact distances from 1st Jan 2009
• Original number of runners from 22nd May 2014

Going Adjustments

We have always created going adjustments (GA) internally, which we use to create the Proform Speed Figures, however we have never released them, until now.

GA’s show you have much the ground on the day was speeding up or slowing down horses in seconds per mile.

A going adjustment of 0 would represent perfect Good ground in races on turf or perfect Standard ground on the a all-weather surface.  We then have positive or negative GA’s to varying degrees.

 

GA Lookup Table

GA’s are very useful particular when the ground is extremely slow.  You can see in the table we have the standard going descriptions ranging from Firm to Heavy and Fast to Slow but particularly in races on grass we four more going descriptions for when the ground is very bad.

There are some horses, sires, dams and damsires that only show their best when performing in demanding conditions and GA’s in Proform will allow you to find these horses on days when the ground is truly terrible.

 

 

 

So, what have we added to the Proform Software regarding GA’s?

 

System Builder
There is a new GA field in the system builder in the race tab.

You can present by GA in the presentation screen in the system builder

You can add GA to system builder drill downs in the system builder preferences tab, which means you use this for exporting GA’s.

 

Form Book
When viewing a result in the form book dataview the actual going and GA are show in the header

 

Horse Form
When viewing a horses form a column for GA was added.

NOTE: The new field will be at the very right-hand side of the fields, you may need to scroll sideways to find it.  You can then move it where you wish etc.

 

Prior Form
GA is added to prior form screen.

NOTE: The new field will be at the very right-hand side of the fields, you may need to scroll sideways to find it.  You can then move it where you wish etc.

 

 

Calendar
When viewing the calendar for a past days racing the GA is shown with lots more new fields.

 

Form Book Filters

GA has been added to the form book main filters screen on the race related filters tab.

This means you can create any number of filters to quickly filter form in the form book using GA’s.

To refresh yourself on how filters work visit this help link.

 

We have also changed the distance filters to yards on the same screen.  This is because the old method contains a bug when new distances were introduced which meant filters kept breaking.

By using yards instead this fixes that issue.

 

The horse, jockey and trainer filters are explained in detail below this screenshot.

Horse Name

Use the horse name filter to restrict your system to specific named horses. Wildcards are allowed.

Examples of valid horse name filters are:-
Kauto Star
Kauto*
*Star*

Note

• When entering a horses name with an apostrophe in it's name then enter a double apostrophe like this '' for instance to find Sarah's Art you would enter Sarah''s Art

Age

Use the horse age filter to restrict the age of horses, at the time of running.

Examples of valid horse age filters are:-
2
>= 2
>= 3 and < 5

Odds (SP)

Use the horse odds filter to restrict the system to horses whose starting price falls within the specified range.

Examples of valid horse odds filters are:-
3/1
>= 4/1
>= 7/2 and < 8/1

The Odds can not be used in a saved system that you wish to find qualifiers for.  This is because the Odds (SP) is not known until after the races are run.

Note

• When entering odds of 100/30 do not enter 10/3 enter 100/30

Finishing Pos

Use the horse finishing position filter to restrict the system to horses finished 1st, 2nd 3rd etc

Examples of valid horse finishing position filters are:-
1                        this would return horses who finished 1st
>50                    would return non finishers
>= 4 and <= 8     this would return horses who finished 4th to 8th
< 9                     this would return horses who finished better than 9th

Draw

Use the horse draw filter to restrict the system to horses who were drawn within the given stalls.

Examples of valid horse draw filters are:-
between 1 and 7
>= 4 and <= 8
< 9 

DSLR (Days Since Last Run)

Use the DSLR filter to restrict the system to horses whose DSLR are within the given days.
The DSLR variable is for all codes of racing so it is the actual number of days since the horse last had a run.
DEBUT = only return horses who are having their first run

Examples of valid DSLR filters are:-
between 1 and 7
>= 4 and <= 8
< 9 

Note

• Once you restrict the DSLR to anything then the DEBUT horses will not be included

Jockey Name

Use the jockey name filter to restrict your system to specific jockeys. Wildcards are allowed.

Examples of valid jockey name filters are:-
A P McCoy
A P*
*McCoy*

Note

• When entering a jockeys name with an apostrophe in it's name then enter a double apostrophe like this '' for instance to find Dane O'Neill you would enter Dane O''Neill

Trainer Name

Use the trainer name filter to restrict your system to specific trainers. Wildcards are allowed.

Examples of valid trainer name filters are:-
N J Henderson
N J*
*Henderson*

Note

• When entering a trainers  name with an apostrophe in it's name then enter a double apostrophe like this '' for instance to find Jonjo O'Neill you would enter Jonjo O''Neill

 

Sire Name

Use the horse sire name filter to restrict your system to specific named sires. Wildcards are allowed.

Examples of valid sire name filters are:
Saddler''s Wells
Sadd*
S*

Dam Name

Use the horse dam name filter to restrict your system to specific named dams. Wildcards are allowed.

Examples of valid dam name filters are:
Robellino
Rob*
R*

Weight Rank

Use the Weight Rank filter to analyse top weights etc

Examples of valid Weight Rank filters are:
1 = This would be the top weight or joint top weight
between 1 and 7
>= 4 and <= 8
< 9 '

SP Rank

Use the SP Rank filter to analyse favourites or 2nd favourites or 3rd favourites etc.

Examples of valid SP Rank filters are:
1 = This would be the fav or joint fav
3 = This would be the 3rd fav or joint 3rd fav
between 1 and 7
>= 4 and <= 8
< 9

Tissue Odds

Use the horse tissue odds filter to restrict the system to horses whose tissue odds falls within the specified range.

Examples of valid tissue odds filters are:
3/1
>= 4/1
>= 7/2 and < 8/1

Note 

• When entering odds of 100/30 do not enter 10/3 enter 100/30

Hrs Penalty

'Use the horse penalty filter to restrict your system to horses that carried penalties to varying degrees.

Examples of valid penalty filters are:
0 = NO Penalty
6
>= 8
>= 6 and < 12

Headgear

Use the headgear filter to restrict the system to horses who wore the specified headgear.

Examples of valid headgear filters are:
NOHG = Returns horses with no headgear
b = blinkers
es = eye shield
h = Hood
t = Tongue Tie
v = Visor
p = cheek pieces

Also a 1 signifies the first time for the headgear so es1 is first time eye shields.

Mixed headgears also exist i.e. espt would be eye shields, cheek pieces and a tongue tie. You can use wildcards to search for combinations of headgear and also if you wanted to find a horse with blinkers then to be sure use the search *b* to find all horses that wore blinkers

Jockey Claim

Use the jockey claim filter to restrict your system to jockeys who had a claim.

Examples of valid jockey claim filters are:
0 = NO Jockey Claim
6
>= 8
>= 6 and < 12

Horse Sex

Use the horse sex filter to restrict your system to males or females.
Tick c for Colt and the male sex types will be automatically selected.
Tick f for Filly and the female sex types will be automatically selected. 
If all horse sexes are ticked, then all races will pass the horse sex filter.

You can quickly select or de-select all horse sexes by right clicking on the list of horse sexes and making your choice from the resulting pop-up menu.You can NOT select individual sex types because in proform we store the sex against the horse name not it''s career, so when horse sex types change we do not register the change, hence horse sex types can not be chose, just Male or Female can be chosen.

Here are the horse sex full descriptions:- 

m = Mare
f = Filly
c = Colt
r = Rig
g = Gelding
h = Entire

Horse Colour

Use the horse colour filter to restrict your system to different horse colours or a combination of any.

By unticking one or more horse colours, you can ignore runners that are not that colour. if all horse colours are ticked, then all races will pass the horse colour filter. You can quickly select or de-select all horse colours by right clicking on the list of horse colours and making your choice from the resulting pop-up menu.

Here are the horse colour full descriptions:- 
gr = Grey
br = Brown
ro = Roan
bl = Black
ch = Chestnut
b = Bay
b/br = Bay/Brown
gr/ro = Grey/Roan
br/gr = Brown/Grey
gr/b = Grey/Bay
sk = Coloured

Pace Abbrev

Use the horse pace abbreviation filter to restrict your system to horses who led, were prominent, held up or a combination of any.

By unticking one or more pace abbreviations, you can ignore runners that ran in that style. If all pace abbreviations are ticked, then all races will pass the pace abbreviations filter. ou can quickly select or de-select all pace abbreviations by right clicking on the list of pace abbreviations and making your choice from the resulting pop-up menu.

Here are the pace abbreviation full descriptions:- 
L = Led
P = Prominent
H = Held Up

Note

• The pace abbreviation is after the event so can only be used for research not for building a system

Favourite or not

With the favourite or not filter you can choose to look at just favourites or include 2nd favourites etc, here is how it works:-

If you want to only analyse favourites then tick the FAV box. If you wanted favourites and 2nd favourites then tick both the FAV and 2ndFAV boxes. If you wanted to analyse races and ignore the favourite then tick the FAV box but also tick the NOT box above it.

The NOT box reverses your choice so for instance if you want to leave out favourites and 2nd favourites then you tick both the FAV and 2ndFAV box but also tick the NOT box.

The many combinations you can choose gives you the freedom to analyse favourites in the way you want.

The Favourite or Not can not be used in a saved system that you wish to find qualifiers for.  This is because the fav, 2nd fav etc is not known until after the races are run.

Horse Country 

Use the horse country filter to restrict your system to horses from one, two or more countries.

By unticking one or more horse countries, you can ignore runners that were bred in that country. If all horse countries are ticked, then all races will pass the horse country filter. You can quickly select or de-select all horse countries by right clicking on the list of horse countries and making your choice from the resulting pop-up menu.

When creating a new system, it can be difficult to find the name the correct name you are looking for, therefore in this software release we have added a search facility for any field where you see a magnifying glass 

 

Name searches can be applied to the following fields in the system builder

• Horse, Trainer, Jockey, Dam, Sire, Damsire, Owner, LTO Trainer and LTO Jockey.

If you click on the magnifying glass Icon, the following dialog box will appear

 

Similar to the full text search feature, you can search for items that begin with the letters you type or contain the letters you type by choosing the different option highlighted in the image above.

A full text search will start after you have typed at least 3 characters after which a list of all matches will be displayed.

If you find your match you can click it to select it and then press select at the bottom and the relevant field back in the system builder will be filled in by your selection and the search screen will close.

 

Or you can double click the one you want and the screen will close and the field in the system builder field will be populated with your selection.

Note: The screen is a dialog so you cannot use the rest of the software until you have either chosen a search result, pressed the close button or the ‘x’ in the top right hand corner of the dialog box. 

The Horse Sex Abbrev field has been added to the Exporter which reflects the correct sex of the horse on the date of the race exported.

 

We have also added export fields for Owner, Damsire, Dam and Damsire Country of Breeding, Sire Country of Breeding.

 

And finally we have added the following list of fields to the exporter, which are actual LTO variables regardless of race type.