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09 Oct 11
12:08
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Date Joined:
10 Jan 02
I was a fierce critic of the boys from Sleepy Hollow long before betfair took them over, mainly because of their reluctance to move with the times. I thought that might change when betfair took over (this was obviously before betfair themselves became hell bent on hari-kari) but all the old duplicate ID's are still there ("there's only 7 Saeed Bin Suroors" and all that) and the database is still always out of date although not as bad as pre-betfair.
In all honesty I didn't really expect a lot of change in those areas but I'm now wondering if, because of all the free content, they're cutting back on the race reading. Take Sirius Prospect at York yesterday as an example. I bet it last time out at Ascot when it reared leaving the stalls and, despite losing around 4 lengths, it was on the bit for most of the race before quickening up to win decisively.
Timeform's comment was
SIRIUS PROSPECT (USA) is a quirky sort, probably reliant on a good pace in order to express himself fully, so there are concerns as he moves up the weights/in class, but with things having gone his way at Doncaster and here he's shown how talented he is, close to listed-standard with this performance, especially as he had a bit in hand, cruising up and quickening sharply. 9/2 (11/2)
No mention of rearing and losing ground at the start. HITF can you miss that in a 9 horse sprint on the Ascot straight course? There was also a winner at Wolverhampton last night that was badly hampered last time with no mention of that fact by timeform. The race reading is what I use it for but I'm beginning to wonder if their race reading yoppers are taking the p1ss.
In all honesty I didn't really expect a lot of change in those areas but I'm now wondering if, because of all the free content, they're cutting back on the race reading. Take Sirius Prospect at York yesterday as an example. I bet it last time out at Ascot when it reared leaving the stalls and, despite losing around 4 lengths, it was on the bit for most of the race before quickening up to win decisively.
Timeform's comment was
SIRIUS PROSPECT (USA) is a quirky sort, probably reliant on a good pace in order to express himself fully, so there are concerns as he moves up the weights/in class, but with things having gone his way at Doncaster and here he's shown how talented he is, close to listed-standard with this performance, especially as he had a bit in hand, cruising up and quickening sharply. 9/2 (11/2)
No mention of rearing and losing ground at the start. HITF can you miss that in a 9 horse sprint on the Ascot straight course? There was also a winner at Wolverhampton last night that was badly hampered last time with no mention of that fact by timeform. The race reading is what I use it for but I'm beginning to wonder if their race reading yoppers are taking the p1ss.
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the few timeform guys i've seen are all very young and have only been in the game a few years,you need many years of watching racing before you even start to know whats happening imho, and they are doing the guest preview circuit on the side.how on earth can you become a expert race reader in such a short time.
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1.01 they're getting exactly what they're paying for glenivy.
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i requested they might put ir highs and lows in the database, the answer i got was there wasnt enough space to do this, which is obviuosly not the case, so therefore translates to we cannot be bothered to modernise things
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the horses i always back get the same write up
started slowly,, got slower, finished last |
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Friday September 30 2011
Race Result Ascot 17:15 - Result Berkshire Media Group Handicap £18000 added, 3yo only, 6f, Class 2, £11205 penalty, 9 ran Going: Good Surface: Turf Winning Time Winning Time: 1m 13.57s Pos. Draw Dist. Horse Wt Jockey Trainer Age SP 1 2 Sirius Prospect (USA) 8-11 S W Kelly D K Ivory 3 9/2 reared start and slowly away, in rear, headway over 1f out, ridden inside final furlong, led towards finish, ran on opened 11/2 touched 11/2 £2200-£400 2 5 1 Elusivity (IRE) 8-6 J P Spencer B J Meehan 3 3/1 steadied and hampered start, in rear, smooth headway over 1f out, shaken up to lead inside final furlong, edged left, ridden and headed towards finish opened 3/1 touched 3/1 3 7 1¼ Louis The Pious 8-11 P Makin Feck, the above for free from Sporting Life |
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I should say, it's not all bad. They're good for pointing out horses that have had an excuse and where a run can maybe be ignored but it's not much good if they're missing the obvious. I should also point out that their ratings are quite good. I compile my own but have theirs as back up when I need a second opinion (e.g. when a horse's odds seem way out of line) and they're often in agreement.
The delay in updating the results is unnecessary though imo. Fridays results have only just become available and Saturday & Sunday's won't be available until late tomorrow afternoon. There's no need for that. They could make the results (without ratings) available within minutes of the final weigh-in of the day and add the ratings the following day similar to how they add their bloated comments to the results a couple of days later. |
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Swift, I incorporate raceform and sporting life comments into my database. It's about time one of them started putting comments into coded form (i.e. a form that could be read directly by a computer programme). I've thought about starting a database service myself (I've got a browsing programme that makes them all look amateurish) but I don't think there's a lot of scope for making money because of the amount of free stuff that's available these days.
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Be very surprised if they dont regret buying Timeform if it was the kind of money reported in RP
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Feck, i use Raceform Interactive and have found occasional mistakes and/or omissions in their race comments too(including a couple of occasions when race comments said a horse jumped left throughout when it had jumped right!). Over the years, i haven't found errors to be on the scale of anything other than what you could expect from human error though. It just re-affirms the importance of making ones own notes too although the argument of the fact that you're paying for others to do their job properly and shouldn't have to is perfectly valid. RI and Timeform should understand that their paying customers are people who take their form study seriously and are the kind of people who notice errors and omissions and, in this case, if Timeform are providing more of their services free of charge then its understandable that their paying customers may feel that what they subscribe to may be being devalued, particularly if you are seeing errors occurring more often.
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Totally agree ewood.
howard, I don't think it was anything like the figure quoted in the rp. |
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It's all about opinions in this game, but for me, when Jimbo left, that was the begining of their demise. Why Betfuk were allowed to get involved with them is a mystery I can only put down to money. But money doesn't always provide accuarcy....
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Re Jimbo, don't know about that stewarty. When he was in charge the database was regularly 4 or 5 days out of date and at Christmas I remember a form update covering racing 11 days prior. The Steve Jobs of formbooks he wasn't.
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and at Christmas I remember a form update covering racing 11 days prior.
Jesus Christ Feck, we all have a festive season!!! (only joking) |
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You'd think at least one of the boys from Sleepy Hollow would've had the decency to drop in on Miss Haversham on boxing day though stewarty. A poor show imo.
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Feck, in all sincerity, If I could pick five people to have dinner and drinks with, these would be them.... yourself, Winston Churchill, Alex Bird, Phill Bull and mrs stew.
The knowlodge I would gain would be precious to my heart. mrs stew would let me know the pish I'd spoke the previous evening, and Churchill would be pouring your drinks.  |
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Dinner for me is a vitamin pill and a carton of milk stewarty. Masterchef and come dine with me = purgatory.
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I don't know why I'm having a laugh Feck. After sticking a monkey on Cue Card yesterday, I should have been a happy man. However, I went down to pick up my winnings, lost the lot at Wolverhampton, came home drunk, (long story) and woke up the ranch foreman for her account number,(wont go into details on here) and ended up losing plenty.
'Borrowed' more today and lost that, and I'm sitting here feeling very sorry for myself. Needless to say, the foreman is well pissed off with me..... |
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Wolverhampton is a graveyard for me stewarty. Gambled on winners are my pet hate so you can see why. Can't understand why Kempton isn't the same.
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It's not my favourite coure either Feck. I usually stay well clear. But I got involved with two pals drinking across the road and the discipline went straight out of the window. When I got home I noticed there were a few grade 1 races in the US, hence the forman was given a 'shake'.
I ended up losing 4'10ths of what you had on with TM. (spl)  If we did have that 'dinner', I know who would drink the most, but I suspect Bird and Bull would have a sober head on their shoulders. Having said that, Bird's favourite 'snack' was champers and barrels of smoked oysters. |
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Used Computer Timeform for a few years...didnt think they missed much with their analysis of results....bit of a nuisance really, would be much better for clued-up punters if they missed loads.
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rider
what benifit would having the in running highs and lows be ? |
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[smiley:crazy]
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