One of the great things about the new BirdDog interface is that it will allow us to add all sorts of new tools (called widgets). You can click on the options button to pick the ones that you want to see. You can also drag them around your screen to places that you want them. When you are happy with your layout click the Options button again and hit the "Save Layout Button."
We just added a new widget called "Class Analysis". You will notice that the horse display pop-up has also changed to show you the Class rating of each previous race in the horse's PP line.
There is a new column called "Class Rtg." in the pop-up that tells you the class level of each previous race. If it is Green that means it was a "Higher Class" race than today's race, red means it was "lower class".
The Betmix class rating is based on much more than just the purse level of the race. We look at how good the horses in each race were. How fast have they run recently and in their careers, how much money they have earned recently and lifetime, what kinds of races they have been in recently and then finally the purse value of the race. You may encounter situations where a race with a higher purse value is rated as a lower class race. That is because the horses in the higher purse value race may not have been all that good in comparison to the horses in the lower purse value race.
That's the motto that most good horse trainers live by, so its always valuable to know when a horse is truly dropping in "Class".
The new Class Analysis Widget provides a lot of information about how each horse performed from a class standpoint.
There is a lot of information in this widget, and to be perfectly honest with you, we haven't totally wrapped our heads around the best way to use it! One thing that I can tell you about this is that when Class doesn't really matter, then analyzing this table might not lead you to any great insights. When I say "Class doesn't matter" I mean that for races where class factors are not ranked that highly. You can reference the new icons we discussed above to get an idea of how important class factors are for a race type.However, I also know that many of you are huge believers in Class and if you are a serious class handicapper this tool will provide you with a lot of data and we look forward to hearing about how you are using it. Also, please let us know if you think anything should be added - we really do rely on user input to help us know what we should be working on.Here is the information in the table, and if you are having trouble seeing the image above take a look at the Free Bird Dog race to see how it is displayed.
Last Finish Position: where the horse finished in its last race.
Last Race Class: The class level of the horse's last race (Green is higher class, Red is lower Class)
Class Diff: The difference between the last race and today's race.
Last Win Class: The class level of the most recent race the horse won.
Days Since Last Win: How many days since the horse won its last race.
Avg Win Class: The average class level of all the races the horse has won.
Avg Finish Lower Class: The average finish position for the horse in races that were "Lower Class" than today's race.
Avg Finish Higher Class: The average finish position for the horse in races that were "Higher Class" than today's race.
Lengths Beaten Lower Class: The average number of lengths the horse was beaten in all of the races it ran that were "Lower Class" than today's race.
Lengths Beaten Higher Class: The average number of lengths the horse was beaten in all of the races it ran that were "Higher Class" than today's race.
Highest Win Class: The "Highest Class" race that the horse has won.
Give it a try now: BirdDog Free Race of the day