Return to the Main FAQ's PageFAQ # 16
ALL-WaysTM Support
What is the best way to determine the power of each handicapping factor?
Every time you process an ALL-Ways race card data file, ALL-Ways automatically adds the races to the Race Database for the track. Then, when you process the race results file, ALL-Ways automatically adds the race results to the Race Database. The results include the win, place and show horses and their payoffs as well as payoffs for Exactas, Trifectas, Doubles and Pick 3’s. What you have at this point is a database containing the values of all 71 key handicapping factors used in ALL-Ways for every horse in every race in the database along with the results of every race. This is a very powerful database. It is the central element of all the handicapping power of ALL-Ways.
Two of the analysis functions in the Analysis Module of ALL-Ways are aimed at determining the power and profitability of each of the 71 handicapping factors. A brief explanation of these two analysis reports is shown below.
Impact Value Analysis (IV Analysis)
The IV Analysis shows the Impact Value for each of the 71 handicapping factors as well as the profitability of each factor. An IV above 1.0 means horses with the attribute win more than their fair share of races. An IV of 1.0 means that horses with the attribute win exactly their fair share of races. An IV below 1.0 means the horses with the attribute win less than their fair share of races. So, you can tell at a glance which factors are the most powerful. Also shown is the return on $2 bets. This tells you how profitable it would have been if you bet on all horses with the attribute. For example, let’s say the Hall Speed Last Race factor has an IV of 2.8 and a return on $2 bet of $2.60. This says that horses ranked 1st in Hall Speed Last Race win 2.8 times their fair share of races and if you had bet $2 one every such horse, you would have won sixty cents for every $2 bet for a return on investment of 30%.
Top 3 Analysis
The Top 3 Analysis also analyzes the Race Database but it shows, for each of the 71 factors, the percentage of races won by the top ranked horse, the percentage of races won by the top 2 ranked horses and the percentage of races won by the top 3 ranked horses. There is a similar report for place horses and another report for show horses.
Here is an important caveat. ALL-Ways lets you tell it specifically what kind of races to analyze in the Race Database. For example, you can tell ALL-Ways to just look at non maiden races run on fast dirt tracks where the winner paid $15 or more. Another example might be that you instruct ALL-Ways to look only at non maiden Turf races over one mile in length that had a lone early speed horse in the race.
Related FAQ: Segment the races by race type. (FAQ 2)