New Features in Pro 3.0

Bet Selector Professional 3.0 was first released in July 2021 with new weight ratings in addition to its well established class and time ratings. The new weight ratings can be viewed in Price Predictor and can also be tested in the Expert Mode part of the new Professional 3.0 program.

Bet Selector Professional 3.0 underwent a major upgrade in January 2022 with the inclusion of trainer ratings to compliment the jockey ratings introduced in July 2020 in Pro 2.0 and 3.0. Just like jockey ratings, the trainer ratings are based on strike rates from the most recent 12 months adjusted for race class and range from 1 for the best trainers through to 9.9 for the worst. 

Another major addition was made in August 2022 when support for quadrella betting was added to both Race Day Live and System Selector.

Documentation on all these features can be found below.

Viewing the new weight ratings

The new weight ratings can be viewed on the main Price Predictor screen but for more detail are best viewed in the Extra Form HTML form guides as follows. Just go to Price Predictor off the pull down RUN menu in the program, select a meeting and click the VIEW EXTRA FORM button.

When looking at the field section for a race you will see three sets of ratings, first the Class Ratings, next the Time Ratings and finally the new Weight Ratings. Note that within each set of ratings there are Main, Better and Plus variants giving a total of 9 sets of ratings (3 for Class, 3 for Time and 3 for Weight).

Looking further down the page you will see the past form lines for each horse with ratings in the far left columns. You will see three columns of past performance ratings labelled as follows:

CRTG - past class ratings
TRTG - past time ratings
WTRG - past weight ratings (new)

Further to the right you will see the following headings:

AVB - the class value of the past race used to calculate past class ratings
DEF - the default class value of the past race used to calculate past weight ratings (new)

The AVB figures are the familiar AVBASE class figures used for class ratings (they can be thought of as a field strength based on the average of the time performance ratings of all horses in the race). The default DEF figures are based on a new table of classes that are hard coded into the program - they are the secret to the success of these new ratings and are based on the official race class and adjusted for things like day of the week, venue, prizemoney, age restriction and more.

System testing the new weight ratings

The new weight ratings can be tested in the Expert Mode part of System Selector. The variables available for this are as follows:

WGT1R – New WGT Main Ratings Rank
WGT2R – New WGT Better Ratings Rank
WGT3R – New WGT Plus Ratings Rank
WGT1V – New WGT Main Ratings Value
WGT2V – New WGT Better Ratings Value
WGT3V – New WGT Plus Ratings Value
WGT1P – New WGT Main Ratings Price
WGT2P – New WGT Better Ratings Price
WGT3P – New WGT Plus Ratings Price

So to test for the top Main weight rating horse you would use this rule:

WGT1R=1

If you try the above test you will confirm these new ratings are just as good as the existing ratings striking at just over 26% which is roughly the same as the class ratings and slightly better than the time ratings. Of course they do not always pick the same winners and this is the real benefit of using them as you will be able to pick more winners than users of older versions of the program.

Note also there is a new variable AVBDEF which gives you the default class value for each race as used for the weight ratings.

Trainer Ratings

Trainer ratings are displayed in the Price Predictor part of Bet Selector Pro 3.0 via "VIEW EXTRA FORM" where they appear to the right of the trainer names. They can also be viewed and used in system rules in System Selector Expert Mode. 

IMPORTANT: Trainer ratings are only available from 1 January 2022 onwards and only when form has been downloaded into the Pro 3.0 version dated 1.1.22 or later.

The new variables you can use for trainer ratings are as follows:

TRAT – trainer rating for each horse

TOPTRAT - top trainer rating for the race

TRANGE – range in kgs from top horse in race to current horse

Following are a few examples. First up, the rule for picking trainers rated between 1 and 2 (the very best trainers) is:

Within(TRAT,1,2)

If you want to pick horses where the trainer is rated within 1 kilogram of the top trainer in the race, the rule for this is:

TRANGE<=1

Note you can use TRANGE=0 to pick the horse with the top trainer in the race and this will include more than one horse if they are rated equal first.

Finally, the TOPTRAT variable is less commonly used but can be used as a race selection tool. For example, to only consider races where the top trainer is no more than 3 use this rule:

TOPTRAT<=3

System Refinery

The "System Refinery" feature added in January 2022 is now obsolete as an even faster option now exists in the new interactive System Analyser introduced in July 2026.

Quadrella Betting (in Race Day Live)

New from August 2022 is the ability to create quadrella bets in Race Day Live via a new QD checkbox (between the FF radio button and Multi checkbox). When you click this checkbox (after selecting a race), you will be presented with a dialogue for picking standouts for the four legs of the quaddie or early quaddie.

Note: If on the main window you are viewing one of the last 4 races then those four races come up as the quaddie legs. If you are viewing an earlier race then the early quaddie legs will be displayed (and only if there are 6 or more races on the program). Note for race meetings with exactly 6 or7 races, you will have to be viewing races prior to the last 4 races to get to the window for the early quaddie.

The dialogue for selecting standouts for each leg is similar to that used for picking standouts for exotics in individual races. Both include checkboxes in each of the four columns so you can easily see which runners are selected.

IMPORTANT: You don’t have to click the checkboxes as clicking to the right of a checkbox will automatically select all runners down to the one clicked on – this provides a quick and easy way to select all runners above an individual probability or up to a certain cumulative probability. Note you can then use the actual checkboxes if you want to individually select or unselect any runner (eg you might want to remove the one at the top of the list if it is too short priced). Note also that the win standouts are initially set to whatever their settings are for each individual race and if you change them these changes are saved back to the individual races.

Once you have selected the desired runners for each leg you simply click the “Calculate Combinations” button in the top right of the window. This calculates and displays all the quadrella combinations based on the standout’s selected for each leg.

The program determines the bet sizes by dividing the quadrella takeout by the predicted quadrella price which in turn is based on the prices you have selected on the top (right hand) drop-down on the main Race Day Live window. The quadrella takeout is set to 100 times the WN/QN/EX takeout so the default is $10,000 (as the default WN/QN/EX takeout is $100). Note that prices, takeouts and bet multipliers can be set differently from race to race and it is the ones for the race displayed on the main Race Day Live window that are used (min-max ranges have not been implemented at this time but let me know if you think they are needed and what values you might use).

Below the list box on the right where bets are displayed are “View Bets” and “Copy Bets” buttons for viewing bets in Tabcorp bet-string format and for copying bets to the Windows clipboard so they can be more quickly bet via Tabcorp batch betting – for more on this see:

https://help.tab.com.au/s/article/Batch-betting-through-tab

Please note Bet Selector does not know the Venue Codes for non metrops so you must source these as per the above link and enter the correct code into the data entry box to the right of the Setup button on the main Race Day Live screen (it will show ?? for non-metrops). Note also you do not have to use Tabcorp’s batch betting feature as you can still read the bets off the list and bet them by other means.

Bet outlays and combination counts are displayed (below the above-mentioned buttons) as are the actual returns and profit/losses. Also, quadrella results and dividends are displayed down the bottom left of the dialogue if available.

Note the above relates to the more professional approach of betting individual combinations but for a simpler approach there is a "Calculate Boxed Bet" button for creating boxed bets plus an edit box where you can vary the bet percentage down from 100%. When using the boxed option this invokes traditional flexi betting by reducing the outlays and reformatting the bet strings. When using individual combinations, flexi betting does not apply but the reduction is used to reduce the size of each individual combination bet - in doing so combinations will start to disappear as bet sizes get lower than 1 and round down to zero (unless you have ticked "Round zero bets up" on the main window).

Quadrella System Testing (in System Selector)

Also new from August 2022 is the ability to test quadrellas in System Selector. They key to getting this to work is using Expert Mode and the reverse race number variable REVRNO which you may be aware has a value of 1 for the last race, 2 for the second last race and so on.

Since the quadrella is always the last 4 races the rule required to pick these races is:

2.REVRNO<5

That’s the only special rule you need as the other rules you use will be the ones you decide upon for selecting horses in each leg. You can also put in rules to eliminate races but keep in mind that if you do that you may eliminate some of the quadrella legs which will mean less quadrellas are selected. Note also that early quadrella will be addressed at a later date.

Results are collected by Race Day Live so should be picked up by your system tests as long as you have run Race Day Live for the days being tested.

IMPORTANT: For your convenience I have updated the master result files to end of last month with quadrella results going back to 1 July 2020 (you can download them via the pull-down FILE menu). The quadrella results were uploaded today so please download these files even if you already did so early in the month.

Outlays are determined by the number of selections in the first leg multiplied by the number in the second by the number in the third by the number in the fourth. If one or more legs has no selections, then the outlay is zero and the quadrella is ignored. The quadrella is also ignored if there are win results for the meeting but no quadrella results.

When system testing, the progressive quadrella testing result is shown at the bottom of the test dialogue (as the test is in progress) and the final quadrella result summary is shown on the main System Selector window (below the existing profit/loss summary in the lower middle list box).A summary of Quadrella outlays, returns and strike rates are shown via the “Log File” button while if you add a report to your system, the Report CSV will show you quadrella outlays and returns for each meeting.

A new feature here is that if a report does not exist, an empty copy with that name will be created to contain the quadrella outlays and returns. Note this means you no longer have to go into MyCalc/MyReport off the pull-down RUN menu as simply referencing the report will create it and clicking the “Edit Report/Calc” button in System Selector will let you edit it (eg if you want to add extra report items).

Speed Maps

Speed maps can be viewed in Price Predictor via the VIEW EXTRA FORM button. The speed map shows where each horse is expected to settle in the race. It also displays the adjusted barrier positions for each horse and a speed rating where 100 is neutral and horses above 100 settle towards the lead and those under 100 settle towards the back.

The graph goes from 90 to 110 as most horses end up in this range. Any horses lower than 90 (but not zero) get graphed the same as those on 90. Similarly, any above 110 get graphed the same as those on 110.

Note there is a rank column alongside the speed column so you see both the points score and the ranking for each runner. At the bottom of the ranking column is a number showing the percentage of (non-zero) runners above 100. Also new, the betting price is displayed after the horse’s name and barrier position (it is the Race Day Live fixed price if available, if not it defaults to the “Pre” early market price from the form downloads).

Note also you can now view the speed map in barrier position order. To do this you must use the new BP radio button on the main Price Predictor window – this switches all reports in Price Predictor to barrier position order except for the Place Odds or Top 6 reports (these can’t be sorted by barrier so will switch back to TAB order if you try to order them by barrier). Having selected BP order, Extra Form including the speed maps will now be in barrier order.

NOTE: Just like when you sort by rated order instead of TAB order, when you sort by barrier position, everything in Extra Form is in the new order – not just the speed maps but the ratings tables above and the detailed horse form below.

And here are the new speed map variables.

INRUN – the speed map points score for a horse

INRANK – the ranking of the horse’s points scores

INSPEED – the average points score across all horses with non-zero points

Also new are variables that give a horse’s speed in meters per second for its last 3 runs. They are adjusted for beaten margins and also adjusted to be relevant for the upcoming distance. The new variables are:

SPEED1 – Speed for horse’s last start
SPEED2 – Speed for horse’s second last start
SPEED3 – Speed for horse’s third last start