Quick way to find Horses on Handicap Debut?

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gstar1975
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Is there a quick way to find horses that are running in their Handicap Debut?
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Euler
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Horses generally need to run three times to get a rating: -

Most horses must run three times on the Flat in order to qualify for a rating. However, a horse that wins on its debut is eligible for a handicap mark after its second start.

https://www.britishhorseracing.com/regu ... ap-rating/
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gstar1975
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Thanks Peter. But is there a Power Query to find these runners? Maybe a query to search Timeform website for the words in the comments to find anything that would suggest a horse is on its Hcp Debut.
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ShaunWhite
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gstar1975 wrote:
Sat Jul 30, 2022 11:15 am
Maybe a query to search Timeform website for the words in the comments to find anything that would suggest a horse is on its Hcp Debut.
How far back does your Betfair data go because you could just see if its the first time that selectionID has run in a hcap ? You probably wouldn't need to go back that far because after a first run they'll go again in the same season, and/or a debut last season might not have meant much, or not as much as a season debut. I think you could find some interesting things with that sort of approach, and be able to backtest it easily. Certainly easier than getting into api coding and relying on TF comments. First time at a given distance is easy to pull out of your Betfair data too, ditto a return to a distance.
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gstar1975
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ShaunWhite wrote:
Sat Jul 30, 2022 1:19 pm
gstar1975 wrote:
Sat Jul 30, 2022 11:15 am
Maybe a query to search Timeform website for the words in the comments to find anything that would suggest a horse is on its Hcp Debut.
How far back does your Betfair data go because you could just see if its the first time that selectionID has run in a hcap ? You probably wouldn't need to go back that far because after a first run they'll go again in the same season, and/or a debut last season might not have meant much, or not as much as a season debut. I think you could find some interesting things with that sort of approach, and be able to backtest it easily. Certainly easier than getting into api coding and relying on TF comments. First time at a given distance is easy to pull out of your Betfair data too, ditto a return to a distance.
No I mean on the actual day, so I can trade them. It takes forever to read all of the comments for each runner to see if any are on their Hcp Debut today.
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ShaunWhite
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gstar1975 wrote:
Tue Aug 02, 2022 11:26 am
No I mean on the actual day, so I can trade them. It takes forever to read all of the comments for each runner to see if any are on their Hcp Debut today.
I mean on the day too, it takes a lot longer to read the comments then it does to do a search on your Betfair data and your data will say a lot more than if it's a debut or not.

Create a list of all the selectionIDs running that day and a macro to list all their previous runs/race types or just a list of selections on their debut. It might take you a few hrs to get that working but it'll save ages every day and be more reliable. It's basically just doing what the comment writer does.
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Derek27
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I haven't followed racing for quite a while but Racing Post racecards or the Timeform free cards allowed you to look at a summary of each horse's last six runs and included their OR. I suppose it's possible for a horse to have run in six maidens and previously a handicap but that would be rare.
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gstar1975
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ShaunWhite wrote:
Tue Aug 02, 2022 1:00 pm
gstar1975 wrote:
Tue Aug 02, 2022 11:26 am
No I mean on the actual day, so I can trade them. It takes forever to read all of the comments for each runner to see if any are on their Hcp Debut today.
I mean on the day too, it takes a lot longer to read the comments then it does to do a search on your Betfair data and your data will say a lot more than if it's a debut or not.

Create a list of all the selectionIDs running that day and a macro to list all their previous runs/race types or just a list of selections on their debut. It might take you a few hrs to get that working but it'll save ages every day and be more reliable. It's basically just doing what the comment writer does.
That's the bit of information I was looking for "a macro to list all their previous runs/race types or just a list of selections on their debut".

Thank you.

But now how do I go about building/writing a macro to list of all their previous runs/race types or just a list of selections on their debut? and how do I get all of the SelectionID's?
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ShaunWhite
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Can't Guardian export a list of today's runners to excel? From there if you aren't excel savvy, then a brief course would only take a couple of days. You might not even need a macro and VLOOKUP might be enough.

Have you been saving the race name/info, selections and prices via guardian.... or been getting the free basic data from Betfair? If you have then you could test your idea and then know how much effort to put into making the process slicker.

But tbh if you just launch into trying your idea live without a backtest then I think with the small number of qualifiers a month it'll take ages to prove much. Or more likely it'll cost you time and money a fairly simple check could have saved.
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Dublin_Flyer
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Horseracebase has "1st time Hcap runners" as a daily shortcut, or you could make your own system to get notified the night before of any runners plus additions you made like new headgear or 1st time handicap runners gelded since their last race etc.
Shortcuts.JPG
1st Hcap Jul22.JPG
First Hcap Run and gelded since last run.JPG
There's a free trial available on it, so it's worth a look for nothing. It can be a bit difficult to get your head around building systems at first, so watching a few youtube videos on it before going on the trial is probably advisable so you don't waste trial days.

I'm not an associate/affiliate or connected with the site in any way, just been using it for years and find it very useful. The owner Chris comes across as a decent guy and is willing to take users input or requests onboard where possible.
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gstar1975
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ShaunWhite wrote:
Tue Aug 02, 2022 7:02 pm
Can't Guardian export a list of today's runners to excel? From there if you aren't excel savvy, then a brief course would only take a couple of days. You might not even need a macro and VLOOKUP might be enough.

Have you been saving the race name/info, selections and prices via guardian.... or been getting the free basic data from Betfair? If you have then you could test your idea and then know how much effort to put into making the process slicker.

But tbh if you just launch into trying your idea live without a backtest then I think with the small number of qualifiers a month it'll take ages to prove much. Or more likely it'll cost you time and money a fairly simple check could have saved.
I dont think you can download all the runners via Guardian only the one in the column for auto nomination and there are only 5 columns for 5 selections and even then you would have to go through each race selecting the runners.
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gstar1975
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Dublin_Flyer wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 12:51 am
Horseracebase has "1st time Hcap runners" as a daily shortcut, or you could make your own system to get notified the night before of any runners plus additions you made like new headgear or 1st time handicap runners gelded since their last race etc.
Shortcuts.JPG
1st Hcap Jul22.JPG
First Hcap Run and gelded since last run.JPG
There's a free trial available on it, so it's worth a look for nothing. It can be a bit difficult to get your head around building systems at first, so watching a few youtube videos on it before going on the trial is probably advisable so you don't waste trial days.

I'm not an associate/affiliate or connected with the site in any way, just been using it for years and find it very useful. The owner Chris comes across as a decent guy and is willing to take users input or requests onboard where possible.
Thanks DublinFlyer. I forgot about HorseRaceBase, I have had 2 free trials, and they are worth every penny. I was just looking for a free way to go about things and put in a bit of effort myself to see if was possible as a little project.
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