Previous Results-Excel as a database/research tool

[nigelk]

Previous Results
I've been looking at an easy way to assess previous years statistics/performances etc .
Not knowing much about racing, I've had to search the web for the different race types and have come up with the following categories , which to the best of my knowledge is correct, but please shout if there any any errors.
Juvenile (2yo)
Median
Auction
Juvenile
Nursery

Maidens (not won a race)
Rated
Maiden

Novice (learning the ropes)
Novice
Introductory
Beginners
Graduation
Hunter

Apprentice ( L plate jockeys!)

Selling
Selling
Claiming

NH Flat
NHF
Bumper
NH Flat
INHF

Main ( Horses that know the ropes)
Classified
Conditions
Listed
Classified
Group
Graded
Handicap
Pattern
Hurdle
Chase
Other(For Fun)

Lady
Gentlemen
Amateur
Pro/Am

One of the reasons behind this is assessing the times, It doesn't make sense to me to compare the time of a 5f race for a Juvenile or Amateur against the time of an experienced horse/jockey over the same distance.
I've created two pivot tables to assess the times at different tracks.
You can see that there are marked differences between the flat distance times at Chepstow and Ayr
This sort of information could be useful if you have an in running bot and need to close out your position 2 or 3 seconds before the average finishing time.
Also
There is a wealth of other information available, winning stall, class,age,rating, runners, did the fav win? etc, etc
You'll also notice that the distances, weight and s/p have been converted so that it's easier when entering formulas to compare one figure against another. Try to get it to work out the difference between 2m3f123y and 2m5f13yds!
Which brings me to another point, distances. In order to accomodate the different yardage for the races, I've split 1f (220yds), into 10ths, so that if the yards are between 22 and 44, it will be .2 of a furlong and so on (see sheet 3)
You can build as many pivot tables as you like to assess as many different factors as you want, or you can interrogate the database using your own formulas to that they can be used in you bot.
I have results from 1st Jan 2015 to 31st June 2015 and the size is only 748kb, so one entire years worth of data will easily fit in one book.
I'm going to start on previous years results, probably from 2010 onwards (or earlier, not sure yet!)

Cheers,Nigel.