• Hi Guest Just in case you were not aware I wanted to highlight that you can now get a free 7 day trial of Horseracebase here.
    We have a lot of members who are existing users of Horseracebase so help is always available if needed, as well as dedicated section of the fourm here.
    Best Wishes
    AR

Online Form Books

Oscar Finn

Oscar Finn

Yearling
Hi All,

New member here. A little bit about myself:

I started seriously betting on horses in the 1970's and had a brief spell full time on course during the mid 1980's. I've had a keen interest in horse racing since that time up to about a decade ago when a combination of a rapidly growing business and my good lady receiving cancer treatment (fortunately now all clear) meant I just couldn't devote the time to it I once did.

I sort of started to get back into the betting scene a couple of years ago after doing some business with a very successful sports trader and have spent the last couple of years in play trading football.

Horse racing has always been my first passion though and I've now decided to slow down a little on the business front and hopefully find the time to rekindle my interest in racing. A quick search of the online forum scene brought up several, of which this looks the pick of the paddock, so here I am :)

Obviously much has changed in the last decade, with most of the RP now behind a paywall and several new contenders on the software scene. I'd never even heard of Proform until a couple of days ago, it was all Raceform, Timeform and RSB when I was last involved.

So, my question is where does somebody coming back to the sport get his form? What are others using and why? Who are the contenders and what are their strengths and weaknesses?

I look forward to discussions with you all once I get back into the swing of things and have opinions to offer :drinks:
 
hello Oscar Finn Oscar Finn , welcome. many of us use Horseracebase which is excellent at a very reasonable price. there are also a lot of threads about this product , which can help you along the way . Timeform and Proform are probably top of the range if you have deep pockets !
 
With the RP, I think you can download PDF cards containing a lot of info without being a paying member.

As to the others, it depends how you want to work and what you after.

I chose ProForm over RI, as RI was deemed by many to be a bit outdated.

Found it great, but you had to run it at your computer, and it is quite pricey.

Recently changed to Horseracebase which I find great, can access from anywhere and has some different angles to ProForm. All for as little as £10 a month.
 
Hi Oscar to make the best choice from whats available you need to match to your requirements Re the way you work races.? RI best suits myself .It frequently stands accused of now appearing out dated and this could be viewed as fair comment but then again perhaps i am also and this is why it works for myself.They do have an upgrade planned, the IT support is aval 7 days a week and is very good.
 
jm77 said:
With the RP, I think you can download PDF cards containing a lot of info without being a paying member.

As to the others, it depends how you want to work and what you after.

I chose ProForm over RI, as RI was deemed by many to be a bit outdated.

Found it great, but you had to run it at your computer, and it is quite pricey.

Recently changed to Horseracebase which I find great, can access from anywhere and has some different angles to ProForm. All for as little as £10 a month.
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Hi jm77,
With Proform are you saying it has to be run from a dedicated machine that you have it pre-installed on? I think I would find that quite restrictive these days if I couldn't access it on a different laptop (or even tablet) on my travels.
I suppose it's a sign of the times we live in and piracy that these steps are neccessary.

I've had a quick look at Horseracebase and it certainly seems to be very reasonably priced. I'll investigate that further.

Thanks for the responses.
 
Oscar Finn Oscar Finn . As the others say you are spoilt for choice nowadays. Timeform stood still for a long time but in the last couple of years has smartened itself up, whilst retaining the best of the old features.

It is going to depend on your approach really. TF is not much good for systemites, and HRB would probably offer best value. If you are a form man you may find TF and Proform top of the pile. I have recently looked at Racing Research by John Whitley's mob, and though it doesn't add much to my main line of business, I find it excellent and it has produced the goods in races I would not normally invest in.

I am sure RI is good, too, but it's all really a matter of personal taste and budget. Good luck with whatever you choose.
 
simon boardman said:
wolfetone wolfetone , interesting you mention Racing Research as my Jumps Annual arrived today ! The Daily Formdata is way too expensive for me , but do you use the Annual ?
Click to expand...
I bought some of the Annuals years ago,at the time i found them good for a one hit over view of a horse.I also subscribed to the ratings for a while without success but this might have been down to the way i used them.!
 
simon boardman said:
thanks for your reply mick mick , i have an old one knocking around too. like you say probably just another small piece of the jigsaw !
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At that time his thinking Re ratings was innovative constantly changing the past ones to reflect the present some current day rating producers now follow this MO,but its something which i am not sold on.Each to there own and now JW is back in control i am sure some subscribers will make good use of them. ;)
 
Oscar Finn said:
Hi jm77,
With Proform are you saying it has to be run from a dedicated machine that you have it pre-installed on? I think I would find that quite restrictive these days if I couldn't access it on a different laptop (or even tablet) on my travels.
I suppose it's a sign of the times we live in and piracy that these steps are neccessary.

I've had a quick look at Horseracebase and it certainly seems to be very reasonably priced. I'll investigate that further.

Thanks for the responses.
Click to expand...
Hi - you can get Proform on your main PC and then a second license for another one - its part of the package - I would say you either want to be with Proform of HRB if its cost that's the issue HRB if you want to produce tailor made cards Proform does that for me albeit with a little cutting and pasting in excel. Proform also have ready made rating service that you can access dailly with out having to bother with the system builder if that's what you require - I don't know if HRB offer that service.
 
NigelRG NigelRG
Thanks for that link. Systems per se have never really been my bag but I did used to have some success researching trainers, which months they were hot, how they placed their horses prior to a win etc. HRB looks an excellent tool for that kind of research.
 
S simon boardman . Hi Simon. Yup, I use the annual cos it's a good way of referring to a horses past performance in seasons gone by. As Mick says it does give you an overview. I also used a couple of the weekly books lately but the NH weeklies are just coming out.

A good marketing ploy that has been used with me is to mail me the daily cards for the big Saturday meetings free of charge. Hard to resist a freebie.

Going back to the jumps annual it did highlight Fox Norton for me at Cheltenham the other week, and I was able to get on before the gamble . It is all very much open to interpretation of course.
 
Oscar Finn said:
Hi jm77,
With Proform are you saying it has to be run from a dedicated machine that you have it pre-installed on? I think I would find that quite restrictive these days if I couldn't access it on a different laptop (or even tablet) on my travels.
I suppose it's a sign of the times we live in and piracy that these steps are neccessary.

I've had a quick look at Horseracebase and it certainly seems to be very reasonably priced. I'll investigate that further.

Thanks for the responses.
Click to expand...

As mentioned above, you can get a multi licence to install PF on two machines, however I think the data on each is independent, so not good if you keep notes etc.

I did set up a remote access to my machine, however working off a phone/tablet was difficult.

I also found it a little temperamental if you hadn't updated for a few days, and it would take quite a while.

No such issue with HRB, no need to update and available anywhere. Doesn't have exactly the same features, but does have most, plus possibly a few different ones.
 
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