Alert!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

HANA & Equibase: Real Time Scratches and Changes

A long held bone-of-contention with horseplayers, as witnessed virtually all over the internet and in simulcast centers, is the lack of uniform, timely and completely accurate reporting of scratches and changes. It is not uncommon to hear "I did not know that race was off the turf", or like at this Paceadvantage.com thread, "I know this will never come about, but how about one official change repository for all tracks?"

Well that has happened.

After productive meetings with Equibase at HANA Day at Keeneland this spring, the idea was hatched, and through fine work by Hank and crew, we now have a repository for scratches and changes all in one place. The area is disseminated with an RSS feed, so there is no reason at all this can not be proliferated all over the web with racetracks everywhere. HANA, on behalf of horseplayers, would like to thank racetracks and equibase for helping out their customers, which in turn we hope helps players have a better racing and betting experience.

If we work together we can make a difference.

Here is the Press Release. Please visit Equibase to try out the new feature.



Current day scratches and program changes from racetracks throughout North America are now available throughout the day in a dedicated section of equibase.com, it was announced Oct. 1 by Equibase Company president and COO Hank Zeitlin.

Equibase developed the new service in conjunction with racetracks and with feedback from the Horseplayers Association of North America. Besides having access to the latest scratches, horseplayers can now obtain other critical updates such as when a race has been moved from turf to dirt, distance changes, jockey changes, and amended wagering options on equibase.com. They can also register to receive an RSS feed for each track they are playing, enabling instant delivery of information to desktops and mobile devices.

These scratches and program changes are updated live from the racetrack via eBase®, Equibase’s proprietary Internet-based data collection system. Designated personnel at the live track can now use eBase to enter the day’s scratches and program changes until one hour before post time for the first race, at which time Equibase chartcallers assume responsibility for entering subsequent changes.

“During the Keeneland spring meet where we held our first HANA Day at the Races, Equibase and members of HANA met for a productive meeting at their office,” said HANA President Jeff Platt. “We are very pleased that as a result of that beginning and subsequent discussions, horseplayers will now have access to a centralized, accurate resource for reporting of late-breaking changes.”

“Making it easier for horseplayers to acquire pertinent information such as scratches and program changes is simply good business and the tracks are happy to participate in this new arrangement,” said Chris Scherf, executive vice president of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America.

The “Today’s Scratches & Program Changes” webpage was deployed Sept. 29 and is accessible via a link on the equibase.com homepage. The current day scratches and program changes are also available for electronic retrieval, which enables value-added resellers, tracks, and other industry organizations to provide timely changes and scratches to their respective customers.

Press Release courtesy Equibase.com.

HANA is continually looking for ways to improve racing and are working on them on a daily basis, but we need your help. Please join us, lend a hand, or silently offer your support. Thank you.

12 comments:

dana said...

Wow, thanks you and great work!!

webmaster said...

great work all

Anonymous said...

I never thought I would see the day this would happen. We have been complaining about this for years.

Thanks everyone.

Anonymous said...

While I certainly applaud Equibase for finally getting around to providing something that should have been available a long time ago, this is hardly innovative.

Real time changes have been available for years. My account with WinTicket had them back in 2001. I know real-time changes were also available at the Racing Channel site too, and there were several off track outlets I have been to that used a secondary video signal that showed them.

Kudos to HANA for getting Equibase to finally listen.

Anonymous said...

I have always found it difficult to find out when part of an entry is a late scratch and when there is a track surface switch or track condition change.

Hopefully this new service from Equibase will help get the information out sooner. That the racing industry is making a major effort to help horseplayers is certainly a step in the right direction.

Anonymous said...

Does winticket have an XML feed? I think this is the first of its kind, but I could be wrong.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it appears this is "pushed" to your mobile phone or any device. The days of going and hitting refresh, or waiting for a TV screen for a scratch, or calling in for them seem to be ancient history. It's about time!

Well done.

Anonymous said...

Great news!

Anonymous said...

How instant are the scratch updates? When a horse at Belmont is a late scratch, how long will it take for me to be notified through this new system?

Has anyone tested this?

CBedo said...

It is my understanding that the scratch page and the xml file are updated as soon as the track enters scratches into the system. It's also my understanding that there should be less than a 30 second delay before the RSS feed disseminates them to you.

Anonymous said...

Thursday Oct 8th. Twinspires had all the Calder scratches when I looked at 12:22. Equibase had ony the early scratches.
RG

CBedo said...

It is still up to the tracks to enter the scratches into the system. What I've noticed over the last few days is that the scratches are up on their site (or TS), and then it's a short time until they enter them at Equibase. The hope is that at some point, tracks will have one system that enters scratches everywhere, but they are not there yet.