Explaining the Entries Page by deltatiger
on
Thursday, November 17, 2005 at
6:42:17 PM
How to Tell Your WSLR from Your ODW
When you enter your horses, you’ve no doubt checked the entry screen and seen a bunch of things you didn’t understand. Why I did get a 3 in WSLR, while that horse got a 5? Why did I lose 50 points under -DW? And what the heck is CBCPU?
Understanding the entry screen is crucial to getting your horses into races, especially when there are a lot of entrants. But the entry screen can be confusing if you don’t know what all those abbreviations stand for. The official explanation of the entry process, including formulas, is here: http://thoroughbredracing.net/hr/nent.html
But here is a slightly more user-friendly explanation:
Base - Every horse gets 2000 points, just for being entered.
+CB - Claiming Bonus, though “non-Claiming Bonus” would probably be more accurate. If your horse is entered into an allowance (other than a cpu allowance) or maiden special weight race, and it has not started in a claiming race in the past 6 months, it will get 100 points. If the horse has run in a claiming race, it will lose a certain amount of points based on the lowest claiming price it has run for in the past 6 months. If the horse has earned a stakes point in any category in the past 54 weeks, the CB will be 100.
+WSLR - Stands for weeks since last raced. First time starters get 3 points. All other horses get points based on the number of weeks since they raced last. 1 week gets 1 point, 2 weeks get 2 points, 3 weeks gets 3 points, 4 weeks gets 4 points. After that, the number of points is calculated according to the formula in the link, basically 1 point for each additional 3 weeks off. The maximum number of points is 15.
+SCB - Soft closing bonus. Every week there is a “soft closing time” that can be any where from 3 p.m. Eastern time to just before 6 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday. All horses entered before the soft closing time get 100 points. All horses entered after it receive 0. This does not apply to weekday races.
+ODW - Open Difference Wins. Applies only to unrestricted allowances and claiming races. Horses get points for each qualified win. If entering an unrestricted allowance, a horse will get 50 points for each allowance or stakes win, up to a maximum of 200 points. If entering an unrestricted claiming race, a horse will get 25 points for every win, including maiden wins. The description says that for a claiming race the bonus is capped at 200 points, but at the moment there does not appear to be an upper limit.
-TRV - Travel. The bp penalty for shipping multiplied by itself. For example, shipping from California to Kansas is a bp penalty of 3. The TRV penalty will be 3x3, or 9. The maximum is 900.
-DW - Difference in Wins. Applies to allowances and claiming races with restrictions. Every win less that the maximum possible while still qualifying will lose 50 points. For example: Your horse has won win and you enter it into a nw3l. The maximum number of wins a horse can have will still qualifying is two, one more than your horse has. You lose 50 points for each win less than that, or 50x1= 50 points. If you enter a horse with no allowance wins in an nw3x, the penalty would 50x2= 100 points.
-M - Maiden. All maidens entered into non-maiden races loose 500 points. A maiden can also lose additional points in the -DW category.
-CBCPU - Not quite sure what this stands for, but it only applies to cpu restricted races. A horse entered into a cpu restricted race will lose points based on how far below the restriction the horse’s cpu value is. If the restriction is *950, then a horse with a cpu of 700 will lose fewer points than a horse with a cpu of 300.
Total - The total of all the columns. If you don’t want to worry about the details, this is the only number you need to worry about.
Other - If a horse is entered with the condition of being scratched if the track is off (Scr/O on the entry screen) or the race stays on turf (Scr/T on the entry screen), that code will appear here.
Basically, all this adds up to the most qualified horses getting the most points and less qualified horses getting fewer. If you are having a hard time getting your horses into races, then probably you need to pay closer attention to which races you are entering them into. The chances of your horse making the field are best if you enter your horse into a race where it meets the conditions exactly and the shipping bp penalty is less than 3.
Of course, there are times when the only race right for your horse is one that your horse simply cannot draw into because of shipping penalty or some other loss of entry points. When this happens (and it happens to everyone) you need to decide whether you want to rest your horse for another week or two, or enter into a race that your horse is less well suited for. The choice is yours.
