I have two subscriptions, 1 for basic and one for Formulator 4. You can get the basic with just the normal PDF purchase. What I was meant to say was to be careful not to use up all your Form 4 subscription unless you have plenty of time to optimize all it's information. It's impossible to handicap between races with the Formulator 4, unless you're real knowledgeable like Andy and Steve.

I forgot they changed the pricing of the pdf's to the basic price. With either subscription the sibling summaries are available and are of value for the smaller tracks which don't have the closer look feature. Colonial is a track where sibling summaries are helpful with the large number of young horses trying the turf for the first time.

I downloaded it and began looking through it and messing around. It seems amazing with all the information made available to me. What are some specific things that those who already use it look at? Particularly with the trainer angles, it seems that there are just so many ways to sort it that I don't know where to start. Also, what kinds of things do you all look at when you look at the charts from the horses previous race?

We can only pray for such wisdom!

Every race has a different makeup so I don't think there's any one thing to look at in particular. Tomorrow's first race at Hollywood has a Doug O'Neill maiden (half bro to Saratoga County) coming back in 5 days and the first thing I noticed was his win percentage of 46% when his starters raced back within 1-7 days. I set the filters to maiden claiming races, racing back in 1-7 days, the last 5 years. He has 7 starters, 4 winners and 3 out of the money. I now look at the pps of these 7 horses leading up to their races under these circumstances and can compare their form to today's horse.

When viewing the charts I look at the race within the race, comparing the horses who ran nearest to the horse in question and compare their recent form to today's rivals. It's virtually endless the number of options available. Check out the formulator help, it's very informative.

Does everybody still use the basic PP's to weed through the actual horses that have a chance and then use the Form 4.1 to go back and look deeper into the horses in question?

It's easier to use Formulator 4 for all the horses. It looks very much like the basic PP's to start with. It's just that you have access to much more info at a key-stroke.

--Dunbar

The Formulator pps are basic pps, and you can print them as such, though you can also add in your own comments ( trips notes ), and you can also use the computer to dig inside the pps.

Wow. My first weekend using them was a huge success, easily my best in a long time. I would reccomend that everybody give them a try. At first I was overwhelmed with too much info, but too much info is far better than not enough info. I spent 4-5 hours on a card but it definitely paid off. I'm not that good of a capper but these definitely bumped me up a notch. I would be suprised if people were to give them a try and not find them beneficial.

tiznowthegreat
 

did it improve you picking winners or

with the exotics or what?

just curious

I pretty much am strictly a P4 player so it helped picking winners.

Formy 4 is very helpful when handicapping races from Saratoga. DRF has the "Saratoga Special" which is the entire meet cards. They usually offer it starting the last weekend of Belmont's meet,