Whether analysing historical data or developing a new system, it is almost essential to consider whether you want all other rules in your system (on the Horse, Form, Rating and Stats tabs) to apply to all races or selected types of races. For example, you may want to eliminate heavy tracks, or select only metropolitan tracks on Saturday, or even restrict to only jumps races, to mention just a few. In this Race tab section you can enter rules that limit the types of races to be analysed.

When using race rules you should also use the ‘RPD’ (Race Profile Database) which you create after you have imported all your historical data. When created or updated, it records race-related information of every race contained within the specified date range of your historical data; usually all of your historical data. It records such details as Race Distance, Field Size, Class Value (Cval), Class, Going, Track; in fact all of the parameters you see on the Race panel of the System Developer, and below on this page.

When you run a system with 'use RPD' activated, the System Developer compares your Race rules to the RPD, and then investigates only those races that match the Race parameter rules, thereby saving you a lot of time by ignoring all races that don’t match the Race rules.

Without the Race Profile Database ( RPD ) being created and used, a system would need to scan every race file in the specified date range of historical data to check if it contained any horses that pass the other rules of that system.  

Now to the explanations of the Race parameters: Depending on your specifications, these parameters restrict races to be analysed to races of the following types:

Age Restriction	Limited to horses of a specific age or age range, for example 2YO or 2&3YO or 3YO+ (where + means 'or older')
Area	Selected combination of Metropolitan, Provincial and/or Country races
Claimer	In which apprentices can or cannot claim their allowance
Class	Class of race. For example: Maiden, Class 1, Hurdle, Open
Class Value	Calculated field strength which ranges between approximately –36 and a high of +12. A component of Formline ratings
Country	Not yet applicable as only Australian races are currently available
Distance	Race distance. Enter a specific distance or a distance range
Field Size	Number of runners
First Starters	Number of horses having first career start
First Uppers	Number of horses having first start after a spell (ie resuming)
Going	Specified track condition - Firm 1, Firm 2, Good 3, Good 4, Soft 5, Soft 6, Soft 7, Heavy 8, Heavy 9, Heavy 10, Synthetic, Unknown
Group Type	Specified Group type - Group1, Group 2, Group 3, Listed Race
Limit Weight	Lowest weight assigned under race rules for handicap races
Maidens	Number of maiden horses in race. A maiden is a horse with no prior wins
Min Form Size	Specified number of starts for all runners required for race to qualify. For example, if you don't want to bet in a race unless all horses have had at least four starts, you should set Min Form Size to Min 4   Max 99
Month	Month or months in which race occurs
Overseas Runners	Number of horses that had their previous start in a race outside Australia
Prizemoney (k$)	Amount of Race Prizemoney in thousands of dollars - 50 = $50,000
Race Number	The number of the race in a meeting - for example Race 1
Sex Restriction	Races limited to a specific sex of horse
State	Races held in specified states of Australia
Track	Races held at specified racetracks - for example Eagle Farm, Flemington
User A-J	Races that you have manually flagged with User Race Flags A to J
Weekday	Races held on specified days of the week
Weight Restriction	Limit races to specific weight type - Handicap, Set Weight, Weight For Age
Year	Limit races to specific year or range of years
Year/Month	Limit races to specific a year/month or a range. Enter as, for example, Min 202104 - Max 202108. (April 2021 to August 2021)

	Some of the above parameters are defined by entering a range of MIN and MAX values in the relevant text boxes - for example 'Field Size', 'Distance' and 'Class Value'
	Others are defined by selecting categories from a drop-list - for example, 'Age Rest', 'Going', 'Month' and 'Track'
	Others are defined by a simple 'Include' or 'Exclude' - for example 'Claimer' and 'User A - J'

Next: Parameters on the Horse tab>>