Horse Racing Fantasy Community

The final round of testing was completed today for the new Handicapping Program for the Breeders' Cup final races. Monday and Tuesday, the development team will port it over to the live server for one final round of testing. It looks like Wednesday or Thursday this program will take over. So, what does that mean?

When we do flip the switch, the first thing you will notice is that three days prior to the Breeders' Cup final races being run, along with the post positions, you will now see the assigned odds and assigned weights for the contenders. That little change really makes those race detail pages look complete. In addition, you will also have the opportunity, after reviewing the handicapping done by your fellow members, to actually grade them on how you feel they did when handicapping that particular Breeders' Cup race. Each handicapper will have their own handicapper's page tracking their handicapping history on a go-forward basis. Also on that page will be the community's overall rating and comments left by fellow game members, approving and disapproving of the handicapper's analysis.

There will be badges issued to the handicappers and there will even be points awarded based on the success of the handicapper interpreted by the feedback given from the players rating him/her. Fellow community members can only provide a rating PRIOR to the running of the Breeders' Cup race. There will be no after-race voting allowed. The voting of the players not only determines if the handicappers receive bonus community game points, but also if they will be allowed to continue handicapping the races. Though the community doesn't determine who the handicappers will be (that's my job), the community can decide if a certain handicapper should no longer be allowed the privilege of handicapping the final races.

Everyone who has sent me a private message, you will be receiving something back from me probably Monday - could be at late as Tuesday if our program doesn't kick off until Thursday. It looks like we will have about 20 handicappers to start. The program is simple. If you are an approved handicapper, you will notice a badge on your profile page. Each day, email invitations will be sent out to randomly selected handicappers. That small group of handicappers will be given the opportunity over the next 48 hours (approximately) to handicap races from a group of races. Handicappers do not know what race they are handicapping. They are sent to a specific page in the community and that contains designated links for each final race. Even the order of the designated links rotates each time a handicapper accesses the page so there can be no collusion among handicappers. Once a handicapper clicks on a race, he is obligated to handicap that race and cannot opt out for another race. If he does opt out, handicapping privileges are suspended for two days. This prevents handicappers seeking out specific Breeders' Cup final races to analyze. In addition, if the handicapper has a horse in a particular Breeders' Cup final race, that handicapper will not have the opportunity to analyze and handicap that specific race. If another handicapper tries to click on the same race, he will be told that the race is in the process of being handicapped and will not gain access. I expect the average race to be handicapped in about 15 minutes max, but we are allowing 45 minutes. If a handicapper does not handicap the race in 45 minutes, he is disqualified from that race and suspended from handicapping for two days.

When you add it all up, between the player monitoring system, the rotating of the links, and the other restrictions we have implemented (mentioned above), it will be nearly impossible for a handicapper to take advantage of the system. The negativity from the community would be too great to bear. I'm really excited about this program because the added information prior to the race, such as the weights and odds, really do make a difference.

I need some feedback from the community. Here are the ranges of weight differences we're planning to use, but they can be easily modified:

2-year-olds - The maximum weight variation would be 12 pounds.
3-year-olds - The maximum weight variation would be 15 pounds.
4-year-olds & Up - The maximum weight variation would be 17 pounds.

These number represent the MAXIMUM difference possible between the high weight and the lowest weight horse in the race. I'm sure there will be plenty of races where these maximums are not even close. The object is not to balance out the race with the weights. That's not what a handicapper's job is. It is just to help close the gap a little bit. I'll wait for the community's feedback to make a final decision on the maximum variation of weights for the Breeders' Cup final races.

One last note - when the program does go live, it may be one or two days for the first Breeders' Cup race to be handicapped. Remember, if the Breeders' Cup race was already within 3 days of running, you won't see it being handicapped because in that case, the race is already published and those final races during the transition will run with the old system.

- Puddles