Harness Helper was first introduced in 1986 as a DOS-only application. Starting with version 6.0 the application was transposed to run under the Windows operating system. Currently Harness Helper (manual/voice input) stands at version 8.2 (still available here).

The DDCH-SS Pro (Data Download, Charts, LongShot AND User Profiler) version is a progression of our 26 years of experience with Harness Racing.

The Profiler was designed to allow the handicapper to assign weights to handicapping aspects they feel important. This places the handicapper in as near total control of the Profile Rating as possible.

Once the profile has been created, activated, processed by the handicap engine and displayed on the ratings screen what the user sees as the Profile Rating is the culmination of the weights THEY assigned.

In a sense, the handicapper is the supervisor and the handicapping engine the employee. The employee does exactly as instructed. One could also think of The Profiler as a TEMPLATE creator. The 'Template' being completely dependent on the handicappers input for the Ratings output.

H-Pro can be used with or without the profiler active. When a ratings screen is displayed with the profiler active the only rating derived from the profiler is the Profile Rating. The other ratings on the screen such as form, feet per second, average final time, effort, class and the Overall Rating are derived from the standard handicapping engine.

This way the handicapper can compare Profile Rating with the Overall Rating(s). If you are wondering why the other ratings do not follow the profiler input, it is because the user has the ability to alter all of the other ratings using The Adjustor. You might think of this as a double edge sword.

With the profiler the user can be very creative. One could create profiles that highlight only horses with early speed or profiles that highlight early speed and money per start combined.

You can create profiles for each track you play, for each type of race at each track and just about anything else you can think of to create a profile.

In The Profiler documentation we have gone to great lengths to explain what happens behind the scenes -- right down to showing the user the formulation used. The more understanding by the user the more powerful this tool becomes in the users' hands.

Note: The Profiler is Microsoft Speech Software capable (Vista - Windows 7).

Handicapping aspects covered by The Profiler:

• Post Position
• Positions Gained/Lost
• Lengths Gained/Lost
• Trainer Win Percentage
• Driver Win Percentage
• Horse Lifetime Win Percentage
• Horse This/Last Year Win Percentage
• Horse Money Per Start Lifetime Percentage
• Horse Money Per Start This/Last Year Percentage
• Average Purse
• Average Quarter Times
• Average Position at Calls
• Leading at Calls
• Broke Stride
• Parked Out
• Average Final Time (as Basis)

The Adjustor allows the user to alter the way some aspects of Harness DDCH-SS Pro are calculated to determine the outcome of the Overall Ratings. This places more control in the hands of the user as an individual. The Adjustor is a sophisticated tool for the more experienced handicapper. In most cases, there is no need to adjust the H-Pro's Overall Ratings. However, experienced handicappers have the ability to see things that 'could' determine a different outcome than H-Pro may suggest for certain tracks under certain conditions.

Of course, there is no reason an inexperienced handicapper cannot use the Adjustor to research 'what if' possiblilities!

• Late Speed
• Early Speed
• Pace
• Effort
• Class
• Post Position
• Money Per Start
• Horse Win Percentage
• Driver Win Percentage
• Trainer Win Percentage

SnapShot is the proverbial Back Box. There is very little user control. It purposely is stingy when it comes to how it predicts long shot possiblities. It works from a proven criteria that, to be effective, should not be tampered with -- except for adjusing Days Ago and Morning Line Odds cutoff.

Although combined with Harness DDCH-SS Pro, SnapShot uses an independent engine. They both feed from the Past Performance Data Files but react to the data in VERY different ways.

Please see the Harness ShapShot webpage for a more in-depth explanation of how SnapShot works.

Pace Chart

The Pace Chart shows Quarter Times (for example: 29.1, 30.2, 31.0, 28.3), 1-2 Quarter combined time, 2-3 Quarter combined time and 3-4 Quarter combined time of the very last (previous) race of all the horses in today's race.

The times shown in the Pace Chart are the times of the Horses on the Chart (not the leader) ran in their 'very last' race.

Each time you display a Pace Chart you have the option of clicking on the FILEBOX Icon to save the Chart as part of (or all of) a CSV/TXT file or clicking on the PRINTER Icon to print the single Pace Chart directly to your printer.

Exporting the Chart or multiple Charts (by clicking on the FILEBOX Icon) can come in handy for a number of reasons.

The most important reason for many is that you have the ability to print ALL or just the Races you choose, as a continuous printout. If you chose to Export Races 1, 3, 5, 7 and 11 after importing into another application (like Excel) you could print out the five races on 2 sheets of paper (opposed to 5 sheets when using the PRINTER Icon output).

If you use spreadsheets, databases and analysis charts, you should be familiar with importing data to these types of applications. Most all the major spreadsheet, database and graphs applications have an import feature that is compatible with CSV/TXT data. The documentation goes into great detail on importing the file into spreadsheets.

Individual Chart

Clicking on any entry on the Ratings Screen will bring up a Chart of the horse's last five races. The Chart shows times, lengths ahead/behind, park outs, breaks, positions at all calls and more. It also shows whether the horse was On the Pace or Off the Pace. Using the Pace numbers can provide a relatively accurate picture for the horse at the calls of the race.

Statistics Chart

This Chart shows:

* the average winning times for Pacers and Trotters on fast, good, sloppy, slow and muddy/heavy surfaces.

* the number of wins from Post Positions 1-10 and the percentage of the wins.

* the number of wins and the percentage of wins for post time odds.

The Statistics Chart data is taken from the current data file (race card) you are handicapping. It provides 'current' data -- not data that was compiled last year for the year before!

The user can use the average times data to change/update the offset times used internally by Harness-DDCH.

All Charts can be Maximized, Minimized, Moved, Sized. The Charts can be displayed at the same time and you can 'Overlay' Charts to make comparisons.

Average Quarters/Positions Chart

This chart shows the 'average' time THIS horse ran the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Quarter. The QAvg is the 'average' of the "averaged" quarters ( 1Q-28.0, 2Q-30.0, 3Q-30.0, 4Q-28.0 = QAvg of 29.0).

This chart also shows the 'average' position of THIS horse at the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Quarter and Finish.

Again, the Quarter Times and Positions in the Quarters are for THIS horse -- NOT the leader.

Listed below are SOME of the aspects covered by Harness DDCH-SS Pro:

Harness DDCH-SS Pro does an excellent job of prediciting the probable outcome of a harness race, given the data avaliable to the handicapping engine. Picking the winner of every race or even 50% of all races on every race card is a monumental task for any handicapper or handicapping program.

There are many times when H-Pro's engine will pick over WELL OVER 50% of the winners on a single race card. But, expecting that type of performance from every race card is unreasonable.

If there were a software program that would pick a consistent 50% winners of all race cards (and, there isn't), there would be many more millionaires -- until the program caught on widely -- then all parimutual payoffs would be reduced to $2.10, $ 2.10, $2.10.

All good handicappers know that playing every race is foolish. Good handicappers are extremely selective of the races they play.

For example, Maiden Races with 'conditions' are generally a Fool's Game. Unless there is an entry that is so outstanding that everyone see it. If so, the Fool's lay out $2.00 and IF they win get a whopping $2.10 - $2.40 back. Quite chancy for the such a small return. Good handicappers would stay away from that type of race.

Why? Because they should either not be betting that race or are betting it incorrectly.

We won't bore you with outrageous claims regarding the effectiveness of H-Pro. Statistics can always be generated to favor whatever one wants to embellish.

Why are we telling you this? Because we know that Harness-DDCH-SS works for those who use their head!

Harness-DDCH-SS will work for you if you let it. Our user upgrade percentage is 73%. That tells us that something must be working for close to 3/4 of our users.

If you bet every race and expect to win 50% or more then please click your BACK button -- H-Pro is not for you.

• User can now adjust for Driver Changes

• User can now eliminate late Scratches from being handicapped and output to screen and printer
• Profiler weight maximum changed from 10 to 20
• Tracks Database now allows user to create and save multiple data files
• Average Times Calculator added to support Tracks Database input
• Race Card printout enhanced so the user can easily see top Rating categories.