[AusRace] Percentage Power - calculators in racing series

[Tony Moffat]

Percentage Power, or %^ as it appears in the text, came and went quickly. A
week or so, may be!

There was an ad for it in The Sporting Globe, and a photo, but for one issue
only perhaps.

The first issue was a hand held calculator, black with yellow keys that
accepted TAB prices (or bookmaker prices +1)
and was meant to be used in conjunction with the teletext screen displaying
the dividends. All dividends were entered.
Then a book percentage was determined, then you could remove runners (or
their dividends) to pare back the total
until you had your chosen runners covered. From that stage the backing stake
was increased  to 100% for the runners remaining
and you placed your bets at this point. Most dutching calculators work the
same way, and I have several of those.

%^ Version 2 was different. The physical calculator was replaced with a DOS
program on floppy disks and had a few more facilities built in.

The text book included explains that the book percentage past 100 (per cent)
represents the real price of the favorite. 

A book total of 121.7% indicates that the fav was priced out at 21.7%
(100/21.7 = 4.60) and therefore the remaining runners
were priced correctly because their percentage hold totaled 100% (now). The
favorite was  almost always some other price
than that indicated by the numbers beyond 100%. The text continues to refer
to this magical revelation, the price of the favorite determined
from the overflow past the 'natural' (100% they mean), although the overflow
does not figure much in the 10 scenarios discussed.

(i) Drop the favorite and back everything at the price provided. You'll get
the winner 80% of the time, says the text, which is different than
the fav winning 33% (and losing 66%) of races, long term.
(ii) Remove 'no hopers' and reserve their % allocation for application to
remaining runners. These are runners priced at and including less than 6%.
It says 6% but declares $15.00 (and more) runners as those to be excluded.
Close, I know, but they could be specific.
(iii) There is a back and save facility. Save on chosen runners, which is
reducing your outlay on them, and taking the savings (from the reductions)
and
adding that to the backing of those 'important' runners, those you can
expect to win for you.
(iv) There is an involved process using This and Next doubles, although this
method of betting had not been introduced (at the time of purchase) so you
had to be true to the cause, and re-invest returns from the first race onto
the chosen runners in the second race. I don't think so. This also involved
recording, writing down
the nominees in the second race.
(v) A parlay over 3 or more races. Single picks in up to 3 future races
using the pre-post prices with an equation to assist in determing the
eventual price of your runner in
some future race. Even money (1/1) in four races required you to have a
payout exceeding $21, the mathematical calculated dividend needed. Those
same even money chances
have the likelihood of 3/1 off two successes, 7/4 from one, 11/4 from 3,
with a non-dividend of 11/1. It was this aspect, and some others, that was
confusing, and only some of it is mathematically correct.
(vi) You could target your returns on any runner, win a specific percentage
on any selection saluting, default was 7.5% although the subject in the book
deals with the overflow % divided by the number of selections - so 21.7
divided by 7 runners allows you an over of 3.1%, for instance.
(vii>x) for later discussion perhaps.

There is a calculator program in-built to predict a future price of your
selection using the Tab and Bookmaker price, using the APN feed (then) so
that a runner in the range 4.50-9.00 may have a future price of (TAB +
Bookmaker *2) divided by 3. This facility is not mentioned in the text book.

There is a quinella calculation step, not related to any published equation
though, and simply $a * $b with calculated returns over $20 divided by 2,
over $30 divided by three, $40/4,$50/5, essentially keeping the calculated
returns in the $10 band, then stating that this will help with getting 'the
overs' in this form of betting.

The sellers made no claims of winning a fortune with this except it was 'an
assistance to the gambler' and a 
worthwhile addition to the gamblers 'arsenal'. 

It came and went pretty quickly, no wonder. 'Power' features often in the
naming of a betting product, either a system, a plan, a method, or what this
is.

Cheers

Tony



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