The Virtual FormGuide - By-A-Nose Data Service
Service Description
By-A-Nose (BAN) is a free software package developed by Pineapplehead, a public listed company specialising in sports statistics for TV presentation. You may have seen their work in connection with TV broadcasts of golf, cricket, football and now horse racing. BAN is designed as a quick and simple way of making selections by using your computer to assess the many factors which have a bearing on the outcome of a race. You can download By-A-Nose for free from the Pineapplehead web site.

Cyberhorse has developed an Internet interface which allows the BAN user to import the required data. Please note that the BAN data service can also include other Virtual FormGuide services such as form or ratings, which will provide extra functionality to BAN as described below.

How To Use This Service
1. Download the latest version of By-A-Nose from the Pineapplehead site.

2. Install By-A-Nose on your PC.

3. Run the program. You will need to be online to access the data to make it work.

4. To get data from the Virtual FormGuide site you need to click on the Load Race List button. If you want to trial By-A-Nose for free using yesterday's data, you can log in as user name guest and password guest.

5. If you want to try By-A-Nose with live data, you will need to Register as a Virtual FormGuide member and subscribe to a By-A-Nose data service.

6. Whether you are logged in as a guest or as a BAN subscriber, you can choose races to analyse by clicking Choose Race.

7. You will then be presented with a menu of races for the past few days. Double-click on any race to automatically load the BAN data for that race.

8. You can click on the "Calculate" button to immediately get the BAN prediction for the race, or you can select from the dropdown list of track conditions which will have an affect on the selections. Optionally, you can select from the different sets of odds provided, which again will have an affect on the predicted outcome. Using this method in the free guest mode, you can see how BAN works without spending a cent. It is advisable to go to the results section of your preferred TAB to be able to easily compare the results predicted against those achieved.

The very nature of gambling on horse races means that there is no one winning strategy. BAN can be used by a simple strategy of betting each way (win and place) on its top rated selection. However, there are many variations, such as betting on the selection in the first 3 which is showing the best odds, combining the first 3 or 4 selections in a trifecta or quinella, betting for a place only etc.

Our suggestion is to evaluate BAN in the free guest mode by using previous day's data combined with the known results. You will get to know the types of races where BAN is most successful and which betting strategy would have produced the best result. A good idea is to write down the results achieved by a particular strategy and see how you would have fared on a flat stake basis ie $1 each way. If the strategy produces a profit at level stakes, it could be worth following with real money.

BAN Odds Sources
By-A-Nose is sensitive to a horse's position in the market and will take its odds into consideration if they are supplied. To be accurate, you need to supply odds for each horse in the race. These can be manually input by the user or can be automatically input from the different odds sources supported by the BAN data service. At present these are :-
  • Pre-Post Ratings - these are the Base Ratings supplied as a part of the TVF form service. In the free guest mode, the effect of these ratings can be tested for previous days. If you subscribe to the BAN Racing Fan, BAN Punter, BAN Punter Plus or BAN Pro Punter service, the Pre-Post ratings (Base Ratings for TVF users) are available 2 days before the race and can be used as an odds input for BAN, as well of course, as a stand alone assessment. On race morning, the Base Ratings are recalculated to take into account scratchings and these revised ratings are available both for input to BAN and stand alone use.
  • Raceday Ratings - these are the Xtra Ratings supplied as a separate subscription product in The Virtual FormGuide. In the free guest mode, the effect of these ratings can be tested for previous days. If you subscribe to Xtra Ratings or the BAN Punter Plus or BAN Pro Punter service, the Raceday ratings (Xtra Ratings for TVF users) are available by 10am EST on race morning and can be used as an odds input for BAN, as well of course, as a stand alone assessment.
  • Plus Ratings - these are the Plus Ratings supplied by the TVF form service. In the free guest mode, the effect of these ratings can be tested for previous days. If you subscribe to the BAN Punter Plus or BAN Pro Punter service, the Plus Ratings are available 2 days before the race and can be used as an odds input for BAN, as well of course, as a stand alone assessment. On race morning, the Plus Ratings are recalculated to take into account scratchings and these revised ratings are available both for input to BAN and stand alone use.
  • SuperTAB - these are the win odds for the combined TAB's of Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania. On raceday, these odds are supplied live into BAN from the Tabcorp web site. For previous days, the odds are also available, but only for meetings on which Tabcorp operates.
  • NSWTAB - these are the win odds for the NSWTAB (TAB Limited). On raceday, these odds are supplied live into BAN from the NSWTAB web site. For previous days, the odds are also available, but only for meetings on which NSWTAB operates.
  • UniTAB - these are the win odds for the QldTAB (UniTAB). On raceday, these odds are supplied live into BAN from the QldTAB web site. For previous days, the odds are also available, but only for meetings on which QldTAB operates.
Service Availability
The By-A-Nose Data service is available each race day at all times if you are only using form inputs. If you wish to make use of a TAB Odds Source, the selected TAB must be online and offering odds on your selected race at that time. If you wish to use TVF Ratings as your Odds Source, Base and Plus Ratings are available 2 days before the race. Xtra Ratings are available on race morning, together with updated versions of Base and Plus Ratings which eliminate scratchings
Service Pricing
The By-A-Nose data service is available on a subscription basis as a part of the TVF services listed below.
TVF Services Which Include This Service
The By-A-Nose Data service is available as a part of the following services.