The Virtual FormGuide - Member Services

Virtual FormGuide - Member Services - TVF News

10 Start Form Service (01/01/04)
The Cyberhorse Pro Punter form service has now been upgraded to include 10 starts instead of 5 as previously. The 10 start service is also available in zip file format for a whole meeting. Existing services such as the Punter 5 Start Form service continue to be available.

Form at Nominations Included in Form Services (01/01/04)
The popular Form at Nominations (NORM) service is now included in the Punter (5 Start Form) and Pro Punter (10 Start Form) subscription services. Ideal for owners, trainers and jockeys, NORM provides detailed career statistics and form for the last 5 starts for all TAB meetings at the nominations stage. NORM continues to be available on a casual Pay-Per-View basis for $1.00 per race.

Trainer, Jockey and Stallion Statistics (01/02/03)
All Virtual FormGuide users now have free access to comprehensive trainer, jockey and stallion statistics. They are available either through the links in the Directories menu at left or through links in the Form at Nominations or 3 Start Form in The Virtual FormGuide. Statistics are available for all trainers, jockeys and stallions with runners in Australian TAB races. Covering the last 5 seasons, they measure overall performance, as well as races with different levels of prizemoney, distance, class, track conditions, odds range, field size, days from last run, weight carried, barrier position and horse age.

Cyberhorse Racing Clubs (01/01/03)
Cyberhorse Racing Clubs allow Virtual FormGuide subscribers to participate in racing a horse without the expense and complications of a normal syndication. For as little as $100 for 12 months, Club Members are able to enjoy an interest in a leased horse, with internet communication keeping them as involved as any other owner would be. Club Members are entitled to a share of any prizemoney their horse may earn while it is racing.

New Racing News System (01/08/02)
As a part of the new VirtualFormGuide.com site, we have developed our own system for creating, updating and indexing news stories. The system allows for stories to be filed under categories such as racing, breeding and stewards reports and then to be retrieved by category, author or location.

VirtualFormGuide.com Launched (01/08/02)
5 years to the day that Cyberhorse launched The Virtual FormGuide in 1997, the service has been extended with the introduction of www.virtualformguide.com. The new site incorporates all of the popular features of The Virtual FormGuide, including several different levels of form, 3 types of ratings, realtime odds display, virtual stable, search facilities and much more.

Form at Nominations (01/07/02)
Owners, trainers, jockeys and punters will be interested in our NORM (Form at Nominations) service, which provides a complete 5 start detailed formguide at the nominations stage. The service, which is available an hour or so after nominations are published, allows industry professionals to see immediately the form of all horses nominated. The information is updated with weights a day or so later.

Access is possible on an unlimited subscription basis or for those with more limited requirements, on a single race or meeting Pay-Per-View basis. For more information go here.

Quick Subscription Option Enabled (15/06/02)
In the past, TVF Members have been asked to deposit funds into their Member Account and then as a separate step to use them to purchase a subscription to the service(s) of their choice. As some Members have found this confusing and time consuming, we have enabled a new facility which combines payment and subscription simultaneously.

To process a Quick Subscription, find the service you want to subscribe to on the Member Status page, which is the one you get to immediately after logging in. Click on the Subscribe link next to the service and you will be presented with a popup window to our secure online payment facility. After entering your card details, just select the period you wish to subscribe for and your card will be charged and subscription processed in one easy step.

For people used to the old method, it will still work and must be used if you wish to fund your account by offline methods.

Form Order Option Enabled (15/11/01)
The Virtual FormGuide has traditionally had the most recent race first in the form for each horse. Members now have the option of displaying the most recent race last as in most newspaper formguides. The form order in Zip files remains unchanged however, as these files are usually used as input to computer programs which rely on the existing file format.

To enable the new option Members should login and go to Change Details in the Member Admin menu.

The Virtual FormGuide Redeveloped (01/10/01)
After 4 years of adding new functionality, we felt that TVF needed to be completely redeveloped in order to make it easier to use and to include more services. The new service includes :-

An improved user interface allowing access to all current form from one convenient menu page.
At a glance colour coded status reports showing which data is online at any time.
A much increased range of products and subscription options allowing for multiple products to be accessed with a single subscription.
In addition to the Basic Virtual Stable function for named horses, an Enhanced Virtual Stable for subscribers which allows notification of stallion or mare progeny, descendants of damsires, all runners for specific trainers and all rides for nominated jockeys.
An enhanced form service showing trial form.
A more simple 3 start form service.
New sets of Ratings called Plus Ratings.
Optional participation in Cyberhorse Racing Clubs, which offer TVF clients the opportunity to share in the thrill of racing a well bred horse with a top stable for a small one time fee.
Access to an ever increasing range of racing news articles produced by our editorial team.

Enhanced Virtual Saleyard (01/05/01)
Many new facilities have been added in a completely redeveloped Virtual Saleyard. Some of the new functions are :-

TVS now has categories for listings other than Horses. These include Other Listings (clothing, transport, real estate, horse gear, machinery, employment etc), as well as an all breeds Stallion Directory and a Products & Services Directory.
All TVS Members now have access to TVS's free Email Notification Service. This service allows Members to specify search criteria and to be notified daily of any listings added or changed which match.
A new promotional feature has been added known as Feature Impressions. This allows vendors to have their advertisement featured on Cyberhorse's most popular pages. Featured Ads can be zoned to appear only where the vendor wants them to. These ads have achieved up to a 30% response rate in testing.
A much improved Member Services function allows vendors to access a Control Panel where they can view their ads, make changes or order Enhancements and Feature Impressions. A full history of all changes can be seen, together with the number of Feature Impressions shown and clickthrough performance when these have been ordered.
The Horse Search function now allows searches for height and age ranges.
All listings now have country and state as selection items and allow for searches for words or phrases.
Listings can now be withdrawn instead of having to mark them as sold.
Horse and Other listings can be For Sale or Wanted.
The Products & Services section has been extended to include many more categories. Ads in the Products & Services Directory have a 12 month duration. Zoned Feature Impressions can be ordered to provide extra prominence for a Directory listing.
The Stallion Directory has now been extended to include all breeds instead of only thoroughbreds. Ads in the Stallion Directory have a 12 month duration. Zoned Feature Impressions can be ordered to provide extra prominence for a Directory listing.
The Listing Enhancements ordering procedure has been streamlined in order to simplify purchasing.
Tax Invoices are now emailed to vendors when ordering Enhancements or Feature Impressions.

Historical Form Archive (03/12/00)
Many TVF Members have asked if it is possible to obtain historical form files to be used for systems etc. We are pleased to introduce a new service which allows Members to purchase individual files for all meetings over the past two years. We are conscious of the many different requirements Members will have, ranging from picking up the odd file here and there, to wanting to compile form for all Sydney meetings or all Victorian provincial meetings for instance. We have therefore designed a system to allow Members to select from all meetings for a specific month and for metropolitan, provincial or country meetings for that month.

We have also developed an innovative way of packaging numbers of zip files for easy downloading. Once selected and paid for, the new system emails them to the email address in your Member profile. More information can be found by following the Historical Form link after logging in..

Cyberhorse Rated Leading Horse Racing Site (27/10/00)
2top10-white.gif (1853 bytes)

Australia's leading Internet ratings agency, Hitwise has rated Cyberhorse number 1 in the Horse Racing category for the quarter ended 30th September, 2000.

In notifying Cyberhorse of the award, Hitwise said :-

"We are pleased to advise you that www.cyberhorse.net.au has been ranked 1 by Hitwise Australia in the Sport - Horse Racing category. Your ranking is based on the number of pages viewed on your website by over 1 million Australian Internet users for the period July - September 2000".

The Virtual Racing Chronicle (01/10/00)
Our latest innovation is The Virtual Racing Chronicle, bringing you racing, punting and breeding news from Australia and New Zealand and around the world. The Chronicle also has a comprehensive guide to what is racing at the moment, being able to look up directories for horses, trainers, jockeys, stallions and damsires of all horses racing in the last week. Each of these is hyperlinked to Cyberhorse's comprehensive racing industry directories, which will help Racing Chronicle readers to find out more about each racing industry participant.

By-A-Nose (01/09/00)
In conjunction with innovative software house, Pineapplehead, Cyberhorse is pleased to bring you By-A-Nose, a free software package designed to pick winners. Users can download By-A-Nose from the Pineapplehead web site. Form data can be keyed in manually, or you can take advantage of our specially designed form download feature, which seamlessly integrates By-A-Nose with The Virtual FormGuide. This service can be subscribed to for only $22 a month for unlimited access to By-A-Nose data. By-A-Nose results can be improved by using odds data for each horse. Subscribers to TVF Base Ratings (included with 5 start form) and/or Xtra Ratings can use these as inputs to By-A-Nose. On race day, live odds from each of the major TAB's can also be used.

Realtime Odds Improvements (01/07/00)
Due to Member feedback, we have improved the update speed and coverage of the Realtime Odds service. During periods of high traffic, the old system did not update as rapidly as it needed to and consequently the odds were sometimes out of date. The new system resolves that problem.

The Virtual Stable (01/10/99)
We have created a new free service for registered Members, which allows you to establish your own Virtual Stable of horses to follow. Whenever they are nominated or accepted for a race, we will let you know by email. You can have an unlimited number of horses in your Virtual Stable and add or delete horses at any time. You can also have comments for each horse, explaining why you are interested in following its progress. These comments will be included in your notification email. Of course, once you know the race your horse is running in, you can check the detailed form for that race by using The Virtual FormGuide on either a subscription or pay-per-view basis. To create your Virtual Stable, click on the Virtual Stable link after logging in.

New Meeting Navigator (01/09/99)
Many Members have suggested that we provide a means of moving around all the different options available for each meeting, without having to reload a navigation page each time. In order to do this, we have had to take advantage of Javascript technology to create a Meeting Navigation Frame, which requires Version 4 or later browsers for it to work properly.

The new system offers a number of new access options, such as fields for the meeting, plus alphabetical listings for horses, jockeys, trainers, sires and damsires mentioned in the form for the meeting. Registered TVF Members have free access to fields, noms, alpha listings, realtime odds. Subscribers to form or ratings will have instant access to those products they have subscribed to. Pay-per-view Members will have access to form and ratings they wish to purchase if they have funds in their Member Account.

Fields (17/08/99)
As an added facility, we now have race fields with jockeys available as a free service for registered TVF Members. These are posted as soon as they are available and usually before the detailed form for the meeting is posted to our server. The meeting menus have been changed so that any meeting is available at 3 stages :-
When nominations/weights are posted the meeting menu will show the meeting under Nominations/Weights
When fields are posted the meeting menu will show the meeting under Fields
When form is posted the meeting menu will show the meeting under Form Ratings Tips & Realtime Odds

Quick Find Listings (01/08/99)
To quickly find if a horse, trainer, jockey, stallion or broodmare sire is in our current formguide, we have introduced pre-prepared listings accessible via the Search Form function after logging in. The current formguide is generally the last 2 days plus today and the next 2-4 days, giving you about a week's worth of racing at a time. Note that you will need to be a current form subscriber to access the detailed form file. If you have requested a stallion or broodmare sire listing, clicking on the stallion's name will allow you to access their listing in the Cyberhorse Stallion Directory.

New Nominations/Weights Format (01/08/99)
We have changed the format of Nominations/Weights so that all races are in the one file. Feedback from clients suggested that downloading individual files, even in zip format was too cumbersome and that the file sizes were small enough that a whole meeting download would cause no difficulty. Nominations/Weights are now also free to registered TVF Members.

New Date Navigator (16/07/99)
In response to requests to reduce the number of page downloads needed to navigate from one meeting to another, we have modified the software to put the dates and meeting links all on the same page.

Pedigree Price Reduction (16/07/99)
For those users of our thoroughbred pedigree service, the price has been reduced from $50 to $40 due to better rates offered by our supplier, Arion Pedigrees. Arion supply all the pedigrees used by Magic Millions Bloodstock.

2 New TVTT Members (26/06/99)
Two new members join The Virtual Tipping Team today. The first is Winform, who have been providing selections for over 10 years. Winform specialise in single horse selections, with daily specials provided each morning. The second is Cyberate, who recommend that punters back their selections for a place.

Real Time Odds Now Includes Darwin All Sports (05/06/99)
We've added an extra column to our Realtime Odds display. This includes the win odds from Darwin All Sports, who provide fixed price betting on the major Australian meetings each day. This service is free to registered TVF members. To access Real Time Odds, click on the 'O' link next to any race.

New TVTT Member (27/05/99)
The latest Member is The Pro, who has been a professional punter for 25 years. The Pro specialises in provincial and country races and aims to find 2 or 3 good priced selections each day. By following his innovative staking plan, The Pro reckons you can produce a consistent profit of 10-20% on turnover. As with all TVTT Members, The Pro's past selections are archived for all to see. You can see what he has to offer here.

Real Time Odds Display (01/03/99)
For the punter who wants to watch the fluctuating prices, while viewing the races on Sky Channel and betting via phone or Internet, here is the ideal information solution. Another requirement identified by our survey, supported by just under 50% of respondents, The Virtual FormGuide now includes real time win and place odds for all 3 main TAB's on the same screen. A handy link also allows form subscribers to get the form for a single horse without having to download the whole race. To access Real Time Odds, click on the 'O' link next to any race.

Professional Selections from The Virtual Tipping Team (01/03/99)
If you don't have time to do the form, here is an ideal solution. We have been testing out several expert selectors for the last few months. They have agreed to become the founding professional members of our Virtual Tipping Team. One of the conditions they operate under is that all their selections must be archived, so that potential clients can see how successful they are. Our inaugural TVTT members are Racecalc Ratings and Suparatings. All selections can be paid for using your Virtual FormGuide Member Account. Click on The Virtual Tipping Team link to find out more.

Form Now Includes Ratings (11/02/99)
In response to our online survey, where 82.5% of replies expressed a desire to have ratings included with form, we have decided to include our Base Ratings product with every TVF subscription. Now instead of paying an extra $20 a month for ratings, our Form Guide subscribers get ratings included for every race at no extra charge. This offer applies immediately to all existing TVF subscribers and new subscribers from 11/02/99.

The Virtual Saleyard - Now Redeveloped! (01/01/99)
The Virtual Saleyard has now been completely redeveloped. The most important improvements are that it is is now database driven and listings can be input and maintained directly by the vendor. Basic listings are now free and of unlimited duration, while enhancements such as photos and pedigrees can be added for a low ($20) charge. The TVS system is ideally suited to marketing horses for a very low cost over a long period in Australia's most popular horse related web site.

Single Horse Form, Pedigrees, Stallion Reports (11/11/98)
To extend our range of horse racing data, we are pleased to be able to add single horse form, catalogue style pedigrees and comprehensive stallion progeny performance reports. All these services can be requested and paid for on-line, with delivery by email, generally within a few hours of requesting the report. As the data is in digital form, it is ideal for including in word processed documents and other computer produced formats.

Secure On-Line Credit Card Payment System (16/10/98)
To overcome concerns about Credit Card security over the Internet, we have implemented a secure 128 bit system developed by Australian e-Commerce company, Camtech. The facility links directly to the National Australia Bank EFTPOS switch and can process Visa, Mastercard and Bankcard transactions in real time. All information is fully encrypted, so your card details are never able to be viewed by others.

Semi Finalist in the Telstra/AFR Web Awards! (10/09/98)
Recognition of Cyberhorse and The Virtual FormGuide with the announcement that we have become a semi-finalist in Australia's most prestigious web site awards. TVF is the only horse racing site in the Sports section of the awards and is one of only 100 sites Australia wide who were culled from the 1,500 nominations. To increase our impact on the judges, we are keen for you to vote for us.

New Pay-Per-View System (22/08/98)
Designed to work with the newly created Member Administration System, we have now introduced our internally developed Pay Per View system, which allows Members to purchase individual files instead of having to subscribe for a period. For instance, form for single races is available for 20 cents - ideal for the owner or trainer who is only interested in one race. Similarly, Base or Xtra Ratings can be purchased by the race or by the meeting - again ideal for those who only bet on weekends.

New Member Administration System (24/07/98)
Due to the ever increasing TVF membership, we have developed a new web based Member Administration System to assist with managing Member's account status, multiple product subscriptions and other enhancements we have planned for TVF. Members can now check and amend all details for their account, including name and address and other contact details. Your current account balance and subscription expiry dates can also be verified.

Successful e-commerce (15/07/98)
We are pleased to announce that Cyberhorse and The Virtual FormGuide feature prominently as one of 10 Victorian businesses using e-commerce, in the book "Successful e-commerce" which was launched today by Victoria's Minister for Multimedia, Alan Stockdale.

Cyberhorse Ratings! (05/06/98)
After 3 months of testing we are about to go live with our own proprietary ratings. There will be 2 sets of ratings available - Base Ratings which will be issued when acceptances are first declared and Xtra Ratings which will be issued on race morning and will take into account track conditions and scratchings, among other things. They will be free for the first month and will then be chargeable.

Our ecash Solution Wins $5,000! (25/04/98)
St George Bank has awarded a $5,000 prize to Cyberhorse for its innovative use of ecash within The Virtual FormGuide. The selection was made from 36 merchants who have implemented the ecash payment system on their web site.

The Virtual Tipping Team (15/04/98)
Cyberhorse is delighted to announce that our innovative selection service, The Virtual Tipping Team, is now ready to go live. We have spent the last few months developing and testing the software and recruiting the team members. Now you can enjoy the benefit of following some very talented tipsters. Not only can you see what they are tipping today, but you can check out their entire tipping history. For those interested in value betting, we even tell you how much each tipster would have won (or lost) on a $1 level stake bet on each selection. Go to The Virtual Tipping Team page for more information.

New Format (05/03/98)
We have completely changed the format of The Virtual FormGuide, with a new logo, colour scheme and layout. In response to user suggestions, we have altered the navigation features of TVF to list meetings in date order and then in state order. Within each state, meetings are ranked with Metropolitan first, then Provincial and finally Country. By using a frames based layout, users can easily jump from race to race within a meeting, or from meeting to meeting on a single day. For those few users who still prefer the tired old format, we will keep it going until 31/03/98.

ecash Accounts (01/01/98)
In response to client requests, Cyberhorse can now open an ecash account for people without an St George Bank account. Go to our ecash information page to find out how to apply for your ecash account and how to purchase ecash to use with it.

Pay per View (19/10/97)
After a lot of development, we are now able to offer non-members the ability to download single races or meetings for a one-time 'micro-payment'. We are able to do this through St George Bank's ecash, which offers a totally anonymous and secure payment facility. You have to be a client of St George Bank to use the system at present, although there are plans to expand the facility further.

To purchase your form using ecash, just go to our Pay Per View menu and click on the date and then the meeting you are interested in. Then go to the race you want and click on it. Providing you have an ecash purse with some ecash in it, you will be prompted to authorise payment - 20c per race or $1.00 for the whole meeting. Once you accept the transaction, the requested file will be sent to your browser, where you can print it out or save it to disk.

Look out for more valuable horse racing information that you can pay for the same way. There's no doubt that this is the future of information provision on the Internet.

New Search Facility (18/09/97)
Another client request is the ability to search through all the hundreds of files within TVF, without having to download each one. We have now installed a search engine to allow you to do this. Non-subscribers can also use the search, but will not be able to access the documents found without the appropriate user name and password.

And Now! - Whole Meeting Download (01/09/97)
The Virtual FormGuide has now been live for a month. Subscriber numbers have exceeded our early projections and we have received many positive words of encouragement. Client feedback has however, revealed one highly desirable improvement required from our service, which is the ability to download an entire meeting for subsequent off-line printing and analysis.

Accordingly, we have developed 'Whole Meeting Download', which is the ability to download a 'zip' file containing all the information and files that you need to navigate the form exactly as you would on-line. Once 'unzipped' on your PC, using a commonly available shareware utility, you can eliminate any further ISP charges (and the dreadfully slow download times you sometime experience), by surfing on your desktop.

You only need download the meetings you need, so most subscribers can reduce their costs in getting the form and take their time analysing it later. Zipped files are small enough to be stored on a floppy, so if your Internet access is through someone else's computer (your employer's for instance ;-), you can take your form home with you.

For more detailed information on how to make use of 'zip' files and what to do with them on your PC, please refer to the Help page.