Query Tool v2 is Finally Here (Very nearly!)

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It's been a loooong time coming, but the upgraded Query Tool is very, very nearly ready. In fact, it is ready and we'll be deploying it to the site this week, probably tomorrow (Wednesday). In this post - video and, underneath, text/images - I'll show you what's new and, I hope, improved.

One very important point to note, which I'll return to in what follows, is that QTv2 is being released in 'beta'. This means we've tested as far as we can, but the multitude of different browsers and devices, as well as the almost infinite combinations of variables, means there may well be some residual unsquashed bugs. So, if you spot anything, please do let us know. Thanks.

OK, video explainer below. Text and image explainer underneath that. Updated user guide here (see page 138 onwards).

 

 

So, at long last, welcome to Query Tool v2. What's new and what's the same? At this point, the interface is largely the same and all of the features you're accustomed to are as they were, including the charts and QT Angles functionality. We do plan to update the interface - the way you interact with the data - later in the year because it's a) a little dated, and b) a little limited, particularly in terms of visualisation.

As for what's new, as you can see in the image below, there's a splash of colour and a couple (three actually, one hidden in that snap) of new blocks.

 

 

The colour has been used to differentiate between three sets of variables which enable you to quiz our database on each of the current run and now also the previous run and penultimate run of a horse. Note the (BETA) labels for the last run/2nd last run blocks.

We've used a nice pastel yellow for CURRENT RUN. This houses the parameters you know and love from the original QT. To these we've added a light blue block for parameters relating a horse's last time out run, and violet shading for its second last run.

We've also removed the BOLD CAPS from from the variables to further differentiate and to be slightly less offensive on the ol' peepers.

 

Clicking on CURRENT RUN reveals the third new block, CAREER STATS. This is also in beta, so do notify of any quirks.

 

 

In this block, you can filter the database by runs and/or wins, and by a number of subsets thereof.

For example, if you wanted to know which trainers have performed well with horses making their first start in a flat handicap over the past two years, choose 'Runs (Handicap)' 0 to 0 and group by trainer. N.B. don't forget to select 'Handicap' under the RACE parameters, otherwise you'll get all of the classy non-handicappers that have never (and may never!) run in a handicap.

 

 

In the breakdown data here, I've sorted by PRB and displayed only those trainers with 25+ qualifying runners in the time frame. There are plenty of familiar names in there.

 

 

 

Let's move on. I'll click the RESET button and also remember to clear my '25 runs' stipulation (if you don't see the expected data in the main part of the window, always check you haven't got a filter of some sort in the top area).

This time, I want to see if a runner's pace score in its last (couple of) race(s) is predictive in five furlong UK turf races.

 

 

It looks like it is. As per the below, those with a score of 3 (prominent) or 4 (led) last time out won at better than 13%, while those racing in the middle or back of the field early last time won at less than 11%. This was replicated in the each way percentages as well.

 

 

What about second last run pace score?

 

 

 

A similar pattern emerges, though the dichotomy is not quite as stark. In fact, it's fair to say that the strongest stat might be avoiding those horses that scored 1 (held up) in both runs. Let's query that to see if it's correct. Here, I've expanded the time window to five years:

 

 

Breaking the output down by year shows that it's been a bumpy ride, no doubt predicated on some big-priced winners:

 

 

Taking it all the way back to 2009 shows the same difficult route to Betfair SP profit:

 

 

But figures have been largely consistent across all of win%, place% and PRB.

The inference is that, generally speaking, in five furlong turf races horses that were waited with in their most recent two starts are best avoided. Meanwhile, those that raced at least midfield in their most recent two starts would likely form the basis of solid wagering going forwards, regardless of whether the race is a handicap or not:

 

 

These are just a couple of examples of the sort of research that can be undertaken with the extended Query Tool.

[Note that the pace data in our development database is not updated as much as the live one that you use, and so if trying to replicate the above you should expect slightly different results, and apologies for any confusion that might cause!]

 

Please also note - and I make no apology for labouring this - that, in case you didn't know ;-), we're in beta mode here so stuff might by wonky. Please shout if you see anything more weird than wonderful and we'll investigate, and fix as necessary.

Good luck!

Matt

Two New Features in Query Tool

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We've added a couple of new features in Query Tool - woohoo!

The first is 'Course Characteristics', which covers the direction of the track, its profile (flat, undulating or very undulating), its general configuration (galloping, sharp or very sharp), and any specific configuration elements (sharp bends, uphill finish).

And the second, which might be more general fun, is DSLR, or 'Days Since Last Run'. This has a few nuances, which I'll quickly explain. Selecting a 'from' of 0 on DSLR (i.e. no days since last run) will bring back data even though it is impossible for a horse to run multiple times in one day.

What's actually happening is that we're using zero to mean 'horse is making its first start in UK or Ireland'. That in turn can mean one of two things: an unraced horse making its debut, or a horse with overseas form making its UK/Ire debut. Our dataset does not extend to overseas form so if, for instance, a French trainer brings a horse to UK for the first time, that runner will show up in the zero DSLR cohort.

Although we don't have point to point form in our database, we do normally have the number of days since the most recent point run, so horses with experience between the flags will generally not show up in the zero DSLR cohort.

I told you it was a bit nuanced!

Anyway, it's a really interesting way of looking at things like trainer performance, especially at this time of year when juveniles are making their debuts and horses are returning from their extended winter breaks.

This short video explains more about the new features and includes a couple of quick examples.

 

 

Good luck!

Matt

Gold Updates: February 2026

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At the end of a busy week which has already featured a major sectional data enhancement to the Full Form tab, we now unleash a raft of small changes designed to make your life easier. Let's crack on with them...

Enhanced Tracker buttons on the racecard

Historically, there was a cumbersome process whereby you could add a horse (or trainer/jockey/sire) to your tracker via the little star icons on the racecard... but you then needed to go to the Tracker page to add or update any notes. No more. Now, a click on the star brings up a dialogue box enabling direct entry of notes. If you already have an entity tracked, you can remove it via a 'remove' button that displays next to the 'update' one. That's better...

 

 

Breeding suffixes on Full Form and Profiler tabs

Adding breeding country suffixes to horse's names is a small but quite useful little tweak. Not much else to say on that one.

 

 

Shortlist scores on Instant Expert

Ooh, what's this? We've added a new column to Instant Expert with scores based on The Shortlist scoring system. Three for green, one for amber, none for grey, minus one for red. Top score 15, bottom score -5.

 

 

The scores update when you change the variables and dropdowns above the main data grid. Nifty.

 

'Last 5 Years' option on Draw Tab

Sometimes the draw bias over a particular track and trip changes. Maybe the rail configuration was amended, maybe a different irrigation system was put in place, occasionally they dig up the entire track and re-lay it. These things have a bearing on any bias that previously existed, and our 'last 5 years' button allows you to quickly compare the data from 2009+ with that for the most recent half decade. Simple dimple.

 

 

Each way terms added to the Odds Tab

Jeez, it took us a while to get to this. But, finally, we are there. Number of places and the fraction of the win odds paid are now displayed on the odds tab for each bookmaker. Useful.

 

 

 

Report tweaks galore and a bug fix

We've added csv download buttons to most reports and course selector dropdowns on all reports. And we've added odds to most of them, too.

 

 

You're welcome!

Hopefully there's something useful there for most users. A gazillion more updates planned for this year, but that's a goodly bunch this week to get you started.

Matt

p.s. As always, you can view the full User Guide here. There's a lot inside Geegeez Gold including things you probably didn't even realise were there! Any questions, let me know below.

 

 

QT Updates Coming Today

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A short post, with some video content if you'd like it, to let you know that we'll be updating Query Tool today. We're adding some new input variables as well as a new output column.

Details of those can be found in this recent post. Or in the videos below (first one is a general overview including the new variables; second one outlines a couple of important changes to the way QT Angles works).

IMPORTANT: QT may be unavailable for a period this morning (Tuesday 2nd December) while we make the upgrades.

These changes are also reflected in the latest version of the User Guide, which you can view here.

 

VIDEO #1: Query Tool Overview

 

VIDEO #2: QT Angles Enhancements

 

Matt

Geegeez Autumn Update

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It's getting darker earlier, and there's a distinct chill in the air this week. The turf flat season is a fading memory and close at hand now is the National Hunt season proper as well as a serious programme of all-weather racing. Both make for excellent punting!

While it might seem like we've been quiet on the development front this year, we've actually added some big (and small) features in 2025.

The TRENDS tab was introduced in January, and has become part of my 'go to' considerations for a race.

In April, we rolled out Betfair data (Betfair SP, Place SP, in running high and low prices) across the site.

And in September we added 'AvOR', the average official rating of each race, to help you compare today's race quality with runners' recent outings.

You'll also have noticed this year that parts of the site have had a 'facelift' - updating them to be easier on the eye as well as instructive to your wagering.

And we're not done yet!

We're currently working on some further Query Tool updates, as well as more costmetic upgrades. Allow me to show you a few things from the development site.

Query Tool

We'd originally decided on a small number of new variables in QT to release as soon as possible... but once we started digging we found a few technical elements that ideally needed improving. That has delayed release unfortunately, but I'm still able to show you a couple of bits here.

New Variables

We've added some new variables for you to interrogate. These are:

Season

You'll soon be able to search by season, across flat, all-weather, and National Hunt seasons in both UK and Ireland. This is great for analysing, for example, trainers' and jockeys' progression (or regression!) and - especially for the non-flat seasons, where things are not aligned to calendar year - looking at overall stats more generally.

Below for example I've selected the trainer Anthony Honeyball, whose yard geegeez.co.uk sponsors and with whom we syndicate a number of horses, and 'grouped by' season (having only selected UK and NH race types - Anthony has also had flat winners and winners in Ireland during this time).

 

Anthony Honeyball stats by season

Anthony Honeyball stats by season

 

Owner

You'll also be able to drill down by owner before long. And, because some ownership entities have, literally, hundreds of ownership names, we've added a 'select all' button within the search facility. Here's an example using the geegeez.co.uk ownership entities. You'll be able to dig in the weeds of J P McManus, the Ballydoyle cartel, and/or anyone else you fancy.

 

 

Racing Post Rating and RPR Rank / Topspeed and TS Rank

And we've added Racing Post Rating and Topspeed, as well as RPR/TS Rank within a race (e.g. RPR rank 1 means the top rated horse on Racing Post Ratings). This image shows the top two ranked Topspeed horses' collective performance over the past two years in UK handicap hurdle/chase races. This is bound to include some big-priced winners skewing the data, but it's not a bad starting point for further analysis by any means!

 

 

PRB

The eagle-eyed may have noticed that we've added a new column on the right hand side of the results output in Query Tool for PRB (Percentage of Rivals Beaten). This is a very useful metric, especially for smaller sample sizes, where a number from around 0.55 (55% of rivals beaten) is a positive, and anything below (0.45) is somewhat of a negative. It's definitely a number to keep an eye out for when creating your QT Angles.

*

A New Look for the Reports

As well as QT upgrades, we're also working on our report suite and, specifically, on making it a little more modern in look (the data remains the same excellent content you're already familiar with). They'll look like this:

 

 

Timeline for Implementation

I've already got this wrong once, which is annoying/embarrassing, and so I'm loth to make the same mistake again. However, I'd be very hopeful they'll appear on your screens - the report changes at least - by the end of the month.

Query Tool upgrades should be an early Christmas present, expect them online in the first half of December with a following wind.

And... in January, we'll be kicking off the New Year in style. More on that another day.

 

Thanks as ever for being a geegeez subscriber, it means a huge amount to me - to all of us - and it enables us to continue to invest in your racing site. Thanks again!

Matt

Ad Hoc Almanac Race Preview

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It's Friday, there's lot of racing - much of it high quality - and so why not do a race preview, or three?

In the video below, I've tried to showcase a few of the more accessible components of Geegeez Gold and Lite, as well as throwing in a couple of the less well-trodden areas of what we have.

As ever with such videos, the main point is to showcase what's inside Geegeez racecards rather than to pick winners. Of course, I hope to hit one of those, too!

Before watching the video, a quick polite reminder that I'll be taking the Flat Track Almanac link down on Sunday so time is running out. You need to be premium (Gold or Lite) subscriber to see the Almanac download link on your My Geegeez page, and you can take a 30 day trial for £1 here.

 

 

Good luck

Matt

A Major New Site Update

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It's the changing of the seasons, a time for spring cleaning and refreshing the house. And, this year, that extends to chez geegeez, too. You may have noticed a few changes already, including on this page, in terms of the look and feel of things. There's much more of that in the pipeline for the coming days and weeks.

But today I want to share an update that is more than just cosmetic. Indeed, it feels like building an extension on the side of the house - after a fashion, at least. Yes, finally, we have added Betfair data to our racecards, form tools and reports. The video below illustrates what we've added, where you'll find it, and how to use it. I very much recommend you have a gander.

 

 

Betfair data is visible to all paid plan users, whether Lite or Gold. To see what else we have, and to upgrade your account, click here.

There is also an updated User Guide, which you can review here.

I really hope you enjoy the new data as much as I have been.

Matt

p.s. As is often the case with new releases, there are a few odds and ends to sweep up afterwards. We're aware that the 'tomorrow' report content is not yet on site - it will be later this afternoon.

p.p.s. In the video, I've referred to 2% commission on Betfair. In order to ensure you're paying this minimum level, log in to your Betfair account and go to this page. Choose the 'Basic' plan (probably the panel on the right of the page). That's it, you'll now pay 2% only on net winning exchange bets.

Roving Reports: Reflections from the Festivities

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Well, Christmas and the New Year holidays are well and truly over, writes David Massey, and with the decorations stuffed back into the garage, the last of the Wensleydale and water biscuits demolished and just the awfulness of the Bounties left in the Celebrations tub (sorry Lydia, but it’s true) it’s time to go back to work.

Or at least it would be if the weather wasn’t playing havoc with my schedule this week. Leicester, which was the first port of call on Tuesday, bit the dust at the weekend and I’m not holding out a lot of hope for the nominated replacement fixture, Doncaster on Friday. Warwick on Saturday has to be in the balance, too, with the course waterlogged; and that in turn means they can’t get the frost sheets down for later in the week. I fear it may be a week at home, which in turn means the good lady will find lots of dreadful jobs for me to do. Anyone any good at hanging pictures up?

At least we got through Christmas with no abandonments and thank the Lord we did, with the good lady and myself taking in Kempton on Boxing Day and staying over for the Friday meeting before heading off to Challow Day at Newbury. She’d never been to King George Day before and so, despite a stupidly early get-up of 7am, we set off for what we hoped was a Bank Holiday weekend of tremendous sport.

The one really good thing about the Christmas period, when you do a lot of driving as part of your job, is the total lack of traffic on the road. It felt like it was at least ten minutes after leaving our house before we came across another vehicle. Why can’t it be like this all the time? Oh, how my life would be easier. No more bottlenecks in the roadworks on the A1 going to Wetherby. Goodbye, shocking jams near Heathrow that take me forty minutes to navigate on the way to Sandown. And farewell 50mph M1 roadworks near Northampton… actually, no. Those swines would still be there. Forever.

We arrived at Kempton in plenty of time – early, in fact, even after a Boxing Day Maccies breakfast stop at Watford Gap, a service station I frequently can’t find my way out of – and the Christmas spirit was already evident. After grabbing a coffee and catching up with my friend Anna from Sheffield, also at KG Day for the first time, I found my work partner Vicki and we set about how we were going to tackle the day.

The racing, I have to say, was superb. The Jukebox Man did not disappoint, looking every inch the chasing star I really hope he is. Constitution Hill, whilst not back to his best yet, was at least taking a step towards it in the Christmas Hurdle (and yes, he will come on for that). The wonderful Banbridge proved myself and others wrong by staying the three miles well and picking up a brave but tired Il Est Francais after the last. I was equally delighted to see L’Homme Presse finish third on his seasonal debut for Andy Edwards, and he tells me he's come out of the race well.

After the last we head to Addlestone, which is where we are staying for the next couple of nights. The good lady has booked us into a local Thai restaurant early evening for food, an excellent choice. We are greeted with a cheery “Merry Christmas!” by a Thai lady as we enter. I wish her a Merry Christmas back, thinking she was a member of staff. It turns out she wasn’t, merely a customer that had been enjoying herself in a local hostelry or two for the afternoon and wanted to carry that enjoyment on here. She entertained us by (loudly) singing along to all the easy-listening versions of classic pop songs the restaurant were playing – her rendition of Coldplay’s “Yellow” a personal highlight – until she’d entertained us for long enough and decided to go back to the pub. “If you ever come to Woking, I’ll take care of you!” she shouted as she left, something I wasn’t sure was a promise of hospitality or a threat. We finished our meal in peace and went back to the hotel for a quiet night.

Kempton Day 2. Breakfast in the superb Bread & Roses, which I can highly recommend if you’re ever in the area, is followed by a blissful 17-minute drive to the course. Although not before I’ve filled up with petrol, which has me muttering “how much?” as even the prices at the local supermarkets are considerably higher than they are in the Midlands. Can’t eat value, goes the old racing saying, but I can’t even put it in the tank down here.

With time to kill at the track, I try my hand at a Crystal Maze-like box that is one of the on-course attractions set up by Ladbrokes on the day. Those of you of a certain vintage will remember the endgame of The Crystal Maze: what remained of the team of accountants/nurses/architects by this point were locked into a huge glass dome before they turned the fans on, and all the pretty gold and silver tickets flew around their heads. The aim was to get 100 Gold tokens to win the big prize (“The pony-trekking holiday in Ullswater will be MINE!”) which they failed to do with alarming regularity. This was similar, but with flying foam balls. I scored 30 in my allotted 30 seconds in the box, which I thought was pretty good, but the bloke after me, who couldn’t have been much more than five foot tall, scored an impressive 38. Lower centre of gravity, I told myself. Yes, it was that, and not the fact I’m old and creaking, that was the difference. Let’s move on.

The highlight of the day’s racing was, without doubt, Sir Gino, who looked superb before the Wayward Lad and, as he danced around Kempton’s tight turns attracting oohs and aaahs from the knowledgeable crowd as he put in spectacular leaps at some of his fences, you did get the feeling you were watching a new chasing star being born. From a punting perspective, by far the better day of the two for me, with both Della Casa Lunga and Ooh Betty getting me back in front over the two days.

With the Italian restaurant cancelling my reservation for no good reason, food that night is nothing more than a raid on the local Waitrose and back to the hotel but the peace of the evening is rudely shattered by the fire alarm going off. We’re all outside – I say all, there couldn’t have been more than forty of us – debating whether this is someone having a fag in one of the rooms or whether local kids are mucking around, when I realise I’ve left my coat in the room and am now freezing cold. It takes 40 minutes to sort the mess out, but thankfully it’s a false alarm, and nothing worse than us missing an Only Connect Christmas Special has happened. However, the alarm periodically goes off for a few seconds at a time and we wonder whether we are going to get through the night without another visit to the car park.

The episode takes me back to a time when that happened in a Travelodge in (I think) Leatherhead a few years ago. We were all outside in the cold when a lady offered me her dressing gown. That was weird enough, but literally getting propositioned by her not long after put the tin hat on things. (No, I didn’t, behave yourselves. I’m better than that. Not much, but I am.)

As things turned out, it was a Silent Night, with the alarm behaving itself and we get a decent kip. A final Builder’s Breakfast at Bread & Roses (the scales were not kind to me next morning) and we are on the road to Newbury.

Now, Newbury is one of those tracks that seems to split opinion. Vicki loves the place, but she’s crackers, and I’m with the majority that find the place hard going these days. I have to say that the new pre-parade ring is very good, though, and a real boon for those wanting to get an early look.

This is supposed to be a day off with the good lady for me, with Vicki doing the donkey work for Trackside today, but it isn’t long before I’m roped back in as the favourite for the second is taken back to the pre-parade. “Get in there and see what the problem is, will ya?” she says, literally pushing me that way in the process. I do as I’m told, obviously, and it turns out they’re having issues with the tongue-tie, which gets a report. The horse ends up well beaten.

The Good Doctor, on which I’ve had a decent bet in the next, isn’t quite good enough, as it turns out, with The Famous Five having his measure by a short-head. The wife has backed the winner, too, a double kick in the Norbits, but Henry’s Friend prevailing an hour later ensures I won’t go home potless on the day.

The Challow is a cracker, with The New Lion looking every inch the top-class hurdler (and future chaser) he promised to be beforehand. He’s too good for them, far too good. Did I foresee him being sold within a week? Using the Yates' celebrations after as a guide, I did not.

It’s getting dark, and our Bank Holiday Bonanza Of Racing is coming to a close. With still little traffic on the roads, we head home via the M40 and A43. We’re within a couple of miles of the now defunct Towcester Racecourse at one point. Oh, how I wish that was still open. Finding slow horses is something I can do…

The M1 Northampton roadworks haven’t gone away. You can’t have everything, I suppose. Home for seven, and a chance to catch up with that missing Only Connect. I reckon we could do a racing version, if we put our minds to it. I’ve got some time on my hands this week now. I’ll have a think and get back to you in the next missive.

See you on a racecourse soon!

- DM

New for 2025: Introducing the Trends Tab

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Happy New Year to you! Here's hoping 2025 is another year packed full of thrilling action on the track, and some terrific bets landed. More importantly, I wish you and yours the very best of health for the coming year.

Meanwhile, on geegeez.co.uk, we've got a brand new TRENDS racecard tab, woohoo!

It looks like this:

 

 

And on mobile, something like this:

 

 

Clicking on the TRENDS tab will reveal up to the last ten renewals of the given race (currently - we're working on adding all renewals going back to 2009 when our database began). Of course, if a race has been run fewer than ten times, you'll see commensurately less data rows in the table.

 

Let's take a look at the tab in more detail. Here are the trends for a Cheltenham handicap chase from yesterday.

 

 

The left hand half of the screen is focused on standard intel, like the winner, trainer, jockey and going. Note the red font for N Henderson: this tells us that Nicky had a runner in the race this year. His runner was Chantry House, which won at 8/1. Convenient 🙂

 

 

Clicking on a race date will take you to the result of that race. And all of the columns within the TRENDS tab are sortable, making it easy to see if a specific profile is emerging around any of the variables. For the less obvious column headings, hovering over them will display a fuller explanation - in this case I'm hovering over 'DSLR':

 

 

In this example race, we can see that the odds on favourite, Broadway Boy, was younger than most winners (though there were two recent scorers his age). Broadway Boy had been sent off 4/1 favourite last time while most recent winners of this race had been less fancied on that prior spin. Chantry House was third choice in a hurdle race on his last day. The sweet spot on DSLR was four to five weeks (30-35 days) and Chantry House last ran 33 days ago.

The point here is not really to pinpoint winners - after all, looking only at win trends is a narrow field of vision for such a thing - but, rather, to highlight potential red / green flags for horses that you are considering in the round of their overall form profile.

Here's this Saturday's Veterans' Chase Final TRENDS tab:

 

 

Lots of former winning trainers, and Sam Brown bids to be the first repeat winner in the past decade. Being aged 13 won't stop him - three such veterans prevailed since the race began in 2016. And it's not been a great race for the top of the market with just three of the nine winners coming from the top four in the betting.

There's quite a narrow band on DSLR - see below - and we're not looking for a recent winner typically. Four of the nine winners were well fancied last time (first or second favourite, i.e. (Rk) (1) or (2)); and one or two runs in the past 60 days is standard, though that will likely be nearly all entries. Five winners finished 6th or worse, or failed to complete last time.

 

 

Looking at all that, one might split a tenner at prices on this quartet, though given their uninspiring surface form they may be bigger odds on the day:

 

 

So that's the new TRENDS tab. It exists for big races and little races; and it's live for Lite and Gold subscribers right now.

Note, if the tab is greyed out, there are no past editions of that race. [And we're aware of a small bug where the tab is greyed out for second divisions of a split race - we'll get that fixed, but I didn't want to delay releasing this new tab into your information portfolios].

Matt

November Feature Update

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Geegeez has a couple of new features - and a new membership tier - going live this week. Let's get straight to it...

New Feature #1: Odds History

We've added odds history data so you can see the trajectory of price movement. But I wanted to present an uncluttered view of the movement, unlike other sites where there can be well over a hundred rows of data to confuse and confuddle.

So we have an opening show price usually from the night before; and then odds updates at 8pm the night before, 7am day of race, then hourly from 9am day of race... up to an hour before the advertised off time, at which we display quarter-hour price intervals.

To access the detail, click the little coloured 'graph' icon.

 

Looking now, for example, will show something like this:

 

 

Later in the day/after a race, it will be more like this:

 

 

Crucially, where there is no price update, there is an empty cell. It's a clean, easily consumable view of price movement.

For those who want to go a step further, we have a graph view as well. Within that are options to review movement from Opening Show, 9am day of race, or the last two hours; and you can view either best available price movement or average price movement. It looks like this:

 

 

This is on site now and is available to all logged in geegeez users, free or paid.

New Feature #2: Video Replay Links

The second new feature may have had a spoiler alert for some eagle-eyed viewers in recent weeks, as it's been in my 'super user' account for a while. As of some time today, Gold level subscribers will be able to click out to video replays of all UK/Irish races. The race replays are hosted by the rights holders (ATR/RTV) so your click take you outside of the geegeez site, but I've found it a super convenient way to watch the race replays I need.

You'll find the links in the horse form on the Card tab, to the right of the 'Date' colum:

And in Full Form in the same place:

 

And on the Result tab, look for the red button:

 

I know for some members this will be a game-changer and I'm excited to share it.

Update #3: Introducing Geegeez 'Lite'

Regular readers will know that I frequently survey site visitors to understand what's working and what's not; and what you want to see next. Having recently asked about an interim membership tier, I was bowled over by an overwhelming 'YES' response.

So, we've created something called Geegeez Lite, which includes all of our most popular and easiest-to-use features across the racecards, reports and form tools. Later today, or perhaps tomorrow, I'll share exactly what's included for Lite members, as well as pricing info.

This will be available from tomorrow morning onwards and, to celebrate its launch, I'm making what I hope is a very accessible offer. So if Geegeez Gold is a bit much for you, either in cost or feature terms, Geegeez Lite might be just the ticket.

Look out for more details later today, and a fantastic launch offer tomorrow morning.

Matt

What to expect in 2024

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The new year is well upon us now and, on this fourth day of January, a few resolutions may remain intact. Chocolate, biscuits, cakes (and especially chocolate biscuit cakes) and beer are largely off the agenda for a bit here - yes, life is currently very dull - but, on a much more interesting note, below are some words around what is on the 2024 agenda for geegeez.co.uk...

 

Racecard Small Changes

We'll start with a 'not very rock n'roll' update: a collection of small changes to the racecards. Although small, most of them are things many users repeat countless times while navigating the software in search of interesting horses.

22nd January Update

These changes are now live and you can see them in action in the video below - there's a timeline below the video:

00:00 Intro
00:31 Save Racecard Filters (desktop & mobile)
02:45 Actual Race Distance in form blocks
04:16 Full Form UK/Ire filter
05:25 'By Time' Racecard view now has time order dropdown
06:40 Asterisked notes
09:10 Run Style added to Full Result
11:00 Removed 'abandoned' meeting non-runners from Tracker
11:35 Outro

 

Editorial Explainer

First up is a racecard menu filters 'memory' - currently, a user must select parameters from the racecard menu filters section each time they close and open the cards menu page. If you use the same filters all the time, you have to reinstate them each time. Faff. We'll sort that.

[Incidentally, if you sometimes see there are no races displaying on the menu page, just hit the 'reset' button top right]

 

Next, an asterisk on the form row when you have a note saved for any/all of meeting, race or runner - to notify you that it's there.

 

Also, we'll be displaying the specific race distance and any distance amendments when you hover over the 'Race Conditions' on any form row:

 

And, if you choose to view the racecard menu page 'by time' you can view the race dropdown ordered by time.

 

If run style is of interest to you, we're adding each horse's early pace position to the full results:

 

We'll get those small, but perfectly formed, changes live later this month.

 

Betfair Data

One of the projects for later in the year is to incorporate Betfair data - Betfair Starting Price (BSP) as well as in-running high and low prices. We actually have these data in our system but adding them appropriately to results and into the tools will take a while. But it's on our to do list.

For a lot of readers who have been restricted, some of the BSP results are likely to make eye-opening reading, certainly when compared to SP.

 

Ratings Model

This is one of those dreaded rabbit holes into which I vowed we'd never delve. Well, we have already sunk a good few hours into the project and we've made some promising progress; but there is  much still to do. I'm at the point now where, for the first time, I do believe we can produce a set of ratings that a) finds a lot of winners and b) highlights some value.

The process involves creating separate models for separate groups of races, and if/when we get as far as publication, we'll do it piecemeal. That is, once we're happy with, for instance, our all-weather sprint handicap model, we'll publish numbers for all-weather sprint handicaps. And so on.

There are loads of ratings out there, many of which are very good at finding winners - but due to the fact they're published so widely they are significantly loss-making. Our Peter May ratings get close to break even at Betfair SP with their top rated picks every year, sometimes turning a small profit and sometimes a small loss. And we might not be able to fare better than that.

My main point is that, unless we find something of utility, as opposed to the somewhat ornamental numbers produced by the fashionable houses, we'll not publish.

 

Query Tool

QT is a powerful means of analysing large chunks of racing data and, once that's done, of saving specific 'QT Angles' to your own account and being notified of qualifiers each day. It's been unchanged for a few years now, and we've aborted a few attempts at an upgrade; but I have so many things I want to add to QT - a majority of them from your feedback and suggestions - and, once we've re-engineered a QT 2.0 engine, it will be relatively straightforward to deploy that extra functionality.

This WILL happen in 2024, it's been too long.

 

*

As you can see, apart from the small changes due for release this month, we've got a couple of pretty big 'how long is a piece of string' projects for later in the year. The Betfair element shouldn't be too onerous but I'd like to put some developer time into the modelling next. Very, very loose timeline would be aiming to get some flat rating models on stream for the start of the turf season; then perhaps pivoting to the Betfair and QT projects before reverting to the remaining race code ratings models.

There is a lot of scope for timelines to change, but these are the 2024 resolutions for geegeez. Let's hope they last longer than my personal attempts at self-improvement!

Matt

p.s. away from the bright lights of geegeez, there are a couple of other interesting projects on the go. One, a tote ticket builder, should hopefully be available very soon (I've been using it for a year!), and the other, TennisProfits.com, is a site for tennis traders that we're hoping to make more accessible for bettors, too. I'll share snippets on these from time to time as the year progresses. The tote ticket project especially is one that I think will be of great interest to many geegeez readers/racing punters.

Video: Creating an Odds Line / Tissue

/in , /by

Following on from Dave Renham's excellent article on creating a tissue (which you can read here), I recorded a video which shows how you can do this using Geegeez Gold. The video is quite long because there is a fair bit to work through, but you can get the gist of it without necessarily watching the middle part (though I recommend you do, of course!).

In this recording I looked at a five furlong sprint handicap at Catterick, and was lucky/good enough to find the winner; but I didn't actually do that well in mimicking the market, as you'll see...

 

 

At the end of the video, I compare the prices I came up with against the final starting prices. The overround was 111% whereas my own was closer to 100% allowing for the late non-runner, but still, I have some work to do in getting my odds closer to the market!

Matt

20/7/23: Another example: this time I got the market (more) right but was undone by a pace tear up I didn't predict in terms of the actual result :-/

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Placepot Fun

/in , /by

As a bit of a change, I recorded my thought processes - not quite literally - during the framing of a couple of placepots I struck today. As usual, I deployed the 'in development' ticket builder to place optimized part-perms (don't worry if that sounds like alienspeak, I'll clarify another day - basically, it takes my picks and breaks them into the most likely set of outcome combinations).

I went at Ffos Las and Hamilton on video, and also had a small roll at Uttoxeter. Happily, the recorded pair both collected, while I exited at Uttoxeter when a non-runner took a five horse race down to four (win only). Annoying as I normally cover that scenario in my play. Here are the tickets I placed, where * is unnamed favourite, lowest racecard number when joint- or co-favourites:

 

 

Anyway, the main purpose of the videos is to share a little of the things I look at when framing this sort of bet. There is no narrative, just a bit of music - feel free to mute if you no likey - but you'll be able to follow the cursor around the screen, which is a reasonable proxy for my thinking out aloud.

[The controls bottom right will handle tweaks to volume, playback speed, and full screen toggle]

 

Ffirst up, viva Ffos Las Vegas. You can track the results here - choose 'Recent Results' > 'Thu 8 Jun' > then use the dropdown for meeting.

 

 

The tickets shaped up like this in the end (number of placed selections replacing the actual selections, which you can see in the video):

Ffos Las placepot paid £90.30 with tote's 5% uplift, so that was a nice 7/2+ winner for the £18.80 stake and £1 worth of winning tix - and plenty of fun through the afternoon.

 

Meanwhile, at Hamilton Park, I rolled the dice like this:

 

The tickets were thus:

This time I had £2.20 in winning tix, of a dividend that paid £26.25 for each pound, again factoring in tote's 5% bonus for betting with them. So £57.75 for a stake of £20.40, a 7/4 shot or so.

Nothing earth-shatteringly profitable, but two solid returns on workaday dividends and, crucially, great craic all afternoon.

 

For what it's worth - after the fact, literally nothing - here's the £18.12 Uttoxeter overture I played:

 

And here's the tiny in-running saver I had on the horse that blew up the placepot, which made it a free bet:

 

I hope there's something in the videos above worth thinking about in terms of the parts of the racecards you look at for various things; you have to make some inference on the basis that there's no commentary, but I'm sure at least some people will appreciate that all the more!

Stay lucky,

Matt

 

Site Issues: Update [6th June]

/in , /by

6th June: Further update at the bottom of the post

Here at geegeez.co.uk we pride ourselves on being able to offer uninterrupted access to the editorial, racecards and form tools that we know you've come to rely on to find your picks. We have an outstanding record of 'uptime' - time the site is available with all services running - but this past week has been a challenge, to say the least; in what follows I'll share what has happened and is happening, and why.

Tuesday last week was a scheduled maintenance day - techie speak for something that has to be upgraded in order to ensure the future smooth running of the show. In this case, we were upgrading our server, an activity that involves migrating all files, code and databases (as well as email) from the old 'box' to the new one.

Servers have lots of settings, dials and levers and a change in just one of those can result in problems. Given that the software you know as Geegeez Gold runs to hundreds of thousands of lines of code across multiple languages and is deployed on four different servers, problems are unwelcome visitors.

As it transpired, the first issue we faced - last Tuesday - was with our own firewall (software that defends us against nefarious would-be interlopers who try to hack the site). Because our IP address (the way computers and servers identify each other on the internet) had changed, the firewall thought we were attacking ourselves! We spotted that immediately but, because the software is very good at its job, it still took a while to reconfigure things.

And that's when the 'fun' really began...

What became apparent was that the full results files - which we receive from our data supplier, Racing Post, and with which we then perform a million downstream magic tricks - were not processing; or, rather, they were processing on the separate server where that stuff happens, but that machine could not connect to the database on the new server to write them into the data store.

This, it turns out, is a problem. A big problem. Those results drive large parts of the Gold ecosystem, including Query Tool, Bet Finder, Bet Tracker and, crucially, the reports.

Previously, last weekend, I'd had the very great fortune to be in Bratislava with Carole (formerly known as Mrs Matt) while our son had a two-day sleepover at granny's. We were there to see the peerless Depeche Mode in concert on the Sunday and had got in the mood by attending a 'warm up' night in a downtown nightclub on Saturday. Loud music, lots of grog, and two hundred Eurogoth types of a similar vintage strutting, heaving and sweating in a basement dungeon. A marvellous throwback to the days of all of our youths.

By Wednesday, it was apparent that all was not well not only with the website but also with non-techie conducting a growing orchestra of disparate technicians in search of a fix. For the server problem, I mean.

Yes, I had managed to bring Covid back through the 'Nothing to Declare' channel on the way home, and it was now taking staunch residence in my respiratory system. Thankfully, I'm reasonably fit (for my age, at least) and fully vaccinated but, in spite of those pluses, Wednesday to Friday particularly - and still dragging its heels leaving me now - were not good health days.

I offer that merely as a little added context to what was already a debilitating situation: perhaps it reflects well on family health and the like that very little in life stresses me out more than site downtime, and here I was in a pickle.

At this point I want to thank all of the key people who have helped so far, and who are continuing to work through the final obstacles. The main man has been Dave - Database Dave as I very affectionately call him. He's an absolutely brilliant engineer, a lovely bloke, and he now works for a bank full time. In spite of that, Dave put in three near full-time shifts diagnosing and liaising with our hosting company's (excellent) support team to find the problem.

Heading up the support team was one of the co-owners of the hosting company, Dom, himself a database architect out of the very top drawer and a fellow of the open source group that support and maintain MariaDB, one of the world's most popular database technologies and the one we use to store and retrieve horse-y info here at geegeez.co.uk. These are the calibre of brains that were stymied.

Without getting too technical and boring - far too late, I hear at least one reader cry - the issue was nothing to do with the code. Rather, it was to do with a character set incompatibility which had been introduced by MySQL, the bossy older step-brother of MariaDB. Long and short, we needed a different database connector in order to mitigate for a cock up by the team at MySQL, the preeminent database technology in use today.

It was Friday evening, a few hours after Soul Sister's and Frankie's Oaks and a few before Auguste Rodin's and Ryan/Aidan/the lads' Derby, when we finally got all the jigsaw pieces in place. Saturday morning involved updating the connector, running a series of tests and, when they came back positive, processing the backlog of results ahead of the start of Derby day.

The sense of relief here was genuinely palpable. Imagine decrepit Grandpa Joe from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory lying in his bed just before the tale's title hero barrels in clutching the golden ticket. That's not a dissimilar scene to the one that played out in this sickly Hackney homestead!

The relief. Sometimes the burden of this gig is a bit too much. Not very often at all, to be truthful. But sometimes. This past week has been one of those times.

Anyway, we're in far better shape but we're not out of the woods yet. Neither the website nor I are clear of the impediments placed upon us early last week. The dreaded 'rona is taking its time to move on, in spite of a false dawn yesterday where I was feeling much better, and today's Morningsong was accompanied by a thumping beat inside the noggin which is yet to meaningfully subside.

Of more concern to you will be the fact that Query Tool Angles, a hugely popular part of the Gold provision, is not showing. The timing of this suggests that it's related to the fixes we applied for the results processing issue; and so we'll focus on getting that sorted today. Additionally, we're having some problems with email deliverability - on messages sent out from here - regarding our @geegeez.co.uk email addresses.

So, still some stuff to manage through, and I thank you very sincerely for your patience and understanding while we get to the bottom of them. If you're feeling charitable, you might reflect on how different life is using other data sources to find interesting horses; if not, I understand completely, and please know we're on the case.

In a day or three, this will all be a fading image in the rear view mirror as we speed forwards to the next set of racing puzzles but, for now, there remain some smaller conundrums to unravel behind the scenes.

I hope the above has offered at least a little flavour of the past week and, more than that because this is supposed to be an entertainment website, that it wasn't too boring a retrospective.

Keep well, and thank you again,

Matt

[6th June 10am]

Just when I thought it was safe to go back in the water... the main challenges of last week had managed to mask a further issue, with the Query Tool server. That machine was refusing to speak to the new live server, in spite of all introductions having been made (firewall permissions having been initiated). Again, we were eventually able to get to where we needed to be and, late last night, Query Tool began catching up on a week's worth of data updates. It is now fully up to date. Hallelujah.

QT Angles, however, was refusing to play ball. Again, this issue was masked by the QT server issue, which in turn was masked by the Live server results issue. More masks than a secret policeman's ball! Anyhoo, long and short, this was a bug. The only one in the entire week-long docudrama, and we were able to trap it, squish it, and re-run the QT Angles code this morning. All is now as it should be. Sing hosannah!

Thanks again for your patience and understanding during this torrid time. I'm off for a very long lie down...

Matt

Gold Upgrades: May 2023

/in , /by

It's been a while since we've released any new features to Gold, so I'm excited to share a couple of small - but awesome - upgrades with you. The first may be imperceptible (but probably won't be), the second is niche, and the third is a new rating... let's get to it.

1 Remember settings

You know how you always do the same thing when you go to the cards to see the info that's right for you? For me, this means setting the draw tab to 'Actual' and PRB/PRB3/PRB in the three dropdowns; and setting the Pace tab heat map to 'Place%'; and incessantly re-sorting the Instant Expert grid when I change one of the top of the page variables.

Well, no more... yay!

Why?

Because we've introduced some 'local memory' improvements so that things remain as you set them up if you're using the same machine as the one you set them up on. Here's what I mean: let's say you, like me, look at PRB views on the 'Draw' tab.

 

Up until now, if you were logged out or otherwise left the site, you'd have to re-select the parameters as you like them. But, from now, you'll see those settings remembered and appearing as a matter of course when you go to the tab.

Likewise, that minor irritation of having to re-sort the Instant Expert table after every variable amend:

 

Not any more. Now you can change anything at the top of the Instant Expert and the grid will remain in the order you had it. Phew, what a relief!

 

We've added 'remember' functions to all tabs, which will certainly save me a goodly few clicks most days, and hopefully ease your transit around the cards a little, too.

N.B. This is the case if you're using the same machine/browser and don't clear your cache/cookies. Even if you do clear cache from time to time, like me, it's still only an occasional faff to redefine your parameters. And that will remind you of when you had to do it every time and make you grateful 😉

 

2 Added PRB to Pace 'Heat Map' view and table

I've wanted this for a loooong time. Trying to infer the impact of the combination of draw and run style can be really difficult when the sample sizes are small, which is why I use 'Place %' rather than 'Win %' - because place percent gives meaning to each of the placed horses, whereas win percent only does that for the first one home.

Let's say we only have four ten-horse races in the sample size. That would mean 12 placed horses and just four winning horses. Obviously, then, the heat map could be skewed especially when looking at win percent.

PRB - Percentage of Rivals Beaten - assigns value to every runner in every race, aside from the last horse home whose value is 0 (0% of rivals beaten). In our fictional four race sample above, we now have 40 (or 36 if you exclude Tail End Charlie's) scored horses from which to form some sort of perspective.

Anyway, PRB is better in my view, especially when looking at almost any flat turf race (the all-weather sample sizes tend to be much larger and, therefore, more meaningful in traditional win/place strike rate terms).

 

Note the PRB option in the dropdown box top right and, directly below that, a new PRB column in the pace table. This will immediately be my 'de facto' setting; and, of course, in this brave new world that setting will be remembered!

3 Introducing Performance Ratings

Everyone loves a rating, right? Here at geegeez we have a fair number these days, what with official ratings, Racing Post Ratings, Topspeed, Peter May's private ratings, and our sectional upgrade figures - and that's assuming you don't use our ratings tool to create and save your own 'R1' numbers! But these Performance Ratings are pretty nifty and I think they'll add value for some users at least. What are they? I'm glad you asked...

These are the BHA's own race figures. They differ from Official Rating (OR) in that they are a measure of the level to which a horse has been judged to have run in a specific race. So, for a horse going up the handicap, OR and the Performance Rating (PR) will be the same.

Here's Sayifyouwill, a last time out winner off 79 - she was raised 3lb to 82 for that, as a result of her PR for the last day win being adjudged to have been 82:

 

 

But when a horse runs below its handicap mark, it won't necessarily be dropped to its performance level. For instance, Cry Havoc won a couple of times before running poorly on her most recent two starts:

 

 

Looking from bottom to top, we see she was 1st of 14 and, running off 79, was raised to 82. She then won in a field of 11 off her revised OR of 82 and was awarded a new PR of 86. On her penultimate start, when sixth of eight, she ran to a PR of just 69 and yet her handicap mark (OR) remained unchanged on 86. Another poor run, this time eliciting a PR of just 34 when running off 86 and trailing home last of six followed. After that, she was dropped a pound to an OR of 85 (not shown).

So what do these PR figures tell us? Well, they quantify the degree to which a horse may have underperformed and, when looking at the last few runs of a horse, they can help us build a profile of progression / regression in a similar way to RPR.

PR figures will start building as a history from now - we don't have the historic data, unfortunately - and there are some caveats, as follows:

- We will never publish a PR figure where there is no published OR (in other words, before a horse receives a handicap mark)

- We will never publish a PR figure for runs prior to the awarding of a handicap mark

- We will never publish a PR figure for Irish racing

The reason in each case is the same: we don't have access to them! Such data are a closely guarded secret at BHA towers and we are permitted to publish only what is available on the BHA website itself.

NOTE: You need to 'turn on' the PR ratings from the Racecard Options area of your My Geegeez page:

 

Over time, I feel that these PR figures will be a useful guide to horses' form profile and may also help to shed some light on optimal conditions for more exposed runners.

For more information on Performance Ratings, check out this article on the BHA's website.

*

That's all for now - I hope there's something of use to you in the above.

Good luck,

Matt

p.s. the SBC Awards votes close tomorrow at 9pm. geegeez.co.uk has been voted in two categories - Best Betting Website and Best Betting Data Resource - and your vote counts! There are also prizes to be won in a draw, as follows:

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  • An annual membership to the Smart Betting Club

To vote, click here. It'll take about 120 seconds. And thanks a million!

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