25/09/00 Cyberhorse and Pineapplehead Combine Software and Form Guide for Horse Ratings

Sports statistics company Pineapplehead Ltd has combined with on-line form guide web site Cyberhorse, to provide a ratings program for racehorses for every TAB race meeting in Australia.

The software is free of charge and available for download from the Pineapplehead web site. Punters can enter data such as the track condition and the number of runners with the race details to getwhat is claimed to be the most probable outcome for a race.

"The software is designed to rank each horse using our statistical database and then use these rankings to choose the most likely first to tenth place", said Peter Lamb, Pineapplehead's Director of Technology.

"Naturally we can't guarantee results, but we have tested the software. Over a 48 week period, the program returned 143% on eachway bets".

While it is possible to enter the required data manually, the process is time consuming and error prone. Cyberhorse has developed a system whereby By-A-Nose users can subscribe to a service which will automatically download the required data for any race directly into the software. The service costs $22 per month for unlimited downloads.

Bill Saunders, webmaster at Cyberhorse and developer of the download system said "we already had an ecommerce system developed for formguide subscribers, so it was not difficult to add an extra product to our range".

He went on to say "we were very much aware of the stigma attached to computer driven horse race selection systems, so we have built in a free preview capability, so that people can see how the system would have worked before paying for a subscription. We think that the combination of the free software plus the preview and low cost subscription should alleviate any concern amongst consumers".

Peter Lamb explained that Pineapplehead has had a close interest in horse racing. Earlier this year, they developed a virtual reality Track Bias Simulator which was featured by Channel 9 in its coverage of the Easter Racing Carnival in Sydney. This has now been further enhanced to become the Pineapplehead Predictor, which will feature prominently in TV coverage of this year's Spring Racing Carnivals on both Channel 9 and Channel 10.