So my next project for the beta is race entries. I’d like to improve the interface a bit, as right now it seems like there’s a lot of clicking (select a horse, select options for it, click to enter, click to go back).
Right now, I’m contemplating some sort of interface where it shows you all the horses you have available for a race, possibly also with filters (so the bigger stables aren’t overwhelmed once 2yo races start, for example). Ideally, you’d be able to select (up to) the max number of entries you’re allowed (1-3, depending on the day) and enter them all in one go. I still haven’t really figured out how I want it to look/behave, though, so figured I’d solicit opinions before I go too far down the rabbit hole.
How do you go about entering races? What thing(s) about it frustrate you?
Is there anything you’d like to see as an option for entering races?
In second tab, I open up the training summary and sort by energy.
Open up (each in a separate tab) all the ponies that are ready to race.
Go through pony by pony and search for races.
Since I have so many, I can’t remember who loves turf and who hates it. So, for me, being able to enter a pony directly from the pony’s page (and possibly somehow integrated with the past performances) would be kind of awesome. I think like a searchable/filterable “Upcoming Races” section like we have now.
While being able to enter ponies all in on one go also sounds awesome…it just means I’d have to tweak my entering strategy.
This is generally how I do it as well, and I’d rather avoid all that tab-opening (and I say that as a lifelong devotee of tabs). What useful info would you like to see on the page for race #1 on March 1 to know which of your hundreds of ponies you’d like to enter?
Off the top of my head, I’m thinking:
Name/age/gender
Energy/fitness
Lifetime track record(s) on various surfaces (dirt/turf for flat races, SC for jump races)
possibly date of last race and placing?
You know what I would really love… If I could have one of those Racing Forms for my entire stable that I could filter through by energy/fitness. I know that’s going to be a pain in the butt to generate though. Maybe you filter first for what you want (Fillies, with Energy over A) before generating the Racing Form?
Probably doable, but again, another separate page from the one I’m asking about. (Which, to clarify for anyone following along, is the page you get when you view the upcoming races and then click on a race to enter — the “enter” part is what I’m trying to re-design/tweak.)
I’m quite sad, I have a little book to record suitable upcoming races for my ponies. Every couple of weeks I go through all ponies that have recently raced/couldn’t find something suitable last time I looked and go through the upcoming races. If there’s something suitable I make a note under the horse’s name of date, distance, survive, location and level NW1, OA etc plus if it’s mares only. Then as the races open up I can just scan through for the races on that date, find the corresponding race on the race entry page and stick them in. If I do it often enough it’s not too time consuming.
I have a similar setup but plan to have alerts replace the notebook (or in my case, spreadsheet). You’d be able to flag a specific race as suitable for a horse and it would give you an alert when that race is open for entries.
Sorry… I get distracted by dreams of shiny things.
I think what you mentioned (filterable list) sounds nice–I’m picturing something similar to the multi-horse shipping setup instead of the dropdown menu we have now. Ideally we’d be able to set everything (equipment, jocks, and jockey instructions) for each horse prior to entering them simultaneously into the same race.
As of right now, I do get frustrated with first having to select the pony and then having to select jockey, instructions, and equipment on a separate page. If I can do that all on one page for multiple horses, I will be much obliged.
I like the idea of being able to enter all horses for a race from one screen rather than the way it is done now where you select one horse on the first screen, then Jockey options and equipment on a second screen, then enter it then, if you are going to enter a second horse in the race, you have to do that all over again.
A checkbox list instead of dropdown menu on “enter race” page would be probably nicer, although I rarely enter more than one horse in a race. But it would be easier to look through them, especially if it’s a steeplechase.
One other useful thing would be an option to flag some races and then have a page which would show the time left to this race (something like auctions have), the names of horses that I want to run in this race, if entries are open or not, and how many horses have entered when (so that I would know if the race is getting filled quickly). And then perhaps the horse could be entered directly from that page.
Also, maybe it would be nice to have some individual requirements for specific horses and races… for example, if I want to run a horse in Kentucky Derby, but only if his jockey says that he “knows the horse like the back of his hand”. Or only if the horse has already won a Grade 3 race, or Grade 2, etc. This would be useful especially for 2yo’s (like, perhaps I would want to run a 2yo in his first race only if it’s reached certain height, or age in months… but that’s probably asking for too much ).
And sometimes I don’t have any horses that I want to run in a certain race day, but I want to enter one or two if there are some races with very few entrants, just to earn some easy money. In this case I have to look through races on the “View Post Parade” page, and then look on the “Enter Race” page if I have anyone suitable for this race, and then look on “Training Summary” if the suitable horses can run, or are they tired/in training/whatever.
That’s a possibility for another page, though I’m not sure how high priority it would be.
That all sounds like a lot , especially if your criteria are going to be so varied (has certain experience with jockey A, only has won a Grade 2 at 10f turf in the last 6 month, only if a horse is X age, etc). Again, doable but definitely not high priority. The basic (VERY basic compared to yours ) version would just be “remind me to enter horse X in race Y when entries open”.
Well, the current entries page on the beta does show how many entries are in a race, so that’s one less look through, at least.
I too enter races in the same way that Cricket does but only open one horses tab at a time. I also make a note in the owners comments box as to what distance/surface it prefers if there is enough past data to do so. It’s not the actual entering a race that frustrates me as much as having to jump about from training summary to individual horse, then check it’s preferences, then check with the entry page as to which race has the right conditions for that horse (age, sex, surface, distance, maiden, allowance) which track it is at and if it needs shipping is the prize money worth the shipping cost. by the time I have entered about a dozen horses I have to give up.
i would like to be able to search and order the training summary on more than one field as this would speed up selection ie by energy then all 3year olds, then within that find all NW3, then all fillies or all horses currently at woodbine, who are allowance horses and 4yo+.
for me this would speed up selections. It would probably even easier if the race entry list could be treated the same so i could order it first by age then by qualification then by distance or whatever. it would make it much quicker and easier to mach horse to race.
Also on the horses’ upcoming racing tab it would be nice to be able to filter the results eg to show only turf races or only over a particular distance.
Puting an alert on a particular race would be really helpful too. I have missed entering a horse in a race I really wanted to enter because entries weren’t yet open and when they did open I forgot.
But in all honesty these are like icing on the cake, anything that reduces junping between pages and tabs would be wonderful
I do it very much the same as Cricket. However one thing I would like is to not only to see their eligible races, but but to screen/sort buy Track. It’s not a big thing just a convenience
I too do it like cricket , but it would be nice to have only the Sc races show on upcoming races on their page or dirt/turf instead of sorting through every one. And a box you could check to remind you to enter that race (If its ready) and going back and forth is a long process. Lol I gave up this week I’ve let mine rest most of dec I have almost everyone at A but not many races
Personally, I don’t mind the race entries method of 1) select horse from drop down 2) select equipment/jockey. Most of mine have default equipment/jockeys through workout feedback, so double clicking is no problem. If I see that they have no default selected, then I know to open their workout tab, see if the jock has said anything worthwhile, and set it for both the race AND the default if they have. I don’t mind this step of the process one bit. Also, I try to avoid putting two horses in the same race whenever possible - only 2YO races seem hard to come by (and would therefore benefit from the multi-horse streamlining).
My biggest complaint, now that I’ve got so many runners, is not being able to quickly see how a horse has been performing - but part of that will be solved by the race stats overview default (instead of the picture) for runners. Still, any sort of quick summary on the personal page - either computer generated (a pop-up listing that the highest SFs were earned over X distance, X surface, X condition, most wins under X distance/surface/condition, speed records earned of X distances/surfaces/condition) or manually generated (owner comments would suffice, but it would be great if a small blurb would pop up on racehorses’ main pages so that there is less clicking) might help to easily identify the horse’s preferences quickly. If you were able to do the pop-up, maybe list the top 3 speed factor conditions, last 3 win/place conditions, and any speed record conditions…or maybe just top 5 finishes - just something to give a quick overview of what works for that pony, without having to click a million different tabs. Also, it would be great if that same pop-up listed the minimum race qualification for that horse (maiden/NW1/etc), as it is a pain to have to back all the way back to the trainer summary to see that again.
As for the races, it would be great if they could run like the trainer summary & auctions, where race stats were in columns (instead of a single unsortable sentence), and you could rearrange by location/age/surface - whatever your preferences are. However, that doesn’t frustrate me nearly as much as figuring out what each horse needs again.
(Which, to clarify for anyone following along, is the page you get when you view the upcoming races and then click on a race to enter — the “enter” part is what I’m trying to re-design/tweak.)
) version would just be “remind me to enter horse X in race Y when entries open”.