Idea re: Future Race Entries

Shanthi, I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, but I figured I would throw this out there.  I know it’ll be awhile before future entries goes live due to all the variables tied up with that.  So, I was wondering if it might be possible to tie future entries to a stable alert that would let us know a week ahead of a race that we had “entered” our horse, Billy Bob Sue, into race #12 on 2/4/2013.  As owner, I could be like, “Oh, I have to enter Billy Bob Sue into race #12 on 2/4/2013.  Entries have just opened, so I’ll go do that right now!”

For me, personally, that would be way more helpful than having pre-entries work the way you’re planning.  I’m horrible at remember what I’ve done in the past, and if I did pre-enter my horse in race #12 on 2/4/2013 way back on 1/4/2013, there’s a darn good chance that I will have forgotten I had entered him there and race him on 1/31 at a different track.  If pre-entries worked 100%, my tuckered out horse would then be shipped to another track ($ I didn’t want to spend) to run in race #12 on 2/4/2013 and break his leg because I can’t remember anything and your code is awesome beyond words. 

However, if I had a stable alert that told me I had planned to race him in race #12 on 2/4/2013, I could decide, well, I don’t think I want him to run that race, and just ignore/dismiss the alert in general. 

I hope this somehow makes sense.  I also hope this’ll be a snap for you to implement if you think it’s worth your time.

This is already a planned part of future entries.

So, say, 2 weeks before the race happens you’ll get an alert saying “You have 3 entries scheduled for the July 1, 2013 race meet”. Then you can click a link to view those entries.  If you decide you don’t want to race the horse, cancel the scheduled entry then.  If you don’t cancel by the time the auto-enter script runs, your horse will run anyway.

I may also add in an option to only enter if certain conditions are met…i.e. it has been at least X days since the last race, energy is above Y grade, fitness is at least Z grade, whatever.  That way even if you did enter your horse in a race on 1/31 and forgot to cancel his entry on 2/4, it would go “crap, this horse has an F for energy” and not auto-enter him for the 2/4 scheduled rae.

That would be wonderful, Shanthi!  I’m looking forward to these features, whenever they do come out.