close to actual starting time of a race

[alrodopial]

Hi,
I'm trying to find a way to "predict" the actual starting time of a horse race and my question is:
Without seeing the race or listening to radio is there a site that "posts" the status of the race (prerace)?
e.g when horses get into the stalls it updates it's page with somewhere written "Now into the stalls" , something like this.
This way I can "extract" this info from the site and know (aprox) the starting time.
How "close" to the actual off can I get (if)?

I don't know if I was clear enough but any ideas?

[greenfingers]

For a brief time there was something to do this called greenup radio but they folded really quickly, I don't know why, despite lots of positive comments. I don't know of anything similar unfortunately.

[alrodopial]

Thanks for help.
I found that sportinglife site gives comments before the race.
Going down, at the post , going behind.
But testing it today for the first hole day I found that only at Southwell it comments to "going behind".
At the other two tracks it goes till "at the post"

[Ian]

That because at Southwell they go behind the stalls, at the other meetings, there are no stalls as it's a tape start for all National Hunt races.

[alrodopial]

That because at Southwell they go behind the stalls, at the other meetings, there are no stalls as it's a tape start for all National Hunt races.

This is what's happening if you only know the game from theory / numbers and not in real life

I'll see if I can gather some data for these meetings but for Southwell the duration of this period - "going behind" - was from 1/2 min to 3 1/2 min.

[greenfingers]

Going behind the stalls is where they walk around to the rear of the stalls immediately prior to being loaded in (as Ian says, only for flat races). How long this normally takes will be roughly dependant on the number of runners, but there will be big differences when one or more horses are playing up which can cause quite a delay (so maybe races with 2 year olds, or fillies, are more likely for this, but they're animals so unpredictable!).

The consistancy of when "going behind" is declared by Sporting Life will of course also affect the outcome of your timing.

I think you'll probably be able to work out the minimum time it usually takes for a given amount of runners to be loaded (and this may vary by racecourse if they have differing numbers of stalls-handlers, I don't know), but if you need to be sure of greening up before the off then guessing how long they will take over the minimum time could be fairly unpredictable (and lead to getting caught out). Good luck!

[alrodopial]

Today the period was from 7 secs (4 runners) to 2 1/2 min.
So unreliable.

[greenfingers]

Yup! I wonder if there is enough demand from traders for it to be worthwhile for someone to set up the service that you need. Maybe would have to be expensive to make it worthwhile, but could be useful.

[alrodopial]

ok back to the starting point,

A live audio or video source that will be used to get the actual starting time of a horse race is needed (or very close to the start - 10 secs? ).
I just saw that betfair has a radio channel for this (paid) , didn't tried it.
Any suggestions?

Let's start from the free and then go to the paid.
What is the delay from the actual off to the BF off?

Thanks

[formstats]

I use Sporting Life Live Betting Show on a regular basis and you will find that what the site states is so far detached from reality that it is worthless as a basis of fact.

I use it to establish the SP of the favourite at commencement of a race. Today I had eight bets dependent upon the SP at the start of the race. Three of them changed price after the Off causing me to bet in error.

The Off as posted is inaccurate. I have had instances where the race has finished before the Off has been posted and even instances where the SP posted has been totally inaccurate even after the race has finished.

I use a spit screen and if you wish to know the off time, Betfair signals this by going green and Suspended being written across the screen. This is the most accurate signal.

I find that SP's posted by At The Races are more accurate but unfortunately they are not posted after the race has started. It would be helpful if At The Races posted prices at the bottom of the screen once the race has started.

Again, if you watch the TV and your bot, you will notice that the TV is behind the bot when running. The reasons for this are obvious. This also applies to watching over the internet, which is even later in time.

[alrodopial]

I checked BF's video (a bet must have been placed) and it was 5-20 secs from the actual off.