01/25/2012 3:14PM

Harness Eye PPs: What you need to know

By Derick Giwner
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Harness Eye past performances are now in the DRF store and available for download. I have been waiting for this moment for a long, long time and have been dying to talk about it for months now. Well, the gag order has been lifted and I can finally speak (type) out loud.

For those who are not familiar with the Harness Eye and Daily Harness Program products, you can find out more information and view samples right here. We will also be offering FREE Harness Eye or Daily Harness Program past performances from the Meadowlands each Friday night through the end of February for you to sample the product.

Let’s talk about what Harness Eye has to offer that you won’t find anywhere else.

Race commentary – We take you between the calls and describe how each horse performed at many tracks across the country. A typical comment will describe when a horse made his move(s) and how well he finished the mile (driving; in-hand; light urge; all out). Tracks we currently cover include: Yonkers, Meadowlands, Chester, Freehold, Monticello, and Woodbine/Mohawk. Hopefully we will add to that list in the near future and I certainly invite any comments on which tracks you would like to see added. Balmoral? Dover? Northfield? Please let me know.

EYE Rating – Other programs offer speed or pace ratings but Harness Eye past performances provide one number to cover all the bases. We take a base speed figure and adjust it for the individual track, track conditions, and horse trip to furnish one number that will help you uncover hidden longshots and obvious contenders.

Variant and Bias – Many of our past performance lines include a variant (numbers indicating how fast or slow the track played) and bias (how many horses won wire to wire). A positive variant indicates a track that was faster than average. For example: a +4 would mean the track was four-fifths of a second faster. Obviously a negative variant would mean the track was slower than normal.

Individual Fractional Times – Harness Eye past performances are one of the few places to find individual fractional times for horses. Most PPs supply the actual race times and a final quarter for each horse. Harness Eye PPs include the fractional times for each horse at all four quarter calls.

Mile Times – If you are looking at a horse that raced at Yonkers Raceway in 2011, the only place to find mile times for the race are in Harness Eye. We print mile times for all races; whether it is a 1 1/16 race at Yonkers or a 1 ½ mile race at the Meadowlands.

Individual Track Record – If you want to know a horse’s history at the track he is racing at that night, Harness Eye past performances will be your handicapping tool of choice. Our readers are able to view each horse’s record at today’s track for the previous three years.

Driver Changes – Harness Eye PPs inform readers whether a driver was originally listed to drive a horse. If the driver on your horse is displayed in bold-italics, then he was not originally listed to drive that horse.

In addition to the items above, Harness Eye PPs have layoff lines (indicates a horse missed at least 15 days of action), a listed trainer for every past performance line, detailed claiming information, and all the basic information (horse, driver, odds) you would find in any program.

I have attached a How To Read Guide at the bottom of this post for those with more questions about our Harness Eye past performances.

The past performances are just the first step in what I hope will become your one-stop location for all things harness. Check our NEWS SECTION often for Free Analysis, Horses to Watch, Bob Pandolfo’s Sharp Horses and Track Trends, Industry News, Videos, Feature Stories on Upcoming Events, and more as we continue to develop and evolve.

Plus, don’t forget about our Meadowlands Events page highlighting every racing day with Live Video, Analysis, Features (video and written), and of course completing the one-stop experience, a Bet Now button to get you into the action through DRF Bets.

I invite anyone with an idea or a change they would like to see to click on the comment button below and post their thoughts.

These are just the first steps for DRF Harness. Come join us on the journey.

AttachmentSize
Harness Eye How to Read PPs Guide.pdf522.7 KB
Harness Eye Meadowlands PPs - Friday 1-27-12.PDF887.64 KB
Harness Eye 2012 Track Speed Ratings.pdf414.1 KB
Rick 9 months ago
Love the programs. When will the free PP,s for this Fridays BIg M card be up? [They have been available in my latest blog post and are now up on the Meadowlands events page. - DG]
kram 9 months ago
I've been using the Harness Eye forever (prior as Sport Eye) and it's the best. However, if one is betting the Meadowlands why waste the money? Why even bother to buy a program never mind Harness Eye? Just find out what horse is trained by Ron Burke and lay your money down. Look at last Saturday night's results. 5 wins and 5 seconds. The only races he wasn't first or second were the races where he didn't have a horse entered. Maybe he goes to the Lou Pena training school. Or did Lou learn from him? Yeah, I know he put a puppy dog in the horse's stalls and it made them happy. What a joke!
Roy Seider 9 months ago
Can I print a larger abd darker HEPP? [It all depends on your printer and Adobe. If you have a printer that allows for larger paper, 11x17 for instance, you could print it much larger. If you have Adobe Professional, you can actually crop the PPs much tighter and get a larger image to print. - DG]
peter kreutzer 9 months ago
it might be a good idea to post the track record where the conditions are Also trainer/driver stats ie how a trainer does with the driver would be very good
Rusty 9 months ago
Thank you for the free pp's. I wish the pricing was a bit cheaper considering the trainer and driver stats aren't detailed and pp's go back 7 races and not 10 or 12. I hadn't played the Big M in a long time and used them and had a good night. I already had purchased Trackmaster for the night so I compared the two. I had a better night with the Harness Eye pp's. The only other time I used Harness Eye was in Vegas so this is going to be fun. I think you have many of the tracks players like. I would add Balmoral, Maywood, and Northfield. Northfield is a sleeper track. I'm not sure if they release their handle figures? But I think their handle is better than players realize? [Northfield is probably a top-5 handle track in harness. - DG]
Joseph DeBarbieri 9 months ago
I'm trying to purchase Harness Eye PP's but I don't see where I can pick the day and track that I want. [Once you select that you want to purchase a HE card it will give you a list of available tracks to select from. - DG]
Mitchell 8 months ago
I printed the program on standard paper. The font was so small I could not read it. Love the Sports Eye but is the program designed to be printed on 8 1/2 by 11 paper? And ideas? [I would suggest opening the file in Adobe and cropping the pages (you can select ALL and apply the crop to every page) with a tighter border. That will increase the print area. - DG]
John Capazzo 8 months ago
I have a question - which Adobe program are you referring to? I cannot edit the PDF file in Adobe Reader. I need to crop the pages so I can actually print them in a larger font so that I can read them. [You would need a professional version of Adobe. I want to add that we are working on making the image a bit larger. Hopefully that will happen in the near future. -DG]
charlie 9 months ago
if i order a 10 card pack do i pick which 10 nights i get or do i just get the next 10 available cards? [You will be able to get any 10 cards you want. You do not have to pre-select which nights or tracks. - DG]
Todd Liebman 9 months ago
offer monthly,6 month and yearly subscriptions and at a deeper discount.I would purchase a yearly subscription for online harness eye if the price was right.A ten and 20 day subscription is fine for a novice but anyone serious would like a longer subscription if it was done at the right price.A 6 month or yearly price at a little less than a dollar a day(say 180 for 6 months or 300 for a year would do the trick for me.I still need paper and plenty of ink to make my own program everyday.Its not as convenient as getting the regular paper but it will do the trick when I am out of state and I need my harness eye. [The suggestion of longer subscription rates is certainly worthwhile and noted. - DG]
Arnie 9 months ago
First Thank you I have been reading Sports Eye since 1968 when the paper was 35 cents, 4 pages and no past performances. When I download on Thursdays and Saturdays my PDF is secure. When I get the free program on Fridays for the Meadowlands it is a regular PDF file. I do not want the files secured as I can't mark up the program using FOXIT. A little help! [I'm sorry but there is little I can do here. Files which go through the store must be secure. - DG]
Paul(Gulllaker) 9 months ago
Straight Shooter: 1st thought that came to mind, about DG. Glad too see this site go to post. Gil Levine the race caller from long gone Sportsman's Park, would say: Out for that early lead, on the Front End goes Harness Eye.. I just think this opportunity for all of us ...is just Great.. Have Fun
WC 9 months ago
When I was a harness fan many years ago, there was a track equalization table in the track program that helped you equate the various 1/2 tracks with 5/8 mile tracks, and 1m tracks etc... I see that there is rating for each horse, but that apparently includes a lot of other things in the trip. Is there any way to just compare final time speed? [I have posted our chart just above the comments. - DG]
Kimberly French 9 months ago
Hi Derick: So glad to see this deal has finally worked out at last! I hope it does increase exposure to harness racing and grab some fans as well as big bettors!!! Keep up the good work and hope to see you around the track soon. It's been awhile! Kim [Didn't we hang out in the infield during the '09 Jug? - DG]
bob 9 months ago
Derick Please send me info about buying the charts from big m. Congratulations and continued good luck bob [Bob - We are currently looking into the possibility of making our Meadowlands charts available on the web. As soon as I have any info on the topic, I will let you know in my blog. - DG.]
bob 9 months ago
yes, were these way overdue or what? charts may be overkill as the pp's pretty much give you the whole picture. fans should be doing handstands just to be able to get the pp's at last. the program pp's fit on one page per race which saves on paper. well done and these will sell once word gets out.
Jim Deguz 9 months ago
Hi This looks like a great setup, can't wait till I try it out this weekend. One thing that is missing, on the Trackmaster PP's I download, it shows "OFF TRACK" past info such as off track starts 25 win 3 place 4 show 2 total earnings (off track) $25,000 This is a great tool to have access to thanks jim ohio [As you can see on the PPs, we have lots of info and not much free space. That said, I will look into it. - DG]
Guy 9 months ago
The Harness Eye PP's are a sight for sore eyes. Question; why are some of the individual quarter mile splits in bold? [Bold type indicates that it was the fastest quarter of the horses in the race. - DG]
Raymond 9 months ago
The guide for how to read Harness Eye pps doesn't explain what the DTV means Also, What does the W stand for? Example BigM Race 1 Jan 13th, Horse #7 Susquehanna Belle Trackmaster Dec 19 CHST Ft -3 Dec 07 CHST Sy -1 Nov 25 CHST Ft -7 Harness EYE Dec 19 CHD Fst -4 4W Dec 07 CHD Sly -7 2W Nov 25 CHD Fst +3 8W [Not sure what you mean by DTV. The "w" refers to the number of horses which won on the lead. Typically on a mile oval this would be the number of horses which lead at the half and won. On a half mile track the horse would typically have the lead around the quarter. - DG]
Raymond 9 months ago
Thank You The DTV was my inquiry into how the Daily Track Variance was calculated, since it differs from TrackMaster. After I posted, I found the explanation in the heading to this Blog Entry. Thanks for the reply. Good Luck with a fine program.
Mike Oliver 9 months ago
While I have been a huge fan of Harness Eye PPs in the past, I doubt I will use these since I find the DRF website to be very user unfriendly. I have tried to log on to my account, & have had nothing but trouble. I doubt you will print this comment, I wish you well in this endeavor. [Feel free to email me personally and I'll do what I can to help. - DG]
your neighbor ken 9 months ago
I'm so excited by this. I really think it might boost interest in harness racing. Take me, for example. I'm going to switch from the night thoroughbred tracks for a little while and take a shot at good 'ol YR, armed with, among other things, my Harneess Eye PPs. Maybe I'll even be social for once and go to the Race Palace instead of sitting in front of the computer... I have a question, though. Any chance the Harness Eye charts from the major tracks--from which the race comments are derived--will be posted online at drf.com, like the thoroughbred charts are, for free? I just found the harness eye charts to be such a valuable handicapping tool, but very hard and expensive to collect... Anyway, congrats Derick, and once again, keep up the great work with the blog! -Ken from Long Island [Ken - Glad to hear you will be playing Yonkers. I hope to have an answer on the charts issue by tomorrow. I will keep you posted. - DG]
Tim 9 months ago
Will HarnessEye charts eventually be made available on DRF.com?
Pacingguy 9 months ago
Glad to see Harness Eye PP pages back. I grew up on them and remember running down to the candy store to pick up my copy of Sports Eye (your predecessor) and then Harness Eye. It made my handicapping easier back then and trust it will now.