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The
examples below are screenshots taken from the windows version of HedgeHog.
We also offer a manual version and a version for PDA's
that you can put in your shirt pocket and take to the track.
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Before
I go into the examples, let me first explain a few things about the
HEDGEHOG screen. Look at any one of the examples below.
There are 7 headings.
The only ones fields that data is entered into, however, are "HORSE#",
"ODDS", and "Dch/Hdg", the rest display results.
"$BET" is the amount you are to bet on that particular horse,
"%PROFIT" is the percent profit you'll make on the entire
bet if that horse wins, $Profit is the amount you'll win after your
bet is subtracted for that horse and "$BACK" is the amount
you'll get back on the entire wager if the horse in that row wins. In
the ODDS column you enter odds as they appear on the tote board. The
"Dch/Hdg" field allows three type of entries, A POSITIVE NUMBER,
ZERO, or A NEGATIVE NUMBER. If you enter a positive number, you are
telling HEDGEHOG you want that many times your bet back if this horse
wins. For example, if you enter "1" you'll get all your money
back but no more if that horse wins, a "2" gets you twice
the total bet back, etc. If you enter a zero you'll "dutch"
that horse with all other horses that have zeros (or negative numbers
as explained below) in this column. A "dutch" proportions
the money left over from your "fixed bets" (the positive numbers)
so that you'll get the same amount back regardless of which dutched
horse wins. The exception is the "biased dutch" which is triggered
by entering a negative number. This gives you more back (or less if
you enter a number between 0 and -1) on that particular horse, For example
if you want twice as much back on a particular horse because he is your
prime bet, You'd enter a -2. For a straight Dutch or Hedge you can also
enter "D" or "H" as well as "0" and "1"
as explained above. |
| The best way to explain
this is by example. Let's say you want to dutch three horses, horse
A, B, and C going off at 4:1, 5:1, and 6:1 (it sometimes takes me
weeks to construct these examples).
A straight dutch of $100 on these three looks like this:

...It doesn't
matter which horse wins, you'll make around 96% profit on your bet.
The slight differences are unavoidable because your bets must be rounded
to the nearest dollar.
When you enter a ZERO in the Dch/Hdg column it is changed to the word
"DUTCH" as shown above. The column
%Profit shows the percent return on your wager for each horse if he
should win. The column $Profit shows you the amount you'd get back
over your initial wager. Since all the bets in these examples assume
a $100 dollar bet these amounts are the same. A different bet amount
(Target Wager) will change the $Profit column. The $Back coulmn shows
the total amount including your initial wager you'll get back for
each horse if he were to win.
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Next... Dutching does not have to be equal for all
horses. |
Now let's say that
horse C is your prime bet and you want to get twice as much back than
for the other two.
Set this up by entering a -2 (negative 2) in his Dch/Hdg field. Here's
how that looks...

...Now you'll
get about twice as much back on horse "C" at the expense
of less back on "A" and "B."
You can use any combination of options in any race. The -2 in
C's column under Dch/Hdg tells you this is a proportional dutch. In
this case note that the Amount Bet in the display to the left of the
numbers is $101 instead of the even $100 you wanted to bet. Because
of rounding (you can only bet in dollar increments) this sometimes
happens.
Back
to Top
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Next... The Real Power is in the Hedge. |
If you want to HEDGE one of the horses to just
get your money back if that horse wins enter an "H"
(or the number "1"). The word "HEDGE" will replace
your input in the Dch/Hdg window.
The example below shows "B" and "C" Dutched with
"A" Hedged to recover your wager if he should win.

Back
to Top |
Next... The Hedge can be any percent of your wager. |
You can control exactly how much you'll get back on a hedged horse
by partially hedging or hedging a horse so you'll get back more than
your wager. This is controlled by inputting a positive number into
the Dch/Hdg column. In the example below I hedged "A"
at 50% of the wager by entering .5 in the Dch/Hdg column.
If it's not possible to
make a profit on a wager the amount will be displayed in RED as is
the case with the partial hedge for horse "A."

In
this I example, I wanted to triple my money on Horse "A"
and dutch the other 2. I entered "3" into the Dch/Hdg
window for horse "A" and left the other two in the dutch
mode. HedgeHog first calculated the bet needed to triple the
retrun for "A" then hedged the other two with what was left
over.
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Next... You control the Payback |
You like a 5:1 horse in the 5th and there's a 20:1 longshot
you think may be able to steal it. However, a 3:1 shot could take
it and you can't ignore the layoff horse at 4:1. What to do? Sound
familiar? With hedgehog you can structure your bet seconds before
post. One solution would be to "double hedge" the 5:1 horse,
throw a few extra bucks at the longshot with a "triple dutch"
because it doesn't cost all that much, hedge the layoff horse so you're
covered and dutch the 3:1 with what's left. In the example below
I entered "- 3" (negative 3) for horse "A," the
long shot. I didn't go with a straight dutch because his high odds
allowed a large payoff with only minor impact on the potential return
from the other horses. The other dutched horse is horse "D",
the 3:1 shot. Notice that the return is 3 times as much ($357) for
horse "A" as for horse "D" ($120). Again the number
isn't exact because of unavoidable rounding. By entering a positive
"2" for horse "C" you fix his return at double
your money and the "Hedge" entered for horse "B"
gets your money back if he should win. And if you don't like this
solution you can play "what if" and and see the results
instantly.

Back
to Top
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Next... Here's a real day at the track. |
I
was able to get 7 of the 9 races down to three horses at Santa Anita.
All races were playable using HEDGEHOG even though one had an entry
going off at .6 to 1. For this discussion assume $100 was wagered
on each race, but you can enter any wager amount you want in the program.
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| Race
1 |

Since
I try to get at least 40% profit this race was was playable by dutching
all three equally. The profit column shows I'd get around 42% back
regardless of which horse won. If I had wanted more profit, I could
have entered an "H" in the Dch/Hdg column for KELLY G which
would have freed-up more money to bet on the other two. Since Kelly
G won the race this would have resulted in a break-even situation.
Left as a three-horse dutch, however, a profit was made. Kelly G paid
$6.20 to win. Since there was $47 bet on her the return was $145.70,
or 45.7% profit. The difference between this and the 41% predicted
by the program comes from "odds rounding" as displayed by
the tote board. Sometimes the payoff will be a little higher and sometimes
it will be a little lower than the actual payoff, but it will always
be close enough for practical purposes.
Back
to Top
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Race 2 |

No problem
here, the odds were good and %PROFIT high. STOODTHETEST paid $14.00
to win for a $259 return (159%) profit.
Back to Top
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Race 3 |

Another
easy choice because of overall high odds and %PROFIT. One thing I
like to do in cases where a choice of mine is going off at relatively
high odds is place more on him. I could have entered a negative number
(say -2) for PRIVATE ADMIRER. This would dramatically increase the
profit if he were to win while not proportionally reducing the payoff
on the others. PRIVATE ADMIRER did win but was DQ'd and placed 2nd.
No matter, ABSOLUTE BEST was awarded the win so I got the same return.
His payoff was $12.20 and returned $195.20 for the $32 wagered on
him.
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Race 4 |
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The 3-2 odds on the favorite, PRETTY NEAT GAL drove the profit
margin too low. By hedging her, I could get around 50% back if one
of my other choices were to win. Well CONCORD'S SPIRIT paid 8.00 and
returned $152 on the $38 placed on her nose.
Back to Top
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I couldn't come up
with 3 solid choices in race 5 and race 6 didn't have enough paceline
information for my taste so I skipped them both. I'll use race 5 as
a learning example later. |
Race 7 |

I couldn't
discount the two favorites in this race, but my third horse's odds
were high enough to allow me to play all three. FINDER'S FORTUNE took
this one, ATLANTIAN was last. What do I care, so long as I have one
of them.
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Race 8 |

I used
to skip this kind of race before HEDGEHOG. The entry (HEART OF JOY
and BEL'S STARLET) both had super fast races on the SA downhill turf
course. SPEEDPLUS showed that GLEN KATE did also. Everyone was touting
the entry, but I knew that GLEN KATE had just as good a chance to
win. I could have dutched them all because there was a "higher
than usual" chance that one of these three would win. Or I could
try to beat the entry and I'd at least get my money back. What to
do? Play the entry to break even and put the rest on GLEN KATE. Well,
GLEN KATE won and paid 7.80 for $148 back.
Back to Top
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Race 9 |
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Again, an easy choice, nearly 60% profit
regardless which horse won.
It was STYLISH MAJESTY paying 10.80 for $156.60 back on $29.
Back
to Top
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...Race 5 -A learning tool
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Getting back to the 5th race, I had 5 horses that
I thought had a chance.
Dutching all 5 would have produced the following profit margins: |

Actually,
this is not too bad since there are 5 horses involved In retrospect
this would have been an acceptable bet, especially since the two favorites
(OAK FOREST and RATHSALLAH) were included. ALTANERO won paying $22.80
and would have returned $136.80 for the $12 bet on him.
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Let's stay with this
race and play "WHAT IF". What if ALTANERO were your prime
bet? Let's just get our money back on all but ALTANERO by entering
an "H" under "Dch/Hdg" for every other horse.
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WOW,
look at that, we could have made $274 with the security of not having
to worry about the other 4.
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Many times you'll
have several horses going off at good odds but you're worried about
the favorites.
In such a case you can "HEDGE THE CHALK" as follows: |

If one
of the two favorites were to have won, we'd get our money back.
However if one of our three longer horses were to win we'd make around
120%, not bad, eh?
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Let's look at one
more. Let's say that ALTANERO is our prime bet, REGALSTAFF and ESKAY
CREEK are secondary bets, and we don't want to worry about the two
favorites. By hedging the favorites we get our money back if
one of them wins. The other three will be dutched, but by entering
a "-2" for ALTANERO, we'll get twice as much back if he
wins then if one of the other two dutched horses wins. |

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As you can see HEDGEHOG
can change the way you think about betting. |
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