Among the many benefits to be gained from the Wizard MATRIX report is that it can be used to reduce the number of "carded" races to a more manageable number of possible betting races. Being overwhelmed with dozens of possible betting races is not what any sensible bettor wants to face - on any day of the week.
The primary aim of the Wizard is to provide subscribers with a daily a fact-based and user-friendly source of the best quality racing information. To make a subscriber's decision making easier (and more consistent) Wizard has pioneered the use of special-purpose reports.
- The Essentials report is for the keen form analyst who needs quick access to the most update-to-date and reliable key statistical information.
- The Raceday report's focus is on identifying which of the Wizard's four ratings assessment's top-rated runners are being best supported overnight and early-morning with corporates.
- The Magic report's laser focus is on trainers and highlighting those runners that have a profile which matches a trainer-proven record of success in similar raceday circumstances.
- The MATRIX report integrates key information from the other Wizard special-purpose reports and allows for a speedy assessment of the day's best rated and best qualified runners.
Matrix assesses each runners weight-rating/form/betting-market data and, from this, derives its unique multi-factor ratings figure, the MaxR rating.
The following table shows the relative performance of the three key Wizard ratings since the Matrix report first appeared last December. Over this period the Matrix report has rated, analysed, and reported on, more than 4,200 races! The result: MaxR 100 pointer has outperformed the traditional WRat1 100 pointer by 18.5%.
Table 1 - Relative performance of three ratings options in Matrix.
| Weekly % | WRat1 | RDay | MaxR | WRat12 | MaxR12 |
| 17/3 - 23/3 | 27.9% | 32.4% | 36.4% | 46.7% | 54.8% |
| 10/3 - 16/3 | 27.1% | 30.0% | 34.9% | 46.4% | 48.3% |
| 3/3 - 9/3 | 26.8% | 33.1% | 32.3% | 46.7% | 50.5% |
| 24/2 - 2/3 | 23.3% | 24.1% | 28.6% | 39.7% | 45.5% |
| 17/2 - 23/2 | 30.1% | 34.5% | 32.5% | 48.0% | 49.1% |
| 10/2 - 16/2 | 31.6% | 36.6% | 36.3% | 50.7% | 53.3% |
| 3/2 - 9/2 | 23.3% | 30.0% | 33.7% | 46.0% | 47.9% |
| 27/1 - 2/2 | 31.5% | 33.5% | 28.2% | 47.1% | 47.9% |
| 20/1 - 26/1 | 30.0% | 32.0% | 34.7% | 46.3% | 49.4% |
| 13/1 - 19/1 | 25.1% | 26.8% | 26.7% | 44.2% | 45.5% |
| 6/1 - 12/1 | 24.2% | 26.6% | 23.1% | 40.4% | 42.4% |
| 30/12 - 5/1 | 29.5% | 32.0% | 32.5% | 49.7% | 47.9% |
| 23/12 - 29/12 | 27.5% | 32.8% | 34.8% | 48.0% | 53.1% |
| 13 weeks | 27.0% | 31.1% | 32.0% | 45.2% | 48.9% |
The results above show the weekly strike rates for the three ratings for the first quarter that Matrix has been available to Wizard users. The top-rated runner strike rates are shown in WRat1 (Wizard Rating 100 pointer), RDay (Raceday Qualifier), and MaxR (Matrix 100 pointer). The top-two rated runners strike rate is shown in WRat12 and MaxR12.
The highest weekly strike rate for each option is colour coded: blue for the single top-rated option, and green for the top-two rated option.
Historically, the Wizard 100 pointer has recorded an annual strike rate between 25% and 27%, so the 18.5% improvement by MaxR is based on the top of the WRat historical range. Using the average of 26% it would be a 22.2% improvement. When every percentage point counts this is significant.
To further illustrate the relative performance of the ratings options, the follow table shows on how many days of each week a particular ratings option scored the highest strike rate. (Note: On some days two ratings options tied for first spot, and they were treated as equal first.)
Table 2 - Daily performance of three ratings options in Matrix
| Weekly | WRat1 | RDay | MaxR 100 | WRat12 | MaxR12 |
| 17/3 - 23/3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 7 |
| 10/3 - 16/3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 4 |
| 3/3 - 9/3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| 24/2 - 2/3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 6 |
| 17/2 - 23/2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| 10/2 - 16/2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| 3/2 - 9/2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 4 |
| 27/1 - 2/2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| 20/1 - 26/1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| 13/1 - 19/1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| 6/1 - 12/1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| 30/12 - 5/1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 23/12 - 29/12 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Days Overall | 14 | 35 | 48 | 36 | 62 |
From the above it is obvious the Wizard approach of integrating overnight and early-morning market information into the ratings/analysis algorithm is a winner. A time-honoured weight ratings approach outperformed on 14 days, whilst a fully integrated Wizard approach did better on 48 days.
Backing the top-two rated runners, the integrated approach outperformed on an almost 2 to 1 on a day basis and as shown in Table 1, the weekly result was 12 to 1 in favour of MaxR12.
Matrix Selective Betting
There are numerous approaches to Selective Betting, and these have been discussed in the Wizard Daily Report. (You can make use of our Archive function to find these discussions.)
In brief, among other things, you can specialise by concentrating on certain locations, by the type and class of race, by distance range, by the age and sex of the runners, by following a certain list of preferred trainers, by focusing on proven successful form patterns, etc, etc.
These, and other similar approaches, presuppose that you have the form-analysis skills, access to all the required information, AND the time available to undertake this task.
Matrix provides Wizard subscribers with an alternative to the hours of work normally required to practice rational "selective betting". That is, Matrix provides the information needed to reduce the number of possible bets, and at the same time, improve the overall strike rate.
(Note: It is suggested that the Matrix (First Four) and Matrix (Abridged) editions are the better options when following a "selective" approach, rather than the Matrix (Full Form) version of the report.)
Here is a MATRIX REPORT (First Four) extract showing a race from Friday, March 28, which will be used to explain the options that feature in the summary results below. (For the purposes of this discussion the following description is limited to the left-hand panel.)
The columns from left to right are:
# - tab number
Horse Name
W - The Wizard Rating (WRat) - 1 is top rated (100 pointer), 2 is second top rater, etc.
Rday - The extract from the Raceday report where the horse is a qualifying runner.
Watch - The extract from the Watch (Morning Movers) report.
Magic - The extract from the Magic (Trainers out-performing) report.
AOdds - The Wizard assessed odds, after scratchings.
AO% - The Wizard assessed odds expressed as a percentage.
EOam - The (average) early race-morning odds offered by wagering operators.
MaxR - A rating based on an analysis of Wizard's ratings/form/market information.
In this race at Toowoomba there was only one runner (Steady Ready) that had been highlighted as a qualifying runner an any of the other three reports; here from all three reports.
Now, on the following table are the results for the top rated WRat and MaxR runners and the results for various conditional combinations, the selective qualifiers, from the Matrix report over the first quarter's operations.
Table 3 - Matrix report top rated runners compared
The columns in this table from left to right are:
RWM 2/3# - the number of runners that were qualifiers from at least two of the Raceday, Watch, Magic reports
RWM 2/3% - the winning percentage of the runners that were qualifiers from at least two of the Raceday, Watch, Magic reports
Rday WR1# - the number of runners that were qualifiers from Raceday AND were Wrat 100 pointer
Rday WR1% - - the winning percentage of the runners that were qualifiers from Raceday AND were Wrat 100 pointer
Rday MR1# - the number of runners that were qualifiers from Raceday AND were MaxR 100 pointer
Rday MR1% - - the winning percentage of the runners that were qualifiers from Raceday AND were MaxR 100 pointer
Magic WR1# - the number of runners that were qualifiers from Magic AND were Wrat 100 pointer
Magic WR1% - - the winning percentage of the runners that were qualifiers from Magic AND were Wrat 100 pointer
Magic MR1# - the number of runners that were qualifiers from Magic AND were MaxR 100 pointer
Magic MR1% - - the winning percentage of the runners that were qualifiers from Magic AND were MaxR 100 pointer
R/M WR1# - the number of runners that were qualifiers from Raceday AND Magic AND were Wrat 100 pointer
R/M WR1% - - the winning percentage of the runners that were qualifiers from Raceday AND Magic AND were Wrat 100 pointer
R/M MR1# - the number of runners that were qualifiers from Raceday AND Magic AND were MaxR 100 pointer
R/M MR1% - - the winning percentage of the runners that were qualifiers from Raceday AND Magic AND were MaxR 100 pointer
From this table it is clear that these selective options deliver a consistently higher win strike rate than the base Wrat and MaxR ratings.
Matrix - Selective Combinations
Right from the start of Matrix operations it was evident that Matrix, itself, could provide an answer to the issue that dogs every punter: How to fine down the number of betting options to a realistic number of soundly-based selections. Betting on every race is a non-starter; unprofessional and unprofitable.
Whilst monitoring the performance of Matrix for the first three months (involving more than 4,000 races) noteworthy was the remarkable consistency of results when selection options were limited to horses that were top rated AND a qualifier from the Wizards other special reports (in particular, Raceday [market] and Magic [trainers]).
These included:
- Wrat 100 or MaxR 100 when the horse was also a qualifier from at least two of the three Raceday, Watch, and Magic.
- Wrat 100 or MaxR 100 when the horse is also a Raceday qualifier.
- Wrat 100 or MaxR 100 when the horse is also a Magic qualifier.
- Wrat 100 or MaxR 100 when the horse is also a Raceday AND a Magic qualifier.
The following table shows the results of applying these Selective approaches to Australian races over the last 15 weeks.
Table 4 - Results achieved by Matrix Selective combinations
So far, Matrix Selective combinations have convincingly outperformed traditional ratings approaches.
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There is one basic Matrix report, which is posted to the everyrace website twice on race morning (to allow for scratchings to be processed).
- around 10:30am (incorporating scratchings for NSW, Vic, Tasmania, Queensland, NT)
- around 12 noon (updated for scratchings from W.A.)
There are three variations of the Matrix report.
- Wizard Matrix (First Four)
- Wizard Matrix (Full Field)
- Wizard Matrix (Abridged)