CompuTrak Pedigree

My name is Rubin (Rube) Boxer.  As an engineer, I have always been drawn to engineering mathematics, and have had research papers published on the subject.

Some time ago, I became interested in learning how well engineering principles could be applied to life.  After determining that it could be done, I decided to use thoroughbred horses as the means for further, in depth, research. Part of the reason for this choice was the availability of data. After all, data such as time, speed, the horses “trajectory”, weight carried, and track condition, if applied in an appropriate way, can be the basis for engineering analysis. My only intent was that, if I were successful, I would write a paper on the subject. I had no thought about marketing any product.

After about a year of intensive work and interviewing knowledgeable persons, asking questions of The Daily Racing Form, Today’s Racing Digest, and others, the mathematics fell into place, and I was able to write, “Engineering Analysis of Thoroughbred Racing.”

Using the “engineering” data available in a horse’s pacelines, that paper showed, among other things, how to predict the horse’s finish time for today’s race and some unique outputs including Horse Friction, a measure of a horse’s closing capability.

I single out Horse Friction here, from among the other outputs, only because of what happened next. I received a phone call from the Vice-President of Marketing of one of the Racing Publications I had been interviewing during my research. He informed me they were interested in publishing the Horse Friction values. But he said they only knew me as a “voice on the telephone”, and would I agree, to establish credibility, to send my material to “The Phillips Racing Newsletter” for evaluation. So I did that in early 1992. 

In the March, 1992 issue, Phillips published a highly favorable review of the program, which, by then, I had named CompuTrak. They rated it at 8.5, which, in those days was a very high rating indeed. They also had tested the program on 153 consecutive races at Santa Anita and showed; using only $2 win bets, a profit of $296.80, an ROI of 97%, with a win rate of 36.6%.

After Phillips published their review, I received many phone calls and letters asking about CompuTrak. So, I then decided to market it. That’s how CompuTrak was launched.