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                      -- Key Program Update - 06-12-2019 Scratch BOT ONLY

"Q. Why am I publishing this Scratch BOT Only program download package?

A. On 05-16-2019 at Pimlico: Track personnel mistakenly changed Track Condition in the Race xml for all of the turf races to Off Turf. Trouble is, only races 3 and 9 actually came off the turf. The other turf races on the card, races 1, 5 and 7, remained on the turf.

Track personnel later went back in and changed Track Condition in the Race XML for races 1, 5 and 7 from old value Off Turf to new value Good.
Naturally, Scratch BOT had never been programmed to handle this – mainly because I’d never seen races mistakenly taken off the turf be put back on the turf in this manner.

I had a conversation with Equibase and learned that in the event track personnel mistakenly take race(s) off the turf – that is how they plan to correct the Race XML going forward to put race(s) back on the turf.

Based on that, I recoded the xml parse routine and published an updated version of Scratch BOT as part of the Full Silver program update on 06-04-2019 as well as the Full Platinum program update on 06-05-2019.

Yesterday, 06-11-2019 at Parx: Races 3, 8, and 9 were taken off the turf. But the Race XML contained subsequent TkCond entries similar to those used at Pimlico on 05-16-2019 to put races back on the turf.

As a result: Scratch BOT initially/correctly recognized that Parx 06-11-2019 races 3, 8, and 9 were off the turf.

But later - Once the subsequent TkCond entries (similar to those used at Pimlico) had been added to the XML: Scratch BOT then incorrectly interpreted those subsequent entries in the XML as meaning that Parx 06-11-2019 races 3, 8, and 9 were now being put back on the turf. (Ugh.)

Last night 06-11-2019 – I whiteboarded out the use cases present in the Race XML for both race cards (PIM0516 and PHA0612.) I then recoded the XML parse routine based on the use cases I was able to glean from the xml.

This morning 06-12-2019 – I tested my work. Right now as I type this it’s about 7:00 am pacific time – and the revised XML parse routine appears to be handling all of the different ways Equibase has been making entries in the Race XML to take races off the turf and put races back on the turf.

If they would just use the COURSE node in the xml for changes in surface (instead of messing with track condition!)

Now you know why I published a Scratch BOT ONLY program update."