Barrel Racing – Explaining Barrel Racing Event Settings

When you build a program as powerful as the Barrel Racing System (yes, a little bit of a self-pat on our backs) with many many features and options, it will also become a bit complicated. This article intends to take out some of the complexity from setting up Barrel Racing Events by working through from the most basic configuration options to some of the more advanced.

Manage Barrel Race Event Default Settings

So let’s begin, from Show Setup > Manage Events. This is where we set up the default settings for an event. Think of this as a template for the event. The image below is a typical of settings for an Open event. The Entry Fee is the amount of fees that are being included in the Gross Purse for this event. You may be charging other fees, such as a timer fee or a secretary fee, but these are set elsewhere. The obvious settings you need to turn on include Timed and Penalty. If this is your “Open” then click the box for Open Event as this will be used if your organization allows for times to be carried either from the Open to other events or from other events to the Open. The other highly important setting here the Side Pot Event checkbox. If this will be a side pot check the box.

That will set up the basic settings, or your account wide template for the Open event. Note: you can call the event anything you want. Now with this template in place, we can configure it for an individual barrel racing Show in Show Setup > Manage Shows. Choose your Show to manage and scroll down to the Events section. The first setting, the first decision, is if you will allow time to Carry To the Open, Carry From the open, or No Carry in effect. The first time you create your Show, this will be set according to the default setting in your account.

The heading row, which begins with “Include” in the upper left, has all the detailed options specific to this Show, for each Event. Note that a number of the headings have tool tips which become visible when you point your mouse cursor over the heading text, such as Entry Fee (which will display “Overrides the Entry Fee set in Manage Events”). Please note that these settings are for this event, in this Show, and will not effect the same event in another Show.

A quick description of the settings. Purse and Expense are lump sum $ amounts which are added to or removed from the Prize Purse before payouts are calculated. Enter these as dollar amounts. The Drag After __x__ Riders will create a “Drag” row display in the Show draw after every x riders. You can override the default entry fee for this Show by entering a number here. Initially the value will default to the Entry Fee we set above in Manage Barrel Race Default Settings. If you will allow a member-horse combination to enter an event more than once then change the Entries per Member value. If the value is greater than 1, then the entry form for competitors will show this event, that number of times. Max Entries per Show will limit the number of entries in this event. Once the max number has been reached, it will no longer show on the entry form as a selection. Sort Order this Show allows you to change the order in which the event appear on the public draw and in the results. The value of 99 means that it will use the default Sort Order set in Show Setup > Manage Events. Admin Pct Override lets you deduct a percentage amount from the Gross Purse to be retained by the Organization. The default percentage is set in Settings > System Settings but can be over-riden here for this Event in this Show. Enter this as decimal value, such as 0.25 which is equal to 25%.

Event Formats and D Settings

The Event Format is the Draw Format, which also indicates the way in which it will payout winnings and/or us a Short Go round. Formats include Standard (1 Go), 2 Go Plus Average, 2 Go Low Score, 2 Long Short, and 3 Go Plus Average. If you are using a short go, you will need to indicate the number of riders that will progress to the Short Go, which can be a specific number, or a percentage of the entrants. If you will allow riders to carry their score from Go 1 to Go 2, check the box. This will result in a selection box being included on the entry form to use this option. Lastly in Event Formats, is the draw order selection. The first Go is always a random draw order. If you chose a draw format with multiple Gos, set the draw order for the rest of the Gos, which can be random, reverse (of the previous Go) or repeat (same order as previous Go).

The Barrel Race Format is the group of settings that define the D levels and how to split times and payouts. You can select up to an 8D format by clicking the selection dot. Enter the time differentials for D2 and higher as the time from the fast time where the D begins. Note: this is NOT the time from the last D, it is based on the time from the fast time. Payout % is the amount of the Net Prize Purse that will be allocated to each D. This can be split evenly between the Ds or unevenly. Enter these as a decimal such as .40 = 40%. Your total allocation should equal 1.0.

Percentage Payouts for Placings in Ds

There is one level of settings not shown at this Show / Event specific level. That is the payout splits / settings for how many places to pay within of the Ds. These are set up within Settings > Manage Payouts and Placings. There is extensive documentation on that page for these settings.