Race cards explained:
A typical racecard contains the horse's name, age, and the weight it has to carry in the race.
The rider, trainer and owner's name are also listed, plus figures indicating the horse's recent form.
So here we will explain what means what.
Race cards tend to differ in appearance but they all hold the same information.
The number
3 is the Race card number or the number that is on the horse.
The
7 in brackets is the draw number or stall number from which the horse will start from.
These are the Jockey/Riders silk colours. The variations can include spots, hoops, stars and stripes. A more recent innovation is the use of sponsors' logos.
The numbers indicate the position the horse finished in its most recent races. So 1 means first, while 0 normally indicates a placing in double figures ie: 10th ,11th or 12th. In this case this horse finished 7th last time out 5th before that and 2nd before that.
The dash (-) in between figures separates this year from last ie Dec 06 - Jan 07. The slash (/) separates this season from the season before for a horse which did not race last season.
Scorpion is the
name of the horse whilst the country where it came from is usually indicated next to it , in this case it has come from Ireland.
152 is the number of days ago the horse last ran a race. The 2 names underneath are about the breeding pedigree.
The number
5 is the horse's
age and the
9-0 is the
weight in stone and lbs including the jockey, which the horse has to carry. In this case it is 9 stone 0 lbs.
M J Kinane is the
Jockey and A P O'Brien is the horses
Trainer who is responsible for getting the horse in perfect shape for the race.
Sometimes a number will appear after a Jockeys name: this is the claimer - the amount of weight in lbs that the jockey takes off the total weight carried by the horse. In this case jockey Liam Jones will claim 3lbs off.
This is the horse's
Rating which to some people can be complicated to understand.
By rating every horse this will determine which horses will run against which and should make the races more competitive. This then attracts the bookmakers to compile odds on the race to encourage the punter to have a bet and thus the BHB will collect the resulting levy from the bookmaker.
Three types of rating can be found across the Racing Post website.
Racing Post Ratings
Topspeed ratings
Official (BHB) ratings
Racing Post Ratings (RPR) are merit ratings produced by a team at the Racing Post and are based on collateral form i.e. if horse A beats horse B carrying the same weight then it will be awarded a higher rating. The ratings are expressed in pounds (lb) so a horse rated 140 is regarded as 10lb better than one rated 130. There is amore or less accepted sliding scale for converting lb to distance where 3lb = 1 length over 5f and 1lb = 1 length over 2m and upwards.
Official ratings use the same principles as Racing Post Ratings, but are compiled by a team working for the British Horse racing Board (BHB) and are used to determine the weights horses will carry in handicap ratings. In contrast to RPR the BHB rating found for horses in results reflect the horses' ratings going into the race not what they achieved in the race.
Topspeed ratings are based on race times so horses recording faster times will achieve higher ratings. The ratings are measured in pounds like RPR and aim to remove the effect of different going and weather conditions on the race times.
A key to selecting a horse to bet on can be judged on the ratings based on its last run and its next run: ie whether it is running off the same 'mark' or rating as last time.
Other little bits of information inc:
B - Blinkers
V- Visor
* - For the first time ie
B* means the horse will be wearing blinkers for the first time. Sometimes the
* will be replaced by a small number
1.
UR - Unseated Rider
BD - Brought Down
F - Fell
HR - Hit Rails
PU - Pulled Up
RO - Ran Out
R - Refused
RTR - Refused To Race
SU - Slipped Up
N/R - Non-runner