How to use SprintRatings.com
As you arrive on the hope page you are presented with a grid showing each race of the day. Click on any race to see the card.
The racecard a grid of information about every horse in the race. The bar across the top of the grid describes its contest as follows:
- Pos: The finishing position. Prior to the race this will just show a dash ('-').
- Draw: The draw. For jumps this will just show '0'
- Horse: The name of the horse.
- Wt: The weight carried, in lbs.
- OR: The official rating.
- SpR: The "SprintRating". This is our measure of the likely performance of the horse. This number already factors in weight, the going, the draw, the jokey etc.
- Conf: The confidence in the SprintRating. This is a measure on a scale of 1 to 10 of how confident we are that the SprintRating has been estimated correctly. A high score would indicate that the horse has run a reasonable number of times recently. A low number may be assigned if, for example, the horse has not run very often or it's just had a long break.
- Pwin: Our estimation of the horses percentage probability of winning.
- Odds: Typical odds currently being offered by the bookies.
- Misc info: The trainer and jockey.
If you click on any of the SprintRating numbers you will be taken to the form page for that horse giving a wealth of additional information.
The form diagram presents a graphical representation of a horse's past form in its past recent races (eight races maximum). Each race is represented by a horizontal bar which is either light green for turf or a sandy colour for all weather surfaces. Within each bar you will see small green dots representing each horse's performance with the best performing on the right. The horse being rated is surrounded by a blue box.
It is important to note that the position of the dots represent our estimate of each horse's performance rather than its actual finishing position. So for example, if a horse has a terrible draw and is carrying a lot of weight but comes a very close second to a horse with a great draw and carrying little weight then we may deem that the best performance was that of the second place horse.
Relevance: A critical part of how SprintRatings works is a the relevance of past race performances to todays race. For example, if a past performance was on a different surface or a markedly different distance or was simply a long time ago, then that prior performance may not tell you much about the likely performance today. The relevance to todays race is indicated with a horizontal black bar to the left of the race.
If you hover your mouse pointer over various part of the diagram you will be shown extra information.