Knowledge Base

Ratings are updated daily after racing concludes. Results from each day's racing are processed overnight, so you'll see updated ratings reflecting yesterday's results each morning.

RaceMetrics ratings are our proprietary performance measure. They track form over time – 1500 is average, 1550+ indicates strong performers, and 1600+ represents elite level. Ratings are updated daily each morning based on the previous day's results.

We track seven connection types: Horses, Trainers, Jockeys, Owners, and bloodlines (Sires, Dams, Damsires). Each profile includes full form analysis, ratings history, P/L tracking, and performance breakdowns.

RaceMetrics applies Elo ratings to UK and Irish horse racing. The system was built by Simon Walton, founder of Proform Racing Limited (a British racing software company established in Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1995), and rates every race that has run in Britain and Ireland across seven connection types — horses, trainers, jockeys, owners, sires, dams and damsires. Ratings are recomputed daily on Proform's full 25+ year dataset and surfaced at racemetrics.co.uk.

Horse racing Elo ratings work by extending the original two-player chess formula to multi-runner races. For each horse in each race, RaceMetrics computes the Elo expectation against the entire field — what percentage of rivals the horse would be expected to beat given its rating versus the field's ratings — then updates the rating once based on how the horse's actual finishing position compared to that expectation. The same machinery runs in parallel across seven independent rating pools: horse, trainer, jockey, owner, sire, dam and damsire.

To use Elo ratings for horse racing, look at two figures together: the horse's individual H rating (its own ability) and the Combined Score (a weighted average of the trainer, jockey, owner, sire, dam and damsire ratings). A strong H signals individual horse ability; a strong Combined Score signals an above-average support package around the horse. Historically the horse with the highest Combined Score in a race wins 22.97% of the time — 2.15 times the random-chance rate — across 25+ years of UK and Irish racing data.

PRB stands for Percentage of Rivals Beaten — a finishing-position metric used in RaceMetrics' Elo adaptation. PRB normalises finish position by field size. For example, a horse finishing 3rd in a 12-runner race has a PRB of (12-3)/(12-1) × 100 = 81.8%, having beaten 9 of 11 rivals. PRB is preferred over raw finishing position because it accounts for field-size differences and produces a continuous 0-100 metric suitable for Bayesian rating updates.

The Combined Score is RaceMetrics' weighted average of six connection-type Elo ratings: Owner 20%, Trainer 20%, Jockey 20%, Dam 18%, Sire 12%, Damsire 10%. The horse's own H rating is reported separately and is deliberately not folded into the Combined Score. The two figures answer different questions: H is about the horse's own ability; Combined Score is about the strength of the support package around it.

Patterns are saved from profile pages. When viewing statistics (e.g., a trainer's record at a specific course), look for the Save Pattern button. This creates a pattern with those conditions that will alert you when matching runners appear on racecards.

The A/E (actual versus expected) figures in the System Builder are calculated using BSPs — Betfair Starting Prices. Expected wins are derived from each runner's actual BSP, so A/E measures value against the exchange market rather than the industry SP.

This applies to the System Builder on RaceMetrics, which is included with a Proform Premium subscription and goes further than the desktop software version — back-testing since 2018 with P/L at BSP, ISP and bookmaker prices side by side.

The A/E figures in the System Builder are calculated using BSPs (Betfair Starting Prices). The RaceMetrics web version of the System Builder can do more than the desktop software version and is included free with the subscription.

The System Builder is a betting-system back-tester. You build a system from a set of rules (filters), then test how those runners would have performed across UK and Irish racing back to 2018 - strike rate, A/E, ROI and profit/loss at Betfair SP - before refining it and tracking today's qualifiers.

The System Builder is included with RaceMetrics Pro and with the Proform Premium subscription. It runs in the browser on any device - nothing to install.

Back-tests run on resulted UK and Irish racing from 1 January 2018 onwards. Some specialist fields (sectionals, bookmaker prices, RaceMetrics ratings) start later and will raise the start date automatically with a warning.

P/L is shown to level stakes at Betfair Starting Price (with your chosen commission), alongside Industry SP and bookmaker prices. A/E (actual versus expected wins from the market) measures value independently of price.

You can save up to 50 systems (raised from 20 in July 2026). Up to 50 active saved systems feed the Today's Qualifiers hub and, if you opt in, the morning qualifier email - use the Active toggle on each saved card to choose which ones count. An imported system doesn't use a slot until you choose to save it.

Yes. The Export button (under Save) downloads the current system as a small file named after the system - its rules, date range, commission and follow-up setting. Send that file to another subscriber and they load it with the Import button. It arrives unsaved and is checked against the current filter catalogue, so they can inspect and back-test it before deciding to save. The System Builder needs Proform Premium, so shared files are only loadable by subscribers.

Yes, three ways. The Data split setting offers random Half A / Half B (build on one half, confirm on the other) and a machine-learning-style Train 80% / Test 20% holdout - both split by race with a deterministic hash, so a given race always lands in the same bucket. The Robustness tab adds a time-based check: it trains on older data and tests on the last 12 months. A system that passes both a random split and the time holdout is far less likely to be curve-fitted.

Yes. Use the Top-3 Finishes in Last 4 Runs filter and set it to 4 - it counts how many of the last four starts finished in the first three, so 4 means every one of them did. Set it to 3 or more instead for horses placed in at least three of the last four, which usually gives a more workable pool. There is a matching Top-3 Finishes in Last 3 Runs for a tighter, more recent version, and Wins in Last 4 Runs if you would rather count victories than placings. Two things to know: a horse needs at least four previous runs to qualify, so lightly-raced types are excluded rather than judged on a shorter record, and a run where the horse did not complete (fell, pulled up, unseated) never counts as a top-three finish.

Yes, by combining four filters. Set Class Change vs LTO to 0 and Class Change vs 2nd-LTO to 0, then set Distance Change vs LTO (furlongs) and Distance Change vs 2nd-LTO (furlongs) to a range of 0 to 0. Each of those measures today's race against that previous run, so setting all four to zero means today, the last run and the run before are all at the same trip and the same grade. Drop the two class filters if you only care about the trip, or the two distance filters if grade is all that matters. Note the distance filters work in exact yards, so a 7f race and a 7f 20y race count as different trips.

No. In follow-up mode your filters describe a trigger run - a race the horse has already had - and the mode backs that horse's next starts after it. The qualifying race itself is never bet.

That decides how you set a system up. To follow horses beaten at a particular meeting, describe that race as today's run in the filters and tick follow-up. If you describe it as the last-time-out run instead, the trigger becomes the horse's next start, and you would be following the runs after that - skipping the first run back.

You can follow 1 to 6 subsequent starts (3 by default). Only races that have actually been run count as a leg, so a declared but unrun race does not use one up. It stops at the first win unless you untick that option, and the winning run is included. Each follow-up run is counted once even if the horse triggers the system more than once, and the date range applies to the trigger run - the follow-up runs can fall after it. Follow-up gives the summary figures only; breakdowns, staking and qualifiers are unavailable while it is on.

A first-season sire - also called a freshman sire - is a stallion whose first crop of offspring is racing for the first time. Because none of his stock has ever run, there is no progeny record for punters or the market to price from, and that uncertainty is why the angle is followed.

In System Builder the First-Season Sire filter matches runners from a sire's very first crop to reach the track. Sire's Crop Number gives you finer control - 1 is his first crop, 2 his second, and so on - so you can select the first two crops, or exclude freshmen entirely with 3 or more. A matching Sire's Crop breakdown shows how each crop performs before you commit to a rule.

One thing worth knowing: you cannot identify a first-season sire from his age. When a stallion's first foals reach the track depends on when he retired from racing, not on how old he is - a horse retired after his three-year-old season has his first two-year-olds out when he is seven, a year later and it is eight, and one who raced on until five is a freshman at nine. RaceMetrics therefore counts crops from when each sire's progeny actually started running, so the filter is exact rather than an estimate.

Across every two-year-old run since 2018, the first crop is the only one showing a positive return, with each later crop negative. The sample is not large enough to treat that as a reliable edge, so it is better used as a starting point for your own testing than as a finished system.

Sectional timing analysis is a separate add-on, not part of the base subscription. You need a RaceMetrics Pro or Proform Premium subscription, plus the TPD Sectional Timing Add-On at £50/month — arranged by emailing admin@racemetrics.co.uk and paid by bank transfer (the full amount is passed on to TPD, our sectional data partner).

Two things worth knowing: the add-on must be set up through Proform — a subscription taken directly with TPD doesn't unlock it here — and the data provided is historical sectional data for analysis, not TPD's live in-race feed. Proform Premium desktop users who also want to export the historical data have a separate TPD option with a first-year upfront payment; email us for details.

The sectionals add-on is a separate extra (the TPD add-on) and is not included in the base subscription. It has to be purchased in addition.

Sectional data needs a Proform Premium subscription (£97.50/month, with 6-for-5 and 12-for-9 multi-month options) plus a TPD add-on arranged through Proform, not directly with TPD. Two TPD options, both £50/month: full software access with historical export (first year paid upfront by bank transfer, passed to TPD in full) or RaceMetrics-only access with no export and no upfront fee. The data provided is historical sectional data, not TPD's live feed.

Sectionals are processed around lunchtime each day and output the next morning alongside the results. Exact timing partly depends on when TPD finalise their side — some races take longer than others.

Worth restating: the sectional add-on provides post-race historical data for analysis, not TPD's live in-race feed. If you want live in-running data, that's a separate subscription taken directly with TPD.

In the desktop software's System Builder: choose the horse, add all the sectional fields in System Builder preferences, and run the system. Double-click the single-line output to drill into every run and every section for that horse, then right-click the column heading to export.

That gives you the horse's complete sectional record — every section of every run — in one exportable grid. (Requires the TPD sectional add-on with export, i.e. the software option.)

Yes, RaceMetrics 7 is completely free to enter for all registered users. There is no purchase or subscription requirement - even free tier users can compete for the weekly cash prizes. It's a skill-based competition, not gambling.

RaceMetrics 7 is our free weekly skill-based leaderboard competition. Pick 7 participants within a budget and accumulate points based on how their performance rankings change during the week. It's free to enter for all registered users – no purchase required.

User Rating 1 (UR1) is the Power Ratings — its rank, value and odds fields are the Power Rating rank, value and price. The race-guide Forecast Price is the UR1 odds: the Power Rating values converted to a 100% book (a Power Rating is roughly percentage chance × 10, so a 500-rated horse ≈ 50% chance).

The speed figure shown on the race guides is the static LTO speed figure (stLTO in the software): same race code, no zero figures, within the last year. Dynamic (dy) speed figures follow whatever filters you have set in the software at the time — filter the form book to Soft ground and the dy figures compute on Soft-ground runs only.

User Ratings 2–6 are yours to fill: import your own ratings into them (and UR1 too, if you'd rather not download the Power Ratings).

RaceMetrics uses official racing data covering UK and Irish racing. Our database includes comprehensive historical performance data. P/L calculations use Betfair Starting Prices (BSP) for accurate profit tracking.

P/L shows the theoretical profit or loss if you had backed every runner to £1 stakes at Betfair Starting Price (BSP). This gives a standardised measure of value performance, removing the subjectivity of individual price judgements.

RaceMetrics uses official racing data covering UK and Irish racing. Results are updated daily and include Betfair SP prices for P/L calculations. Our database includes comprehensive historical performance data.

No — and there's an honest reason. With a data product, the value is the ratings, form analysis and system results themselves: everything could be read, noted down and taken away in a single afternoon, so a "trial" is really just the product, free. To keep prices fair for paying members, we don't do it.

What we do instead: the RaceMetrics free account unlocks one full meeting every day with real ratings and racecards — the closest thing to a trial there is. Our YouTube walkthroughs show every tool being used on real races, and both help centres document every feature with screenshots. And every subscription is a monthly rolling plan with no lock-in — if it's not for you, cancel any time and you've risked one month, not a contract.

There is no free trial, for an honest reason: with a data product the value is the ratings, form analysis and system results themselves, which can be read and taken away in an afternoon — a trial would just be the product, free. Instead: the RaceMetrics free account unlocks one full meeting every day with real ratings and racecards (the closest thing to a trial), YouTube walkthrough videos show the tools on real races, both help centres document every feature, and every subscription is a monthly rolling plan with no lock-in — cancel any time.

Yes, you can upgrade or downgrade your subscription at any time from your account settings. Upgrades take effect immediately with pro-rated billing. Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period.

Yes, you can cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings. When you cancel, you'll retain access until the end of your current billing period, then your account will revert to the free tier.

Yes. RaceMetrics partners earn 30% of every referred subscriber's first payment on any paid tier, and their audience gets 20% off for their first 3 months via a unique partner code. Apply by emailing admin@racemetrics.co.uk.

Each partner receives a unique discount code. Every checkout where the code is redeemed is attributed to that partner — no cookies or tracking links required, so attribution survives ad-blockers and cross-device journeys.

Yes — editorial sites, bloggers and YouTubers producing a genuine review can request 1 month of complimentary Proform Premium access (the top subscription, including sectional timing analysis on RaceMetrics and the System Builder) by emailing admin@racemetrics.co.uk.

Create a free account at www.racemetrics.co.uk using the same email address that's registered to your Proform software. You can check which email that is inside the software: open the options menu and look at the registration screen.

When the emails match, the system recognises your subscription automatically and unlocks the features included with your tier — Proform Premium subscribers get RaceMetrics access included. If you've accidentally registered with a different email, contact admin@racemetrics.co.uk and we'll link the accounts.

Daily limits (profile views) reset at midnight UK time. If you reach your limit, you can either wait for the reset or upgrade to a higher tier. Pattern limits are total (not daily) and can be increased by upgrading your subscription.

Daily limits reset at midnight UK time. If you hit your limit, you can either wait for the reset or upgrade to a higher tier for more capacity. Pattern limits are total (not daily) and can be increased by upgrading.