The Sandform Speed Ratings

How our speed ratings help us pick you winners

Each figure we produce for a horse are specific to a single run. This means you can quickly home in on a horses preferred track, distance and race conditions. We do not generate aggregated ratings - we keep our ratings pure and simple. In our opinion, the best way to use speed ratings at the outset is in their purest and rawest state - the creation of 'master' ratings can create false information.

Once the foundations of accurate speed ratings is available, you may then overlay the secondary Sandform information, such as progression comments, race tactic indicators and draw bias into your calculations.

How do Sandform calculate their speed ratings?

The way the Sandform ratings are generated is the result of a set of equations, some simple and others complex. Ultimately we are trying to find the fastest horse, given a particular set of environmental conditions and race circumstances.

Our ratings allocate a numerical figure to each horses performance. This can be used as the basis for assessing how they might run next time. The Sandform rating is not the be all and end all - It is a critical starting point.

Perhaps the most contentious issue in any ratings service is the 'weight factor'. A glance at the Sports Forum page in the weekly newspaper Raceform Update, illustrates how opinion on this issue is polarised. The Sandform team are of the opinion that a weight allowance should NOT be calculated into the rating. We believe it is the prevailing environmental factors that determine a particular performance and not the weight carried.

The arguments for a weight allowance seem persuasive, but how can we accurately assess the effects of a horse carrying six pounds less over a certain distance? To tamper with the ratings in this way for such a minor difference is not logical.

In simplistic terms the Sandform rating is generated through a calculation of the time of the race against the expected time of the race - but there is significantly more work than this involved!

To give the figures a standard base requires some manner of standardising race distances. Some ratings systems do this by calculating through the number of yards of a race. The method we prefer is to convert race distances into decimal miles. (At Wolverhampton 8f 100yds = 1.06 miles). However these are simply tools to aid calculation.

Once the winning rating has been calculated, those horses behind have their ratings assessed by using the distance beaten and the race distance.

This method allows us to generate a rating for every performance for every horse that has run on the All-Weather. From this basis it is then possible to begin to use the ratings as a tool in the selection process.

Further Information

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The Power of Numbers in form analysis

The use of numbers to determine equine capability has been around for some time. Find out why we base our service on speed ratings.

What do you charge me after the initial joining fee?

Full information on how our 'pay as you win' method of commission works.