Learn how to read horse racing form on a race card
Whether you’re at the track itself or betting online here at LeoVegas, knowing how to read a race card is absolutely essential when it comes to making logical decisions about the race and placing good value bets.
The race card will give you the all-important horse racing form, as well as a load of other crucial information that will tell you all you need to know about the horse, its connections, and by extension, its chances in the race.
Here’s your quick guide on how to read horse racing form and what else to look out for on a race card.
How to read a race card – When, what, and why?
Race cards are generally published five days before the race takes place. However, when it comes to the biggest races, such as The Grand National or The Derby, they can be published well ahead of that.
Most of the information on a race card is statistical and objective, though race cards do also include subjective opinions by the publisher of the race card.
That includes notes on how each horse may perform, as well as an opinion at the end on who might win the race, based on horse racing form analysis by the publisher’s experts.
Race cards: general information
At the top of the race card, it will tell you: the time the race will start, the racetrack where it will be run, the name of the race (which in many cases these days includes the name of the race’s sponsor), the distance of the race, the number of runners in it and the total prize pool. In some cases, there will be a breakdown of how that prize pool is divided between the winner and the place positions.
It will also tell you what age the horses in the race must be to participate in it. There are strict rules regarding how old horses can be depending on the type of race and distance.
‘Surface’ is just that: whether it’s being run on turf, or in the case of some flat races, an all-weather surface, which was introduced in 1989.
On the far right of the card under ‘Going,’ it will tell you what the state of the turf is in terms of how soft or hard it is based on the amount of sun and rain there’s been over the past few days.
When there’s been lots of rain, it’s described as ‘heavy’ and when it’s particularly hard, it’s described as ‘firm’. In between the two extremes, it can be soft, good to soft, good, or good to firm.
Different horses enjoy different types of going, so it’s worth knowing which horses will be best suited to those particular conditions on the day.
Race cards: Horses, trainers, and jockeys
The order in which horses are listed on a race card is according to the number they are allocated to wear in that race, which is done randomly; that’s the number in bold.
In flat races, horses are allocated a stall and the stall number is the number that’s in brackets, next to the horse’s race number. In jumps races, there aren’t stalls, so there won’t be a number in brackets displayed.
The horse’s name is in the biggest letters of all, with the country where it’s trained in brackets next to it.
To the right of the horse’s name will be the name of its trainer and jockey. Just underneath it will say what sort of horse it is in terms of its age, sex, and if male, whether it’s been gelded. This is what the different initials mean:
- C= Colt,
- H=Horse,
- G=Gelding
- F= Filly
- M= Mare.
And just to the left of that will be the horse’s colour. This is what the different initials mean:
- b- bay.
- bl- black.
- br- brown.
- ch- chestnut.
- gr- grey.
- wh- white.
The horse’s colour doesn’t affect its chances of winning; it just helps to identify the horse while the race is in action!
Next to those initials are the horse’s sire and dam (from left to right). To the left of the horse are the jockey’s silks: the colour of the jacket the horse’s jockey will wear.
The silks are determined by who the horse’s owner is; each owner will have a unique colour or assortment of colours. If the owner has several horses in the race, the jockeys will wear the same silks but different coloured caps, to avoid confusion.
Horse racing form abbreviations
The number in brackets just to the right of the horse’s name is the number of days since the horse last ran; whether a long time since its last race is an advantage or disadvantage, depends on the horse.
Next, you might see the following abbreviations or horse racing form symbols:
- C- Short for course; means the horse has won at that track before.
- D- Has won over that distance before.
- CD- Has won over that course and distance.
- BF- Was a beaten favourite last time out.
Horse racing form explained
To the left of the horse’s name will be a series of numbers e.g., 1321. Starting with its most recent run on the far right, the numbers relate to the horse’s finishing position in its last few races.
Using the example above, it won (1) in its last race, was second (2) in the race before that, third (3) before that one, and won again (1) before that. If it says 12-1321, the finishing positions before the hyphen tells you those results were from the previous season, not the current one.
When looking at its recent results, the following abbreviations might pop up, which are a quickfire guide to why the horse didn’t finish the race:
- BD - Brought Down
- CO - Carried Out
- DNF - Did Not Finish
- F - Fell
- HR - Hit Rails
- N/R - Non-runner
- P or PU - Pulled Up
- RO - Ran Out- R - Refused
- RTR - Refused to Race-
- SU - Slipped Up
- U or UR - Unseated Rider
Weight, rating, betting forecast, and final thoughts
To the left of the horse’s age is its weight. The weight factor is not the amount the horse is set to carry but the amount it's set to give to or receive from other horses it has run against before.
The main consideration affecting its weight is its official rating (OR). This is a figure that will be between 0 and 140 for flat horses and o to 170 for national hunt races. The figure isn’t just based purely on results, but also the manner of the results, and which horses it was up against recently and throughout its career.
For example, a horse beating a big favourite will be given a higher rating on the back of it, than if it had gone off as favourite itself and either been beaten or won unconvincingly. So, a bit like a tennis player’s world ranking, a horse’s rating will be constantly changing depending on its most recent results.
Underneath all this information, there will be a few sentences summarising what the race card creator makes of the horse racing form of each runner. That includes notable recent outings (whether for the right or wrong reasons), other relevant horses they beat or lost to, and other info like whether its tongue will be tied or if it’s wearing blinkers.
At the very end of the race card, there will be an overall assessment of which horse might win and why, plus a mention of other horses who are less fancied, but could still place.
Lastly, there will be a betting forecast predicting what odds each horse may be available on the day of the race.
Summary
Those who are new to horse racing form and horse racing form analysis may initially find the process of reading a race card pretty daunting. That’s normal: getting your head around all the different key information and its significance takes time.
But now you at least know what everything means when it comes to how to read a race card, the most important horse racing form abbreviations, and why all that data and other information is there.
As for how to digest the form and know which elements of it are the most important, that’s just something that will take time and practice.
Putting all that together is a bit like solving a puzzle, until you find the horse that stands out based on form and everything else, that is also available at an attractive price. That’s the one to back!