Course form is one thing. The same race, 12 months ago, is another. RatingTheRaces now shows you every horse on today's card who was in last year's running of the race in front of you: who won it, who was 2nd and 3rd, who else was in the field, and exactly what each of them did on the day.
There are 3 parts to it and they stack up. A block under the card, a set of colours on the card itself, and a hover on the horse's name that opens the whole run.
1. The block under the card
Open a race we have a match for and there is a Last Year's Winner panel below the ratings. One line, and it carries the winner's name, the starting price, the Exchange SP, what they won by, the mark they ran off, the trainer, the jockey, the sire, the field size, the going, and our RTR Rank for them that day.
Click View Full Race and you land in that race in our ratings history, so you can read the whole running rather than the headline.
2. The colours: the whole field, not just the winner
The winner is the obvious horse. The rest of last year's field is usually the more useful half, and that is what the colours are for. On the card itself:
- Gold cell: won this race last year.
- Silver cell: finished 2nd.
- Bronze cell: finished 3rd.
- Plum name: ran in it and finished anywhere else, fallers and pulled up included.
Here is that Ayr card, a Class 4 handicap over 7f 50y on heavy ground, 10 runners, worth £4,710.60 to the winner. Count Palatine in gold won it last year. Quest For Fun in silver was 2nd. Abduction in plum was in the field as well. 3 of the 10 had been round here in this race before, and you can see it in a second instead of opening 10 form pages.
3. Hover the name: the whole run in 12 rows
This is the part we are most pleased with. Hover a horse that ran in last year's race and the card opens with their run, in 2 columns of 6:
- Weight Carried, with the allocated weight and the claim in brackets when the rider claimed.
- RTR Rank: where our ratings had them that day.
- OR: the official mark they actually ran off.
- OR to Today: how that compares with the mark they carry today. Green if they are lower now, red if they are higher.
- Draw and DBD: the stall, and what that stall was worth in that race.
- Position, out of the field size.
- Won By or Distance Beaten, in lengths.
- SP and XSP: the starting price and what it paid on the exchange.
- Going.
- Jockey.
Anything that is the same today as it was that day turns green and gets a SAME badge: the going, the jockey, the draw, the weight, the mark. That is the bit that does the work. Same horse, same race, same ground, same rider, same stall is a very different note from a horse who won it off 10lb lower on quick ground with someone else on board.
And here is the horse who was 2nd in the same race. Note the RTR Rank row: our ratings had him top of that field, and he got beaten half a length by our rank 8. We show you the number either way.
It works just the same on a horse who finished nowhere, which is often where the value is hiding.
So what happened at Ayr?
Last year's winner, Count Palatine, was 4lb higher and finished 7th of 10 at 10/1. Last year's runner-up, Quest For Fun, ran 2nd again, at 10/3. Abduction, 5lb lower than when he was 8th, finished 6th. The race went to One Night Thunder at 11/2, a horse with no line in it at all.
That is the honest version, and it is roughly what this data says over time. Last year's winner is usually the one carrying the penalty for it. The horse who was 2nd, or the one who was beaten 7 lengths and has had 5lb taken off since, is the one worth a second look. The feature does not tell you which. It puts the evidence on the card so you can decide in 10 seconds rather than 10 minutes.
It is on today's cards too
Ascot, 2 October, the amateur riders' handicap over 7f, 18 runners, worth £12,417.50 to the winner. Last year it went to Rainbow Nebula at 11/1 for Richard Fahey. Rainbow Nebula is not in today's field, but 2 of today's runners were in that race.
Turning it on, and turning bits of it off
Everything lives in Tools at the top of the ratings page. There is a switch for the panel under the card, a switch for each of the 4 placing colours, and a separate one called Highlight Last Year's Winners, which puts gold on last year's winning horse, trainer, jockey and sire anywhere they appear in today's field.
Who gets what
| Part | Who sees it |
|---|---|
| The hover on the horse's name | Everyone, except the RTR Rank row |
| RTR Rank inside the hover | Premium and Pro |
| The Last Year's Winner panel | Premium and Pro |
| The gold, silver, bronze and plum colours | Pro |
There is a fuller walk-through in the help centre: Last Year's Winner on the race card, and the Tools menu for the switches.
Try it on today's racing
Open any card in the ratings and hover a name with a colour on it. If you are not a member yet, the first race of every day is free to everyone, and you can unlock a whole Friday card by entering our free NAP Competition on 2 days earlier in the week.