Horse racing ratings for every UK and Irish race

What are horse racing ratings?

A rating condenses everything that matters about a runner's chance into a single comparable number. Instead of reading form lines for half an hour, you see the whole race ranked in one column: who the numbers make the most likely winner, how close the second and third choices are, and where the value might hide further down the card.

Good ratings do not replace judgement; they give judgement somewhere solid to start. The number tells you what the data says. You still decide what to do with it, and the best users of ratings combine them with their own reading of the race.

RatingTheRaces publishes independent horse ratings for every runner in every UK and Irish race, every day. They are produced by a model, not a tipster: nobody's hunch, no agenda, the same method applied to a seller at Wolverhampton and the Derby at Epsom. Our aim is simple: to be the best value horse racing ratings in the UK and Ireland, and to let you check that for yourself rather than take our word for it.

How the RTR model builds a rating

The data: 80+ points per horse

Every runner is scored from more than eighty data points. Broadly, they group into four families:

• Form and class: recent finishing positions, the strength of those races, the class the horse has been running in and how it has fared moving up or down.
• Conditions: course, distance and going records, with all-weather and turf treated on their own merits, plus draw effects where they matter.
• Connections: trainer and jockey strike rates, both overall and in context, such as a yard's record at the track or with this type of runner.
• Race shape: pace signals and how the likely run of the race suits each horse's style.

One thing the model deliberately does not use is the betting market. The rating is built before a price is even formed, so it is a genuinely independent opinion. That is exactly what makes it useful: you compare our number with the market, rather than reading a rating that is really just the market handed back to you.

From data to number

The model scores every runner overnight for the next day's racing, then recalculates live through the day as declarations firm up, non-runners come out and the going changes. The numbers you see at 2 o'clock reflect the race as it stands at 2 o'clock.

Each racecard shows the RTR Score (the rating itself), the RTR Rank (runners ordered by score, so Rank 1 is the model's top pick) and Value Odds (the price the model thinks each horse should be). When the actual price is bigger than the value odds, the model thinks the market is underrating that horse: that gap is where value lives.

Statistical views

Members can re-rank every card by different statistical views, so the field reorders around what matters to how they play, and sort by any single column, from draw to trainer strike rate, to build their own view of the race.

How our ratings differ from speed ratings and official ratings

“Ratings” can mean very different things in racing, and it is worth being clear about what an RTR rating is and is not:

• Official ratings (the handicap mark) are set by the handicapper to weight horses against each other over time. They change slowly and are the same number whatever race the horse runs in next. Useful, but they are not built to answer “who wins this race?”.
• Speed ratings boil a run down to how fast the horse went, adjusted for the conditions. A good input, but on their own they ignore class, going preferences, trip, draw and the shape of today's race.
• Form ratings weigh up past form by hand or by formula. Only as good as the judgement or the method behind them, and rarely recalculated once the race nears.
• An RTR rating is a race-specific estimate of each runner's chance in this race, on this going, over this trip, against these rivals. It folds official marks, speed, form and the rest into one number, and rebuilds live through the day. The same horse can rate very differently in two different races, because its chance really is different.

So RTR ratings are not a replacement for the handicapper's marks or for speed figures; they use that kind of information and turn it into the single question a punter actually asks: how likely is each horse to win, and is it a bigger price than it should be?

How to use ratings on a racecard

A simple routine that takes a minute per race:

• Start at the top of the ranks. Rank 1 is the model's most likely winner. Check the gap to Rank 2: a wide gap says the model is confident, a cluster says the race is open.
• Compare value odds with the live price. A top-three ranked horse trading bigger than its value odds is the classic value signal, and it is how our top-rated winners at big prices come about.
• Use the stats that decide races. Going, distance and course records, draw, and trainer form are all on the card, so you can see why a horse rates where it does rather than taking the number on faith.
• Track what you find. Add horses to NagMe to be alerted next time they run, keep an eye on our Horses to Follow tracker, and check fast results after the off.

The easiest way to learn the card is to open one: the first race of every day is free, no account needed. There are also video guides covering every part of the site.

Recent top-rated winners

Some of our recent top-rated winners, refreshed every day. Each was RTR Rank 1, the model's top-rated runner, before the off. Click any card to open the racecard:

• Satellite Of Love won at 8.42 XSP (ISP 6/1), Newbury, Sat 18 Jul

  NAP	#	Silks	Horse Name	NAPs	Draw	NagMe	Result	RTR Score	RTR Rank	Value Odds	Win Odds
  	1		Satellite Of Love	1	8		1st	181.84	1	5.46	6.60

• Zoustar Dreams won at 6.54 XSP (ISP 5/1), Nottingham, Sat 18 Jul

  NAP	#	Silks	Horse Name	NAPs	Draw	NagMe	Result	RTR Score	RTR Rank	Value Odds	Win Odds
  	6		Zoustar Dreams	1	2		1st	168.92	1	5.16	6.80

• Rebel Wave won at 6.15 XSP (ISP 4/1), Curragh, Sat 18 Jul

  NAP	#	Silks	Horse Name	NAPs	Draw	NagMe	Result	RTR Score	RTR Rank	Value Odds	Win Odds
  	8		Rebel Wave	1	5		1st	240.53	1	2.77	7.00

• Symbol Of Honour won at 5.00 XSP (ISP 7/2), Newbury, Sat 18 Jul

  NAP	#	Silks	Horse Name	NAPs	Draw	NagMe	Result	RTR Score	RTR Rank	Value Odds	Win Odds
  	6		Symbol Of Honour	4	1		1st	177.98	1	4.16	5.40

• Salamanca City won at 4.90 XSP (ISP 7/2), Ripon, Sat 18 Jul

  NAP	#	Silks	Horse Name	NAPs	Draw	NagMe	Result	RTR Score	RTR Rank	Value Odds	Win Odds
  	6		Salamanca City	5	5		1st	184.10	1	3.30	4.80

• Silca Bay won at 4.10 XSP (ISP 3/1), Newmarket, Sat 18 Jul

  NAP	#	Silks	Horse Name	NAPs	Draw	NagMe	Result	RTR Score	RTR Rank	Value Odds	Win Odds
  	5		Silca Bay	2	4		1st	174.27	1	3.42	5.10

Feature race top-rated winners

And some from the bigger stages. Every horse below was top rated before the off in a feature race. Click any row to open the full racecard:

More on the example ratings days, where you can browse full cards from recent days, and the trust and proof page. Our biggest-priced top-rated winner so far returned over 147 on the exchange. Members rate us 4.8/5 on Trustpilot.

Every meeting, flat and jumps, every day

The ratings cover every UK and Irish meeting, every day: flat, jumps and all-weather, typically 30 to 60 races across the card. Results land on the Fast Results page within moments of each race finishing, with a permanent archive of every day's results, and the weekly blog covers eyecatchers, handicap marks and race analysis built on the same numbers.

See the ratings free

The first race of every day is free for everyone, no account needed. You do not have to take our word for any of this:

13:10 Curragh, Sat 18 Jul: this is a live example, today's free race straight from the model.

NAP	#	Silks	Horse Name	NAPs	Draw	NagMe	Result	RTR Score	RTR Rank	Value Odds	Win Odds
	1		Anchor Road	3	6		3rd	235.36	1	2.56	2.20
	5		Speakers Corner	2	1		4th	197.38	2	5.66	3.50
	6		Victory Speech		5		2nd	183.27	3	7.87	11.00
	4		Porto Vecchio	1	4		1st	179.39	4	8.64	10.50
	2		Drumbeat		3		6th	176.40	5	9.29	19.00
	3		Fort Dearborn		2		5th	165.79	6	12.05	32.00

Scroll sideways to see some of the columns we have on RatingTheRaces →

Click on one of the horses to see all of the data, free.

Open this race free in the app →

• Free members get the full ratings every Friday by entering the free NAP Competition twice that week. See Free Ratings Friday.
• Premium unlocks every race, every day, with all 80+ stats, Premium Analysis, Handicap Analysis, Eyecatchers & Reviews and XLS / CSV downloads.
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