Race History: the last five runnings

Some races are won by the same sort of horse every year. Race History puts the last five runnings under the card so you can see the pattern, and which of today's runners fit it.

Big handicaps have a habit. A certain age, a certain mark, a weight the winners never carry more than, and often the same horses coming back year after year. Race History is a racecard view that lays all of that out for you.

It is a Premium and Professional feature, and it appears on Class 1 and Class 2 races only. On a smaller race the card stays on Ratings with a line telling you why: there is no point building a history panel for a maiden that was first run last year.

In the grid

Switch to Race History and the usual columns give way to each runner's record in this particular race.

• Here Before: runs, wins and places in this race.
• Best Here: the best it has managed, the mark it ran off that day and how that compares with its mark now. It turns gold when the horse is back within 2lb of a mark it won or placed off here, which is the sort of thing that is easy to miss and hard to ignore once you see it.
• Since Last Here: how it has got on in the time since.
• Fits Winners: a tick when the horse's age, mark and weight all sit inside the range the recent winners came from.
• One block per year for the last five, each giving the finishing position, the mark it ran off then and its mark now.

In the example, Beylerbeyi won this race last year off 91 and is back 10lb higher; Reverend Hubert has two runs in it, a 5th and an 8th; Manxman was second in 2024 off a mark 11lb below today's. Rows with nothing in them are horses that have never contested the race.

Under the card

Below the grid is the part that does the thinking for you.

Winners' profile is the shape of the last five winners: the span of ages, official marks, weights carried and starting prices, plus how favourites have fared. The Cesarewitch example is a good one, with favourites having won none of the last five.

Today's field turns that into names. Which of today's runners are back on a winning mark, which have won this before, which have placed in it, and which fit the winners' profile on age, mark and weight.

The last five results in full, one card per year, with the date, going, field size and winning time, every placed horse with its age, mark, starting price and trainer, and the favourites marked. Today's runners are picked out in the old fields, so a horse that was eighth two years ago is easy to spot. There is a link through to each full result.

Trainers and jockeys in this race, led by the people involved today, with their runs, wins and places in it and the names of the winners they have had. Anyone new to the race is listed on one line at the bottom.

Reading it sensibly

A winners' profile is a description of five races, not a rule. Five runnings is a small sample, the conditions change, and a horse outside the profile wins often enough. What it is good for is the opposite question: when a horse ticks every box, that is worth knowing before you look at the price.

The figures stop at the race's off time, so opening an old card shows the view as it stood that day rather than with hindsight applied.