How to Read a Form Guide
If you are not going to use Trigger’s tips and if you have the time available to do your own form as you are an organised person and you are not “busy”, it is an excellent idea to know how to read a form guide.
If you are going to use a form guide, I recommend that you use the same form guide everytime. I use the Racing Australia website.
I have prepared a document on using the 5S methodology and although it does not appear here in full, it is a practice I use.
When you get to the Racing Australia website, the first thing you will need to acquaint yourself with is the calendar up race meetings for the next seven days. I practice what I preach, Lean punting. I do my punting in Victoria so only concern myself with the column titled Vic.
Let’s click on Sportsbet - Ballarat
We will not worry about the first block of information for the moment. The information we are looking for at this point is the banner for todays meeting. It will look like this.
The first piece of information (in this case) is that the track where the meeting is to be held is, Sportsbet-Ballarat. Next, the meeting is being hosted by the Ballarat Turf Club. The meeting is being held on Monday, 11 March 2024.
Next to Meeting Type it says Country (TAB Meeting), There are occasional meetings that are held at Country tracks but are in fact Metropolitan meetings. These can be identified here,
If it ever says (non TAB Meeting) go back. In basic terms, if it is a non TAB meeting we will not be able to invest.
The host Club is identified as many race clubs have had their own course closed due to rationalisation, costs etc., and many of these clubs still exist without a track of their own. These clubs continue to host meetings at other tracks. The hosting club and where the meeting is being held if the meeting has been transferred due to weather and/or poor track condition may also appear contradictory but these two pieces of information will be here and can be believed.
The date, also important if you want to attend the meeting. If you are doing the form and you don’t know the date you are going to bet, give up and take up knitting.
The next block of information starts to give us some usable information, let’s have a look at that.
Rail Position: Out 3m Entire Circuit Where the running rail is positioned for the meeting. True is the normal/standard position for the rail. Any other placement will be given in metres. When it is moved it is moved closer to the outside fence making the track available for racing less wide.
The inner “fence” on a race track is called the running rail. The rails are movable and are moved often. They are moved when the racing surface needs to be protected or rested as a result of wear & tear from previous meetings, inclement weather and to provide the fairest conditions for today’s and future meetings.
Dual Track Meeting: Dual track meetings are rare but Pakenham and Ballarat, where this meeting is being held, are tracks that can host dual track meetings having both a turf and synthetic tracks.
Track Type: Ballarat (where Today’s meeting is being held) and Pakenham have both turf and synthetic tracks.
Most race tracks in Australia are turf (grass). Exceptions to this are the ever growing number of synthetic tracks (all weather) and other surfaces in some regional areas where the labor, costs and futility of laying and maintaining a turf (grass) track are restrictive.
Track Condition: The track condition is more commonly known as the track rating. For a meeting held on a synthetic track there is no rating apart from “synthetic”. Trigger does not entertain the thought of betting on the “wax”. Some folk specialise in it.
Race tracks are given a Rating so that the punter has an idea how the racing surface has been affected by the prevailing weather. Different horses react and perform differently in different conditions. The current official track ratings are,
TURF TRACK RATINGS are made up of a letter and a number. When you have been doing form for a while and watched a couple of hundred races, these ratings will become very familiar to you. In fact you will start to question them. If you take even just a passing interest in the weather, you will have a fair idea what type of track conditions racing will take place on.
The ratings are,
Firm 1 displayed as F1. The official decsription is “dry, hard track”.
Firm 2 displayed as F2. The official description is “Firm track with reasonable grass coverage”.
Good 3 displayed as G3. The official description is “Track with good grass coverage and cushion”.
Good 4 displayed as G4. The official description is “Track with some give in it”.
Soft 5 displayed as S5. The official description is “Track with a reasonable amount of give in it”.
Soft 6 displayed as S6. The official description is “Moist but not a badly affected track”.
Soft 7 displayed as S7. The official description is “Rain affected track that will chop out”.
Heavy 8 displayed as H8. The official description is “Rain affected track that horses will get into:.
Heavy 9 displayed as H9. The official description is “Wet track getting into squelchy area”.
Heavy 10 displayed as H10. The official description is “Very wet, towards saturation”.
Use these ratings as a general guide only. Would someone with little or no racing knowledge even understand some of the descriptions? H8 is my favorite.
This Track Condition system is the first area where we can see the same information presented in two different manners. In the Meeting Header we can see that the Track Condition is described as Good 4. Later, using this form guide but in other paper and electronic guides it will simply be G4.
The shortened version, using the table above is the first letter shown in the RATING Column and the number in the NUMBER column.
It is the aim of most racing clubs to commence their meetings on tracks rated no better than a Good 4 and preferably a Soft 5. These days it is a generally accepted rule of thumb that any track rated better than a Good 4 is not beneficial to a horses welfare. However, given changing weather conditions, a track maybe upgraded to a Good 4 or a Good 3 over the duration of a meeting. I cannot remember the last time I saw a track rated either a Firm 2 or Firm 1.
Weather: The expected weather conditions.
These are expected weather conditions for the day the meeting will take place. Note: Depending on the prevailing weather conditions, the Track Ratings explained earlier may change. We are punting in Victoria, the prevailing weather conditions can change very quickly*.
*The Smart punter will have plans in place if this circumstance occurs. The very smart punter will probably keep their money in their pocket.
Penetrometer: Known in the U.K. as a Goingstick. A penetrometer is any device forced into the soil to measure resistance to vertical penetration (Davidson, 1965). The earliest soil penetrometers were fists, thumbs, fingernails, pointed sticks, and metal rods. They are still used for qualitative measurements.
I do not know of 1 punter who cares what the penetrometer reading is.
*Tony Greig’s key was a penetrometer!
Track Information: Details that may indicate changing weather and therefore Track Conditions. The time and date shown under this reading will tell you how close the information was gathered in relation to the first race being run. 9.30am on the day of the meeting is normally the time when the most up to date information is gathered and displayed.
Last minute changes to any information is something for the punter to be aware of as it could mean all your previous form needs to be adjusted or even discarded.
The above is the information relevant to the early part of the Meeting Header.
Some of what has been explained so far may seem superfluous but rest assured, the knowledge gained will contribute to finding future winners by making judicious selections.
The next part of the form guide is where the most relevant part/s of the form is contained, I call this Todays Race. Unoriginal, but vital when talking form.
Today’s Race
The form for Today’s race can be broken down into three distinct areas. They are,
About Today’s race
About the horse
Yesterday’s race
For Today’s race form explanation we are going to use Race 5. When using this guide on live races you can scroll down to Race 5 or just click on Race 5.
The information we want to look at first in Todays Race and what I title About Today’s Race (1) is,
From left to right,
This is Race 5
The race is scheduled to start at 2.25PM (local to the race track)
The race is named Veolia, normally a sponsor or a horse from another eras name. (Who cares)
The race is for 3 year old horses
The race is a race for Maidens, horses that have not won a race.
The race distance is 1400 metres
Here we will look at this information about Today’s Race. I title this information About Today’s Race (2). Again a lot of this information is superflouos in doing the form but one day you may want to become an owner. It does explain a bit about the racing game. We will do this explanation in rows from top to bottom.
Rows 1 & 2 are in relation to Prize Money for the race. Australian racing has prize money the envy of the world. What I want to say about prize money is that I will only invest on Maidens and only Maidens with current prize money of 37,500 AUD or 28,000 AUD.
Row 3 tells us (again) that this race is a maiden, is run at Set Weights and is restricted to entrants that are three years old.
Rows 4,5 & 6 are only relevant to owners and breeders (horse), VOBIS is The Victorian Owners and Breeders Incentive Scheme.
We have a bit of a space and then,
Row 7 which tells us that this race Main track at Ballarat (a very few tracks have an inner and outer track), will be run on turf (grass) on a Good 4 track. A track with a reasonable amount of give in it. Let’s hope it gives us some money.
Finally Row 8 which says that the final field will be restricted to fourteen starters with four emergencies. The emergencies will get a start if one or more of the 14 starters is scratched. There would have been many more horses nominated for the race, a lesser number who accepted for the race and then in the final process, the 14 & 4 mentioned in this row,
About Today’s Race (3)
We are now entering the “guts” of the form guide and in the following sections we will find most of the information we need to make judicious selections. If you are a gatherer of data like myself these areas excite. I find out what race entrants fit the bill from where our final investment strategy really takes shape.
Here we have the field for Race 5,
Let us go through this race summary and give an explanation to the information pertaining to the race. The darker blue banner at the top of the image is where we begin.
No - the common abbreviation for number. This is the saddle cloth number that will identify our horse in the pre race parade yard, the mounting yard and during the race. Placed horses will also be identified in the results by this number.
The lower the number (eg 1) normally indicates the best performed (most successful) horse, in this race, over its career particularly in handicap races. In Weight For Age races Horses and Geldings are always mentioned above Mares so if a mare is the best performed runner, it will not carry the number 1 saddle cloth. Winx, rated one of the best horses ever, of any age or sex, hardly ever carried the No. 1 saddle cloth. This was due to the mighty mare receiving the 2kg weight allowance.
Most importantly for us, this is the number we will use to place our bets.
Last 10 - Horses abbreviated record of placings
The horse’s finishing position at its previous 10 starts.
The latest start is on the right hand side
A “0” (zero) indicates that horse finished in 10th position or further back than 10th.
An “x” indicates that the horse has returned from a “spell”. The “x” on the right hand side indicates this is the horse’s first start after a spell. A spell (rest) is normally considered to be 8 weeks although some people may use 12 weeks.
This form guide shows the horses previous 10 starts, some form guides will show less starts, a few will show more. The “x” can sometimes be replace by an “s”.
One unknown piece of information we cannot find here is how many runners the horse competed against in the “up to 10 starts”. There is quite a number of differences between a horse finishing second in a field of 7 compared finishing second in a field of 14.
Horse - The name of the horse. When we get to talking about the mental control needed to be a successful punter, we will discuss the horses name further. Needless to say, the horses name does not have any effect on its ability to run quickly.
Trainer - The name of the trainer, entrusted by the owners to prepare their horse for racing and then for a race. Further discussion on the trainer will come later but for looking at initial form the trainer is not of great importance.
The horse’s Trainer has a great deal of responsibility. As well as preparing the horse to be fit enough to perform at its best, the trainer is also responsible for entering the horse in the most suitable race/s to match its ability. The trainer is paid for his or her services by the horse’s owner/s.
Jockey - The name of the jockey, entrusted by the owners and the trainer to ride their horse in the race. Further discussion on the jockey will come later but for looking at initial form the jockey is not of great importance. Certain trainer will have a stable jockey or jockeys who may have ridden the horse in training and in trials or jump outs.
The horse’s jockey has the most responsibility as to how a horse will perform on race day. The better the jockey, the better chance the horse should have of winning.
When you see brackets containing an “a” and then a weight after the jockeys name, this indicates that the horse will be ridden by an apprentice jockey. Apprentice jockeys, in the main, are young people entering the industry. Due to their youth (and sometimes strength) the apprentices are given an allowance in kg’s (the horse carries less weight). As these apprentice jockeys ride winners, the weight allowance they are given decreases.
Barrier - The lower the barrier number, the closer your horse starts to the running rails. The barrier is a device with “gates” that can be both operated electronically or manually that open to start the race. They are operated by the Starter.
Weight - This is the amount of weight (in kilograms) that the horse will carry in the race. This weight includes the jockeys weight and riding gear and may include a safety vest. Light weight jockeys will carry pieces of lead as part of their gear to meet weight allocated to a horse. Riders are weighed before the race. A horse will be disqualified from a race should it weigh below the allocated weight when weighed after the race. You will quite often hear the phrase “return to scale” and that is because the jockeys will be weighed. Maiden races, in Victoria are run at Set Weights, all entrants of the same age and sex will be allocated the same weight.
Individual Horse Form
To look at an individual horses form and explain it to you, I am going to nominate the horse carrying the saddle cloth number 4, Porter,
As explained when we discussed the previous section that covered the entire field, here we have the information only for a selected horse, the Number 4, Porter.
So, from left to right, the horse is number 4 and then we have its last (up to) 10 starts. This horse is trained by Danny O’Brien and is to be ridden by jockey Billy Egan. Bill will jump the horse from barrier seven and Billy will ride the horse carrying a total weight of 58 kilograms.
The above block of information is too large to explain and take in all the information at one time. Let’s split it into two. The top is basically the horses career record and then its previous (up to) five starts. Let’s start with this runners historic form, the top half of the above block.
Firstly, we have an image of the silks (colors) that this gelding’s jockey will wear (during the race). An image of the silks (colors) that this mare’s jockey will wear (during the race) and along side this is the mares name, in this case Juelene. For some entrants you will see (blks) next to the horses name. If shown, the abbreviation in the brackets indicates that this runner will wear a piece of equipment known as Bilnkers. They do NOT indicate which way this horse will turn.
These are the colors that today’s jockey will more than likely wear in today’s race. For some entrants you will see (blks) next to the horses name. If shown, the abbreviation in the brackets indicates that this runner will wear a piece of equipment known as Bilnkers. They do NOT indicate which way this horse will turn. These are the silk colors that today’s jockey will more than likely wear in today’s race.
Along side this is the saddle cloth number, 4, and the gelding’s name, in this case Porter. For some entrants you will see (blks) next to the horses name. If shown, the abbreviation in the brackets indicates that this runner will wear a piece of equipment known as Bilnkers. They do NOT indicate which way this horse will turn.
The first complete row is where the serious information begins.
Our horse Porter is 3 year old bay gelding. Bay is the registered color of the horse and is described as a reddish-brown coat, dark skin, and black points including its mane, tail, ears, and lower legs. This row continues with the date this horse was foaled.
Note: Regardless of their actual Date Of Birth, all thoroughbred horses in the Southern Hemisphere officially age a year on the 1st of August each year.
Then we get on the the horses breeding. In the case of Porter, its sire (father) was named So You Think, itself foaled in New Zealand and its Dam (mother) was named Prana (a French mare), the sire of Prana is Siyouni.
The breeder of Porter was Mr M A Pitt.
The next line tells us who owns the horse. Who owns the horse is of zero interest to me when I am working on either recording data or doing form.
The we ger to a description of the silk colours we mentioned and saw earlier, here, the colours are, Royal Blue, White horseshoe, black and white checked sleeves and cap.
Next line are any gear changes and if you are just learning how to read a form guide, don’t worry too much about this at the moment. Gear changes are something that I put in the “interesting but not a decision making tool” category. Over the years I have found that horses antics and behaviour is repeated over and over. If a horse misses the kick at one start they will normally repeat. Horses that find trouble in the running at one start will find trouble in the running at subsequent starts. Horses that storm home for second over 1200 metres are more than likely to keep storming home over 1400, 1600 and 2000 metres. Gear changes are meant to improve a horses manners and performance.
More repeated information here with the name of the trainer and the jockey.
Serious information time is almost upon us.
The Horse’s record of Performance
As we travel down the form guide the importance of the information becomes of greater value to the punter and “the Record of the Horse” is where I start to see our value building.
However, I look at this information as more of verification information rather than decision making information. We start this section with a summary of the horses entire racing career. For our horse this reads
We start with information that we have sen a couple of times before, the name of the trainer, the name of the jocket and the barrier number that the runner will start the race from.
The next line starts with the contestants overall career details.
By clicking on the horses name or scrolling down through the field, the form is expanded and with the information explanation to follow, we have detailled form of the horses last 5 starts, if in fact the horse has had five starts. For horses who have had more than 5 starts, clicke on their name and you will be given the option of further clicking on “all form” and every race in the horses career will appear.
To give the explanation of this part of the form guide, I am going to isolate the last start form from the above image. That will be the start on the 27th of February 2024.
The horse ran in fifth place from fourteen starters at its last race
That last start was run at Bendigo over 1300 metres on a track with a track condition of Good 3. The race was for 3 year old maidens and they race for 27,000 AUD in total proze money. Billy Egan was the jockey, Billy carried 58kg in total weight and he started the race from Barrier 7
The horse that won the race was Justadell and his jockey carried 58kg.
The horse that ran second in the race was Inexorable and his jockey also carried 58kg.
The time it took to run the race was one minute, sixteen seconds and 48 one hundreths of a second.
The last six hundred metres of the race was ran in 34 secinds an4 four one hundreths of a second.
This horse finsihed 2.15 lengths behind the winning horse.
This horse was in third position with 800 metres of the race to go. This horse was in third position with 400 metres of the race to go.
The betting fluctuations of this horse were $4.60, $6.00, $6.50 and $7.00. This is normally from the start of what is called “openers” which are after the conclusion of the previous race run until SP or Starting Price, the moments the barrier gates “crash back”.
Analysis
Having the ability to read and understand the form guide data is just the beginning.