Today's Racecards | Today's Horse Racing Cards

How To Read A Racecard

Here at HorseRacing.net we have meticulously crafted our horse racing cards to be as easily digestible as possible for both racing newbies and experienced thoroughbred race readers. Once you have selected a race, there are a number of key factors you need to weigh up in relation to the race itself (eg distance and ground conditions), each horse (eg it’s previous form and weight carried), the jockey, trainer and, of course, the current odds.

There are no hard and fast rules for reading a UK horse racing card and everybody will favour certain criteria over others. What we aim to do is to deliver the key information that bettors use to uncover a bet in an easy to read format. 

Key Components Of A Racecard 

You can take all, or some, of these factors into account when reading horse racing cards today. As well as digesting the racecard info, some bettors like to watch the horses walk around the paddock before choosing a bet as this helps them to understand the condition and temperament of each horse running.

Race Information

At the top of each racecard, you’ll find some key race information in addition to the date, course, race time, class and the prize money. The key things to consider here are:

• Type Of Race - it could be a flat race or over jumps (hurdles/chase) or on turf or an all weather surface. It may also be restricted to certain horses (eg filly or mare only, horses of a certain class or horses that haven’t won a race - ie a maiden) or it may have an age restriction (eg the Classic races such as the Derby are open to three year olds only).
• Race Distance -  this could be as short as 5 furlongs or as far as 4 ½ miles. Note that races aren't expressed in decimal measurements - you'll see them measured in miles, furlongs and yards. In shorter races, horses may just run in a straight line to the finish. In longer races, horses will complete more than one lap of the track.
• Going - this refers to the ground conditions at the race track in terms of whether it is on the firmer side (ie faster conditions) or softer side (slower conditions) following the recent weather.

Horse Name

This is what the commentator will be calling out on race day so it’s important to know the name of your horse. Clicking into the name will bring up some additional information including its sex, owner and sire and dam (mother and father). You’ll also find the horse’s full career record.

Horse Number

For some this will be used purely to help them identify their horse in the race. For those who have lucky numbers, this could be a key criteria when choosing your bet!

Draw

In flat races, horses will start the race from numbered stalls. The draw tells you whether they are starting from a stall on the inside, outside or middle of the track. Some courses have a track bias where low or high numbers are favoured but this can be dependent on other factors such as recent rain, field size or the distance of the race. You may also want to look at race pace when assessing the draw as dropping in behind pacemakers can be beneficial to a horse’s chance of being first to the finish.

Colours/Silks

As with the number, the colours (or silks) worn by the jockey help you to pick out your runner during the race. For novices, this can be an important part of the decision making process with people choosing their bet based on their favourite colours. 

Form

Presented as a series of numbers and letters, a horse’s recent form is an easy way to see how the horse has fared in its past races. Horses with 1’s and 2’s (ie 1st’s and 2nd’s) will generally be more fancied to win than those with F (fell) or P (pulled up). Form analysis is one of the most crucial ways to analyse a horse’s true chance of winning.

Days Since Last Run

Some horses thrive on their runs, while others are notoriously best kept fresh. The small number in italics just to the right of a horse's name on our racecard indicates how many days ago that horse had its last run.

Age

Some races are limited to horses of a certain age bracket, but most are open to all ages. You can see the age of the horse clearly below the horse's name in our racecards.

Weight

Particularly in handicap stakes races it is crucial to know the weight carried by your horse. Each horse will have an allotted weight they need to carry and that will comprise of the jockey weight, the saddle and plates inserted into the saddle until the correct poundage is reached. On our race cards today you can see this clearly visible just next to a horse's age.

Ratings

We display three different types of horse ratings on our race cards to help you gauge the level of their recent performance. Note that the ratings shown are for the discipline of the race they are contesting that day with horses having different ratings based on the form in flat, hurdle or steeplechase races. 

• OR - Official Ratings are used in handicap races to determine the weight each horse should carry.
• RPR - This is an independent ratings system from the experts at the Racing Post
• Topspeed Rating - an alternative ratings system from the Racing Post focused specifically on the speed of the horse. Just remember that it's not always the fastest horse that wins, stamina is a very important factor too!

Jockey

Apart from the horse itself, arguably the most important factor in a race is who is riding. Some people will choose to back a horse purely on the jockey - others will discount a horse because they don’t like certain riders. Alongside the jockey's name is their win percentage or strike rate in the last 30 days. Click a jockey’s name to view their recent rides and to perform more in depth jockey analysis.

Trainer

As with jockeys, there are lots of people out there who follow certain trainers - particularly those who have many years of Trainer experience. Trainers sometimes have good records at a specific racecourse or with specific types of horses. Trainer form is often cited as a reason to back a horse as stables tend to have winning and losing runs. Alongside the trainer's name is their win percentage in the last 30 days and you can click into a trainer's name to see their recent record.

Spotlight Comment

This is a brief comment on each horse’s chance in a race provided by the Spotlight writers at the Racing Post. These can be really helpful by giving you a quick overview of all the runners.

Spotlight Race Verdict

This is the overall verdict on the winner of the race provided by the Spotlight writers at the Racing Post. If you don’t fancy choosing your own horse, you can trust the selection reasons provided by Spotlight.

Number Of Tips

We collate race tips from the top industry experts from the national newspapers and horse racing publications and display the total number of times each horse has been tipped on the racecard. Generally, the more popular a horse is with the tipsters, the shorter price it will be but that’s not always the case.

Odds

For some this will be the first thing they look at, for others it will be the last but what’s for sure is that the odds are a crucial part of the decision making process. Using the racecard to find the most likely winner of a race might be quite easy but, if the odds don’t represent value, there’s no point choosing that horse. It’s always best to weigh up a horse’s chance of winning alongside the best odds and each way terms available. Whether you prefer fractional or decimal odds, the favourite or an outsider, If you think the odds underestimate the horse’s chance, you may have found yourself a bet! 

Sorting Our Racecards

Our racecards are defaulted to show the horses in number order with horse number 1 first but we offer different ways to sort the cards to help you find the winning horse:

• Sort by Number - in handicap races, horse number 1 will be the top weight
• Sort by Odds - this will allow you to see the favourites at the top
• Sort by Racing Post Rating - this will put the highest rated horses (by RPR) at the top
• Sort by Topspeed Rating - this will put the fastest rated horses at the top

Filtering Our Racecards

Another feature we offer at HorseRacing.net is the ability to filter our racecards. Using the “Stats Filter” you can whittle down the field using one or more of the following criteria:

• Filter to show Course Winners only
• Filter to show Distance Winners only
• Filter to show Last Time Winners only
• Filter to show Horses That Ran in The Last 30 Days only

Horse Racing Experts On Our Racecards

There are over 50 expert tipsters featured on our racecards for today giving you a wealth of opinions on the day’s races. Here is some more information on the most popular experts shown.

Spotlight (Racing Post)

The Spotlight writers at the Racing Post are a team of racing professionals who, between them, supply horse comments and race verdicts for all UK and Irish horse racing today. Punters have been reading the daily Spotlights for many years both in the Racing Post newspaper and now in online publications too. 

Templegate (The Sun)

The biggest name amongst the newspaper horse racing tipsters is undoubtedly Templegate of The Sun. Given the tabloid's popularity amongst British readers, Templegate’s selections have been read and followed by punters for many years. As with the other newspaper tipsters from The Mail, Times and Telegraph, Templegate supplies a tip for every UK race every day. Expanding the tips section on our racecard will show the individual tipsters who have chosen each horse and the publication they write for.. 

Raceolly (HorseRacing.net)

Our resident tipster Raceolly is known for finding unlikely winners at long odds. Specialising in each-way tips, he looks for races where the bookmakers are paying extra places and searches the outsiders for those he thinks have got a better chance than their odds imply. Raceolly doesn’t have many days off so you’ll find his daily selections alongside those from the national and racing papers on today’s horse racing cards.