A bluffer’s guide to reading a racecard

A day at the races is often a rare treat, perhaps once a year for a major festival or a local trip with friends to mark a special occasion. Chances are, you purchase a racecard, not only as a souvenir of the day, but to help you follow the action. The snag is that to the uninitiated, reading the information within the racecard can be like deciphering secret code.

Whether you’re off to the Cheltenham Festival or an evening on the all-weather, knowing how to read a racecard can give you wonderful intel into the race, the horses, their form – and ultimately help you make an informed decision where to put your £5 note.

Not all racecards are created equal, however there is a certain language that applies to all of them and, once you understand the code, you can work out how to read any racecard across the country.

With up to 20 different pieces of code providing each nugget of information, it’s understandable that many people never get any further than name, colours and starting price. But understanding what the additional letters, figures and numbers mean will add rich flavour to a day at the races.

How to read a racecard

Above is a generic example of a racecard, from Royal Ascot. For the purposes of this decoding exercise, below we have broken down the essential figures into the typical sections you’ll find on all racecards. They may be in slightly different arrangements, and there are of course variations according to whether the race is on the Flat or National Hunt.

This is a hypothetical example for the purpose of showing all the possibilities for both Flat or jumps horses – it could not be a real specimen as it shows elements exclusive to each code but should enable you to decipher any racecard.

Key for reading a racecard

a) Owner’s colours, shirt and hat silk worn by the jockey.

b) Draw (4) – this is the starting stall number and only applies to the Flat as the jumpers start with tapes with no drawn order.

c) Saddle cloth number (14). If there is an R as shown in this case, it means the horse is on standby to run in case of any non-runners. If NR is shown here, it means the horse is a non-runner. It is not the same as the draw number because it depends on the horse’s weight/rating in the handicap, while the draw is randomly assigned.

d) Colour and sex – this horse is a grey gelding.

For colours:

• b=bay
• bl=black
• br=brown
• ch=chestnut
• gr=grey

For sex:

• c=colt
• f=filly
• h=horse (an entire male horse that is five years old or over)
• m=mare (female horse of five years old or over)

The number 1 after “g”, as shown here, indicates that this is the first time the horse is running since being gelded.

e) Horse’s name. If bred outside Britain, the country code is noted, for example IRE for Ireland, FR for France, USA.

f) Sire and dam – this is the horse’s pedigree, and sometimes the damsire (maternal grandfather) will be listed after the dam in brackets.

g) Number of days since the horse last ran in this type of race. In brackets is the number of days since it last ran under a different code. For example, if this was a hurdle race, this horse last ran over hurdles 155 days ago. However, it ran on the Flat (denoted by F) 24 days ago. PTP would indicate point-to-point.

h) Age of horse – six in this case.

i) Weight allocated for the horse to carry – 10 stone 11 pounds. If the jockey can claim an allowance or is riding overweight, this is not shown here (see notes on J and P).

j) Penalty – this applies to handicaps only, and is the extra weight in pounds that a horse has to carry on top of the allocated weight, according to any improved performances since the handicapper last made its rating. In this case, the horse has 3lb extra to carry, so 11st in total.

k) The horse’s form, most recent on the right.

• All-weather or point-to-point will typically be in bold.
• Hyphen – means new season.
• Slash / means a longer break, so two seasons ago or more.
• There are many letter abbreviations used, mostly applying to National Hunt:
  • B=brought down
  • F=fell,
  • P=pulled up
  • R=refused
  • S=slipped up
  • U=unseated rider
  • V=void

Numbers apply to placings, with 0 meaning unplaced.

So this horse’s form shows that he has had significant time off after a fall and an unseat, finished second on his comeback last season, and second on his only run so far this season.

l) Horse’s race history

• BF=beaten favourite on last run
• C=course winner
• D=distance winner (to nearest half-furlong)
• CD=course and distance winner
• Hc=horse’s handicap debut.

m) Official rating. There may be one, two or three rating numbers here, which could be calculated by the Racing Post, the official handicapper, Timeform or the British Horseracing Authority. These might take into account the horse’s past race times within the standard time, adjusted for weight and going. These will vary according to the racecard, and is getting into the nitty-gritty for the serious punter.

n) Owner.

o) Trainer. Some racecards will print a number after the trainer’s name to indicate if the horse is having his first or second run for a new stables.

p) Jockey. If there are numbers after his name, this denotes a weight allowance for an inexperienced jockey – this jockey claims 5lb, which means the horse carries 5lb less than his allocated weight.

q) W1 shows that the horse has had one wind operation. This is obligatory for trainers to declare. Some racecards will label wind surgery as WS.

r) Odds at which the horse is expected to start. This is rarely available in printed programmes because the starting price changes all the time.

s) Betting history, showing whether the horse is shortening or drifting in the market.

t) Headgear abbreviations to indicate whether the horse has blinkers, a tongue-tie and so on. The number 1 denotes that this is the first time they have worn this headgear under this code. This horse is wearing first-time blinkers.

• b=blinkers
• e/s=eye shield
• e/c=eye cover
• h=hood
• t=tongue-tie
• p=sheepskin cheekpieces
• v=visor

Crack the code and the racecard transforms from a baffling list of symbols into an essential guide to every horse’s story, form and chance in the race.

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