A member typed this exact question into Ask RaceMetrics this week: what's the best way to use RaceMetrics to identify a back to lay opportunity? Fair question — and the answer is built in. The IR Trading recipe in Ask RaceMetrics, the platform's plain-English query tool, turns that question into a filtered list of live candidates.
How it works
The recipe translates a single question into four dropdown filters: the percentage drop in-running price required, the number of occurrences needed, the sample size of recent runs, and the race date. Users specify their parameters — for example, horses that traded at least 40 per cent below their Betfair starting price in four of their last six runs — and the tool returns matching candidates.
The feature excludes winning runs by default. Winning runs show price collapses as horses are backed to the line, which is not a useful signal for back-to-lay trading. The filter focuses on losing runs, where a price crash followed by a loss suggests a consistent pattern.
What the data shows
Horses appearing on the list have a documented habit: they travel strongly in-running, their price trades significantly lower than starting price, and they do not win. The recipe identifies consistency across multiple runs rather than one-off flukes.
One limitation: the figures show in-running extremes — the lowest price each horse hit — rather than tick-by-tick data. The recipe identifies candidates with the pattern; trade execution remains the user's responsibility.
Availability
Ask RaceMetrics is included with RaceMetrics Pro and Proform Premium subscriptions.
