Handicap Analysis: Understanding Race Competitiveness at a Glance
Handicap Analysis is a dedicated tab on every handicap racecard, designed to cut through the noise and surface three key signals: Speed-Form versus class par, Mark Edge versus last winning OR, and a race-level Hot/Soft Index. All data is scoped to today's race-type only — Turf Flat, All-Weather, Chase, Hurdle and NHF are analysed separately, so historical comparisons remain relevant.
The Hot/Soft Index: Racing Temperature at a Glance
At the top of the Handicap Analysis tab sits a 0–10 dial that summarises how competitive the race is. The score tells you whether the handicap is open at the bottom or tightly bunched at the top.
- Soft (0–3.9): Top weights look vulnerable; well-handicapped runners lower in the weights have genuine winning chances.
- Warm (4–6.9): Balanced race — neither obviously open nor exceptionally tight.
- Hot (7–10): Competitive and hard-to-call — runners bunched in rating and many running in strong recent form.
The index is built from four components: OR spread, the percentage of runners near career-high ratings, the percentage running Speed-Form Strong, and the number of long-handicap runners offering relief from above.
Race Insights: Auto-Commentary That Matters
Below the dial, an Insights panel delivers 3–6 plain-English bullets explaining the temperature, flagging stand-out runners, identifying career-low runners, highlighting the best Speed-Form horse, and alerting you to "limited form" warnings when the field has thin recent data.
Per-Runner Speed-Form Chips
Each runner row displays a Speed-Form chip: the average speed figure of that horse's last three in-frame runs (positions 1–4) at today's discipline, minus the class par for the race. Positive values mean the horse has been running above class par; negative values indicate below-par form.
Use Handicap Analysis to assess race structure quickly and identify which runners have form credentials relative to the field strength.
