Knowledge Base

Yes. My Ratings (Proform Premium) lets you define your own weight-adjusted ratings once and have RaceMetrics compute them for every runner in every race automatically.

Pick from five plain-English preset scales: four beaten-lengths scales (Balanced, Sharp, Gentle, Soft-ground biased) that rate each performance from the class par, the weight carried versus the winner and the beaten distance on your pounds-per-length curve — or Weight-adjusted speed figures, which applies the classic timing-book rule to the Proform speed figure itself (one point per 2.4 lbs carried either side of nine stone).

Your recent history is rated in the background on activation and every new result is rated each morning, appearing as a sortable My column beside the Official Rating on racecards. Up to three active scales per account.

You can manage up to three scales from the racecard chip — add, rename, or switch which drives the column — and edit any scale's parameters (the pounds-per-length values, or the speed mode's base weight and lbs-per-point) with a live preview that scores a real recent race before you save.

Ratings are updated daily after racing concludes. Results from each day's racing are processed overnight, so you'll see updated ratings reflecting yesterday's results each morning.

RaceMetrics ratings are our proprietary performance measure. They track form over time – 1500 is average, 1550+ indicates strong performers, and 1600+ represents elite level. Ratings are updated daily each morning based on the previous day's results.

We track seven connection types: Horses, Trainers, Jockeys, Owners, and bloodlines (Sires, Dams, Damsires). Each profile includes full form analysis, ratings history, P/L tracking, and performance breakdowns.

RaceMetrics applies Elo ratings to UK and Irish horse racing. The system was built by Simon Walton, founder of Proform Racing Limited (a British racing software company established in Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1995), and rates every race that has run in Britain and Ireland across seven connection types — horses, trainers, jockeys, owners, sires, dams and damsires. Ratings are recomputed daily on Proform's full 25+ year dataset and surfaced at racemetrics.co.uk.

Horse racing Elo ratings work by extending the original two-player chess formula to multi-runner races. For each horse in each race, RaceMetrics computes the Elo expectation against the entire field — what percentage of rivals the horse would be expected to beat given its rating versus the field's ratings — then updates the rating once based on how the horse's actual finishing position compared to that expectation. The same machinery runs in parallel across seven independent rating pools: horse, trainer, jockey, owner, sire, dam and damsire.

To use Elo ratings for horse racing, look at two figures together: the horse's individual H rating (its own ability) and the Combined Score (a weighted average of the trainer, jockey, owner, sire, dam and damsire ratings). A strong H signals individual horse ability; a strong Combined Score signals an above-average support package around the horse. Historically the horse with the highest Combined Score in a race wins 22.97% of the time — 2.15 times the random-chance rate — across 25+ years of UK and Irish racing data.

PRB stands for Percentage of Rivals Beaten — a finishing-position metric used in RaceMetrics' Elo adaptation. PRB normalises finish position by field size. For example, a horse finishing 3rd in a 12-runner race has a PRB of (12-3)/(12-1) × 100 = 81.8%, having beaten 9 of 11 rivals. PRB is preferred over raw finishing position because it accounts for field-size differences and produces a continuous 0-100 metric suitable for Bayesian rating updates.

The Combined Score is RaceMetrics' weighted average of six connection-type Elo ratings: Owner 20%, Trainer 20%, Jockey 20%, Dam 18%, Sire 12%, Damsire 10%. The horse's own H rating is reported separately and is deliberately not folded into the Combined Score. The two figures answer different questions: H is about the horse's own ability; Combined Score is about the strength of the support package around it.

Every RaceMetrics racecard shows a Form Temperature pill next to each trainer and jockey — a 0–100 score for their last 14 days, measured against their own five-season strike rate.

That last part is the point. Being hot is relative: two winners from six runners is a flying fortnight for a small yard and a quiet one for a champion stable. Scoring every trainer and jockey against their own record means big and small operations can be compared fairly.

Reading the pill

• Red — 95 or higher: a fortnight that good comes up by luck fewer than 1 time in 20
• Amber — 75 to 94: a better fortnight than usual
• Pale blue — 6 to 25: a quieter fortnight than usual
• Blue — 5 or lower: the same rarity on the quiet side
• No pill — 25 to 75: normal variance, which is most fortnights, so the card stays clean

Hover a pill — or press and hold it on a phone — for the fortnight's record, the five-season benchmark it is being judged against, and how often a run like it happens by chance.

Where it appears

On the Ratings view and At-a-Glance. On past racecards the score is worked out as it stood on the day of that race, so you can see the form a yard actually carried into a result. It is free on every racecard for all users.

For the underlying numbers as sortable columns — runners, wins, strike rate and A/E over the 14 and 28 days before the race — see the My Card Form Stats columns.

On our own testing, no — not on its own, and we think it is worth being straight about that.

Before building Form Temperature we back-tested the idea over two separate two-year periods of UK racing.

• The streak is real. Runners from statistically hot yards (a score of 95 or higher) won about 15% of the time against a baseline expectation of roughly 11%. Recent form does persist into the next run.
• The market has already read it. Actual-versus-expected against Betfair SP came out at roughly 1.0 in every temperature band, and backing hot-yard runners at level stakes lost more than backing runners at random — hot yards get over-bet.
• The tempting result was noise. Positive returns from significantly cold yards showed up in one two-year window and did not repeat in the other.

So the honest use of trainer and jockey form is as a lens for reading a race, not a selection method. It tells you which stables are running above or below their own standard, so you can ask why — the ground coming right, a new stable jockey, a change of target races — and then test that reason properly in the System Builder.

Patterns are saved from profile pages. When viewing statistics (e.g., a trainer's record at a specific course), look for the Save Pattern button. This creates a pattern with those conditions that will alert you when matching runners appear on racecards.

Yes. RaceMetrics records the In-Running High and In-Running Low for every run — the highest and lowest prices matched on Betfair while the race was being run — together with the percentage each sits above or below Betfair SP. These are the same fields shown in the Proform Race Guides and desktop software.

On horse form lines

RaceMetrics Pro and Proform Premium subscribers see BSP, IRLo (In-Running Low) and IRLo% (its move against BSP) on every form line by default — on racecard expansions, Form Expert drill-downs, profile drill-downs and My Card print. IRHi and IRHi% can be added with the Columns button, which also lets you show, hide and reorder every form-line column.

Reading the percentage

Negative means the horse traded that much shorter than its BSP in-play — a horse at -90% or more usually came very close to winning. Positive on the low means its price never dipped below BSP: it was never travelling like a winner.

In the System Builder

In-Running Low/High and both percentage moves are available as filters (for example, "traded 60%+ below BSP last time"), as breakdowns, and as columns on the Runs listings and CSV exports via the shared Drill columns chooser.

In-play price coverage runs from 2018. Form-line fields need RaceMetrics Pro or Proform Premium; the System Builder is part of Proform Premium.

Yes. My Card's Form Stats columns show point-in-time trainer form directly on the racecard — the trainer's runners, wins, win strike rate and A/E over both the 14 days and the 28 days before the race. Point-in-time means the numbers are computed strictly from data before the race date, so on a past racecard you see the form the yard had going into that race, not today's form.

Adding the columns

Open any racecard, switch to the My Card tab, click Customise and pick from the Form Stats group (FS chip) — T Runs 14d, T SR% 14d, T A/E 14d and their 28-day equivalents, plus the same two windows for jockeys, runners since the trainer's last winner, and the trainer–jockey pairing record.

Reading the numbers

The 14-day window is the classic "stable in form right now" yardstick; 28 days smooths out smaller yards. A/E above 1.00 means the yard is winning more often than the market expected — a high strike rate alone can already be priced in.

Form Stats columns need Proform Premium — they are the System Builder engine's own precomputed numbers, and the same 14-day and 28-day windows are available as System Builder filters for back-testing. The free Trainers in Form page shows today's in-form trainers over the last 14 days without a login.

The A/E (actual versus expected) figures in the System Builder are calculated using BSPs — Betfair Starting Prices. Expected wins are derived from each runner's actual BSP, so A/E measures value against the exchange market rather than the industry SP.

This applies to the System Builder on RaceMetrics, which is included with a Proform Premium subscription and goes further than the desktop software version — back-testing since 2018 with P/L at BSP, ISP and bookmaker prices side by side.

The A/E figures in the System Builder are calculated using BSPs (Betfair Starting Prices). The RaceMetrics web version of the System Builder can do more than the desktop software version and is included free with the subscription.

Build the selection exactly as you would for backing, then change the staking mode. The two are separate steps.

Step one: describe the runners

The conditions in the builder describe which runners you want to find, not what you intend to do with them. So a lay system for favourites in big-field handicaps is built by setting the conditions:

• Favourite
• Handicap only
• Field size of twelve or more

Do not phrase the condition itself as an instruction to lay. If you write the whole thing as a lay instruction, the parts that describe the runner get lost and the system comes back with conditions missing.

Step two: switch the staking to Lay

Once the system is matching the runners you want, open the Staking tab and choose Lay.

The results are recalculated with the outcome inverted, and stakes are set by liability rather than by stake, so the figures reflect what a lay bettor actually risks. Each-Way is available in the same place.

This means you can build one selection and look at it both ways — back and lay — without rebuilding anything.

Yes. With the Sectionals Add-On the System Builder includes sectional position filters built from TPD per-section tracking: Early Position and Early Lengths Behind Leader (measured roughly 1-1.5 furlongs after the start), Position ~2f In and Lengths Behind ~2f In (the second section), and Position 2f Out and Lengths Behind 2f Out (where it was turning in). Each comes as a matched pair: the figure in the current race for researching results, and a Last Time Out version.

The one-rule front-runner finder

"Led early last time out" is a single rule: LTO Early Position is 1 (or LTO Early Lengths Behind Leader = 0). Because lengths behind the leader reads the same in a 5-runner race as a 16-runner one, "within a length of the lead early" is often a sharper sieve than raw position. The same rules project today's likely race pace: check how many of today's runners led early last time.

Works for today's qualifiers

A previous run's sectionals are settled history, so all the LTO versions work for daily qualifiers and qualifier emails as well as back-tests. Matching breakdowns — LTO Early Position bands, LTO Early Lengths Behind bands and LTO Position 2f Out — show strike rate, A/E and ROI by where horses raced last time before you commit to a rule.

Position data covers ARC all-weather courses across the whole back-test era and RMG courses from mid-2023, with no Irish coverage; runs without sectional data are excluded from the cohort rather than counted as zeros. Requires Proform Premium plus the TPD Sectionals Add-On.

Yes to both. Official ratings are available as filters, and handicap debuts are found with the career handicap-runs rule.

Official Rating

The Official Rating filter takes a minimum, a maximum or a range. It only includes horses that had a published mark at the time of the race, so unrated horses drop out of the cohort.

Finding handicap debutants

Set All Hcap Runs (career) to 0. That counts every handicap run the horse had before that day, so 0 means a genuine first-ever handicap start — not simply a horse that was not in a handicap last time out.

Use Flat Hcap Runs instead if you want to ignore any previous jumps handicap runs.

A worked example

Handicap debutants on the Flat in Ireland rated 55 or lower is five rules:

• Course Country: Ireland
• Race Type: Turf and All-Weather — the All-Weather brings in Dundalk, so remove it for turf only
• Handicap: Yes
• All Hcap Runs (career): 0
• Official Rating: 55 or lower

Over the full history from 2018 that returns roughly 1,500 runs, around 130 to 160 a year recently. The Runners tab lists every qualifier with dates, courses, prices and finishing positions and exports to CSV. The Qualifiers tab flags any of today's or tomorrow's declared runners that match, so the same rules work forward as well as back.

You can also type the description into the Ask box in plain English and it will build the rules for you.

The System Builder is a betting-system back-tester. You build a system from a set of rules (filters), then test how those runners would have performed across UK and Irish racing back to 2018 - strike rate, A/E, ROI and profit/loss at Betfair SP - before refining it and tracking today's qualifiers.

The System Builder is included with RaceMetrics Pro and with the Proform Premium subscription. It runs in the browser on any device - nothing to install.

Back-tests run on resulted UK and Irish racing from 1 January 2018 onwards. Some specialist fields (sectionals, bookmaker prices, RaceMetrics ratings) start later and will raise the start date automatically with a warning.

P/L is shown to level stakes at Betfair Starting Price (with your chosen commission), alongside Industry SP and bookmaker prices. A/E (actual versus expected wins from the market) measures value independently of price.

You can save up to 50 systems (raised from 20 in July 2026). Up to 50 active saved systems feed the Today's Qualifiers hub and, if you opt in, the morning qualifier email - use the Active toggle on each saved card to choose which ones count. An imported system doesn't use a slot until you choose to save it.

Yes. The Export button (under Save) downloads the current system as a small file named after the system - its rules, date range, commission and follow-up setting. Send that file to another subscriber and they load it with the Import button. It arrives unsaved and is checked against the current filter catalogue, so they can inspect and back-test it before deciding to save. The System Builder needs Proform Premium, so shared files are only loadable by subscribers.

Yes, three ways. The Data split setting offers random Half A / Half B (build on one half, confirm on the other) and a machine-learning-style Train 80% / Test 20% holdout - both split by race with a deterministic hash, so a given race always lands in the same bucket. The Robustness tab adds a time-based check: it trains on older data and tests on the last 12 months. A system that passes both a random split and the time holdout is far less likely to be curve-fitted.

Yes. Use the Top-3 Finishes in Last 4 Runs filter and set it to 4 - it counts how many of the last four starts finished in the first three, so 4 means every one of them did. Set it to 3 or more instead for horses placed in at least three of the last four, which usually gives a more workable pool. There is a matching Top-3 Finishes in Last 3 Runs for a tighter, more recent version, and Wins in Last 4 Runs if you would rather count victories than placings. Two things to know: a horse needs at least four previous runs to qualify, so lightly-raced types are excluded rather than judged on a shorter record, and a run where the horse did not complete (fell, pulled up, unseated) never counts as a top-three finish.

Yes, by combining four filters. Set Class Change vs LTO to 0 and Class Change vs 2nd-LTO to 0, then set Distance Change vs LTO (furlongs) and Distance Change vs 2nd-LTO (furlongs) to a range of 0 to 0. Each of those measures today's race against that previous run, so setting all four to zero means today, the last run and the run before are all at the same trip and the same grade. Drop the two class filters if you only care about the trip, or the two distance filters if grade is all that matters. Note the distance filters work in exact yards, so a 7f race and a 7f 20y race count as different trips.

No. In follow-up mode your filters describe a trigger run - a race the horse has already had - and the mode backs that horse's next starts after it. The qualifying race itself is never bet.

That decides how you set a system up. To follow horses beaten at a particular meeting, describe that race as today's run in the filters and tick follow-up. If you describe it as the last-time-out run instead, the trigger becomes the horse's next start, and you would be following the runs after that - skipping the first run back.

You can follow 1 to 6 subsequent starts (3 by default). Only races that have actually been run count as a leg, so a declared but unrun race does not use one up. It stops at the first win unless you untick that option, and the winning run is included. Each follow-up run is counted once even if the horse triggers the system more than once, and the date range applies to the trigger run - the follow-up runs can fall after it. Follow-up gives the summary figures only; breakdowns, staking and qualifiers are unavailable while it is on.

They answer different questions, and confusing them is the most common mistake with these figures.

A/E compares actual wins against what the betting market expected, measured from Betfair Starting Price. It tells you whether something has been good value. 1.0 means it won exactly as often as its odds implied.

Impact Value (IV) compares actual wins against a fair share by chance. In a ten-runner race every runner's fair share is one win in ten, so an IV of 1.5 means that group won half as often again as chance alone would give it. IV ignores the price completely.

Something can have a strong Impact Value and still be poor value to back, because the market has already priced it in. That is exactly why the System Builder shows both side by side.

Yes. The Draw IV, Pace IV, Tactical Score and Draw × Pace IV columns shown on the racecard are also available as System Builder filters and breakdowns, so an idea you spot on a card can be tested over results going back to 2018 rather than taken on trust.

They are computed point-in-time — strictly from racing before each race — so the same figures work for back-testing history and for listing today's qualifiers. The same values are also available as they stood last time out, which supports angles such as “finished in the first three despite a bad draw”.

One caution: about 7% of flat runners have no running-style history at all and a further 19% only one to three runs. A Run-Style Sample filter is provided so you can set your own minimum before trusting any pace figure.

A first-season sire - also called a freshman sire - is a stallion whose first crop of offspring is racing for the first time. Because none of his stock has ever run, there is no progeny record for punters or the market to price from, and that uncertainty is why the angle is followed.

In System Builder the First-Season Sire filter matches runners from a sire's very first crop to reach the track. Sire's Crop Number gives you finer control - 1 is his first crop, 2 his second, and so on - so you can select the first two crops, or exclude freshmen entirely with 3 or more. A matching Sire's Crop breakdown shows how each crop performs before you commit to a rule.

One thing worth knowing: you cannot identify a first-season sire from his age. When a stallion's first foals reach the track depends on when he retired from racing, not on how old he is - a horse retired after his three-year-old season has his first two-year-olds out when he is seven, a year later and it is eight, and one who raced on until five is a freshman at nine. RaceMetrics therefore counts crops from when each sire's progeny actually started running, so the filter is exact rather than an estimate.

Across every two-year-old run since 2018, the first crop is the only one showing a positive return, with each later crop negative. The sample is not large enough to treat that as a reliable edge, so it is better used as a starting point for your own testing than as a finished system.

Yes - that is what the Grid tab does. A normal breakdown splits your system one way at a time; the Grid splits it two ways at once. You choose what goes down the side and what goes across the top, and every cell is the answer for that pair.

The question it was built for

A customer asked for each trainer's strike rate in August, over the last five seasons, for yards with more than five runners, split by class of race. Before the Grid you could answer half of that at a time - one trainer across all the classes, or one class across all the trainers. Now it is one screen: set the date range, add the rule Month is August, run the system, then open Grid and pick Rows: Trainer, Columns: Class, Show: Strike rate, Min runs: 6.

What you can change

• Rows and Columns - any two of the breakdown dimensions. Trainers against courses, sires against distance, run style against field size.
• Show - which figure fills the cell: strike rate, A/E, ROI, P/L, PRB, Impact Value, Chi, place strike rate, runs or wins. Switching it redraws straight away.
• Min runs - lines with fewer runs than this are left out, and thin cells are greyed rather than shown as a percentage. A 100% strike rate off one run is noise and should look like it.

Reading it

Colour is relative to your own system, not an absolute: blue means that cell does better than the system does overall, amber and red worse. Click a cell to see the runs behind it, or shift-click to add both rules - the trainer and the class - to your system at once. The grid exports to CSV.

The totals are labelled honestly. The line above the grid tells you how many lines qualified in total, so "50 of 853" never reads as the whole picture, and the totals row says "These 50" rather than "All" when you are looking at part of the list.

The Grid is part of the System Builder and needs a Proform Premium subscription.

Yes. The System Builder's Last Time Out filters include the Betfair in-running trading from the horse's previous run: LTO In-Running Low and LTO In-Running High (decimal odds), plus LTO In-Running Low % Below BSP and LTO In-Running High % Above BSP.

The one-rule version

"Traded at least 60% below its Betfair SP in-running last time" is a single rule: LTO In-Running Low % Below BSP is at least 60. Positive numbers mean the horse shortened in running — it travelled like a big danger mid-race. Pair it with LTO Finishing Position 2 or worse to keep only the ones that got beaten — the classic "travelled like a winner, worth another chance" angle.

It works for today's qualifiers

The this-race in-running fields are post-race only, but a previous run's trading is settled history — so these LTO rules work for daily qualifiers and qualifier emails as well as for back-tests.

Deeper form and breakdowns

The same four fields are available 2, 3 and 4 runs back, so you can demand a pattern — for example, traded 60%+ below BSP in each of its last two runs. A matching LTO In-Running Low vs BSP breakdown shows how each trading band has actually performed before you commit to a rule.

In-running price coverage runs from 2018. The System Builder is part of Proform Premium.

Yes. The RaceMetrics Ratings tab includes two Yes/No filters — No Collateral Score and No Future Form Score — that select exactly the runners those scores cannot reach. About 19% of runners carry no Collateral score (no shared-rival form lines to score from) and about 8% no Future Form score (none of their recent races could be scored) — typically lightly-raced types.

From the breakdown to a rule

In the Collateral Score Rank and Future Form Score Rank breakdowns (and the matching value bands), unscored runners appear as the Unknown row — its + rule button adds the No-Score filter for you. Set the filter to No instead and a system takes only runners that do carry a score.

Qualifiers and the back-test window

Whether a runner has a score is known before the race, so both filters work for daily qualifiers — automated systems can deliberately include (or exclude) the unscored runners. RaceMetrics ratings begin in 2023, so adding a No-Score rule starts the back-test there; earlier races carry no ratings at all. There is deliberately no AI Rating version: AI coverage now spans essentially every declared runner on the day, so there is no unknown group left to select.

The System Builder is part of Proform Premium.

Yes. The 2 & 3 Runs Back breakdown tab includes Distance Move vs 2-Back and Distance Move vs 3-Back splits — today's trip minus the trip the horse ran that day, in real furlongs — with buckets from 2f+ shorter today through Same trip (within half a furlong of today's distance) to 2f+ longer today. The Last Time Out tab has the same split against the most recent run.

Position at today's distance in one screen

Open the Grid and put 2-Back Position down the side with Distance Move vs 2-Back across the top: every cell is that pairing's P&L, so "placed 2 back at today's distance" is a single cell, with the shorter- and longer-trip versions alongside for comparison. The same works for 3-back.

From bucket to rule to qualifiers

Each bucket's + rule button adds the matching Distance Change filter with the same definition, and because a previous run's distance is settled history the rules work for daily qualifiers as well as back-tests. About a third of runners with a 2-back run are at that same trip today.

The System Builder is part of Proform Premium.

Goal Seek answers "what single rule could I add to make this system better?". Pick a target — A/E, Betfair SP ROI, win strike rate or profit per run — click Find, and it scans your system's breakdowns for the one rule that would lift that target the most.

Significance-checked, not fluke-chasing

Every suggestion is checked with a statistical significance test (chi-squared), so a lucky-looking line from a handful of runs is not promoted as an improvement. Each suggestion also offers a one-click robustness check against the last 12 months, so you can see whether the improvement is likely to last.

Use it sparingly

Hit Apply to add a suggested rule, then re-run to find the next improvement on the now-tighter system. Every rule you add shrinks your sample — add one or two strong, sensible suggestions rather than ten weak ones.

Goal Seek is part of the System Builder, included with Proform Premium.

Auto-build is Goal Seek on autopilot. Tell it what you want to reach — for example "Betfair SP ROI of at least 5%, keeping at least 500 runs" — and it builds a system toward that spec one rule at a time, running Goal Seek repeatedly and adding the best rule each round until it hits your target or cannot safely go further.

Holdout-guarded at every step

Piling on rules is exactly how over-fitting happens, so Auto-build checks every step against the future: it trains on the older data, tests on the held-out last 12 months, and only keeps a rule that holds up out-of-sample. When the best remaining rules only work in the training data it stops and says so — "stopped to avoid over-fitting" is a feature, not a failure.

Nothing is applied automatically

When it finishes, click Load this system into the builder to review, tweak and run it like any other system. It needs at least 24 months in your date range (so the final 12 can be held back). Treat the result as a strong first draft — always sanity-check that the rules make racing sense.

Auto-build is part of the System Builder, included with Proform Premium.

Yes — the Weight Carried (Provisional) filter on the Horse tab. It is the allotted weight minus any jockey’s claim: a horse set to carry 9-2 (128 lbs) with a 5 lb claimer aboard actually carries 8-11 (123 lbs), and that 123 is the figure this filter works on.

Why it exists

Racecards quote the allotted weight with the claim shown separately, but once a race results, the recorded weight carried is the net figure. The plain Weight (lbs) filter follows the card, so before a race it reads the allotted weight and after a race it reads the net one. Weight Carried (Provisional) puts both on the same basis: back-tests read the recorded weight carried, and today’s qualifiers subtract the claim from the allotted weight — so a rule like “carries 9st or less” selects tomorrow’s runners on exactly the basis the back-test was built on.

Using it

It sits next to Weight (lbs) on the Horse tab and takes a range in pounds. The Weight Carried breakdown’s one-click “+ rule” buttons add this filter, so a band spotted in a breakdown carries straight through to live qualifiers. It is called provisional because a rider change before the off can still move the figure — rare, and settled by the time results are recorded.

Rank as well as value

There is a rank twin, Weight Carried Rank (Provisional): the horse’s rank within the race on the weight actually carried, with 1 = top weight. For today’s runners the claim is deducted before ranking — so a 5 lb claimer allotted the same weight as another horse ranks below it — while on resulted races the recorded weight carried is ranked as-is. It is computed live for every race (nothing stored), and in back-tests it matches the existing Weight Rank exactly, because recorded weights already have the claim taken off; what it changes is today’s and tomorrow’s qualifiers.

Part of the System Builder; needs a Proform Premium subscription.

Trim is the mirror image of Goal Seek. Goal Seek looks for a rule worth adding; Trim takes each rule you already have, re-runs the back-test with that rule removed, and tells you what the rule is really contributing.

The four verdicts

• Drop - the runners this rule excludes actually carry an edge, so removing it improves your target. Cut it.
• Loosen - the rule barely moves your target either way. It is a volume lever you can relax for more bets.
• Keep - genuinely load-bearing. Removing it weakens your target, so leave it alone.
• Redundant - the rule excludes nothing your other rules do not already exclude. It is doing no work.

Why removing rules often helps

Systems accumulate rules, and every rule you add shrinks the sample behind every figure in your results. Cut a rule marked Drop, re-run, and you will often find the leaner system makes more money from more bets - with a bigger sample supporting each statistic. Each suggestion carries the same one-click robustness check against the last 12 months used elsewhere in the builder, so you can see whether the change is likely to hold up.

Trim is part of the System Builder and needs a Proform Premium subscription.

Yes, on both counts.

Lay P/L, win and place markets

Every back-test has always shown the win-market lay P/L (laying each pick at Betfair SP). The results now also show lay P/L in the Betfair place market — laying each pick at the Betfair place price, so the bet wins when the horse misses the places. It appears in the summary’s “Other angles” strip and as Lay Plc P/L and ROI columns in every breakdown, all after commission.

Robustness for lay systems

The Robustness tab now reads both ways. The Holdout Check — train on the older data, test on the held-back last 12 months — carries Lay ROI and Lay Place ROI rows with their own consistent / weaker / flipped verdicts, so a lay angle gets the same over-fitting defence a back angle does. The Streaks & Drawdown card adds Max Drawdown (Lay) and Max Drawdown (Lay Place): the worst peak-to-trough fall of the lay equity curves at level stakes. Remember a lay’s losing run is the back side’s winning run — a lay loses when the horse wins.

Staking too

The Staking tab’s bet modes are now Back, Lay, Lay the Place and Each-Way — so all ten staking plans, the drawdown figures and the Monte-Carlo bust-risk simulation can be run on a place-market lay strategy, liability-staked, with commission applied.

Part of the System Builder; needs a Proform Premium subscription.

Most systems have one number doing the heavy lifting - odds under 8, a rating rank of 3, a field of at most 12. Frontier asks the question you should ask yourself: why that number?

What it does

Pick a numeric rule and Frontier re-runs your entire back-test once for every value on a ladder - under 4, under 5, under 6, and so on - charting the trade-off at every step: how many bets you get, against what they return. It also plots the rule-off point, which is the same system with that rule removed entirely, so you can see what the rule is buying you overall.

Reading the curve

• A smooth slope means the edge fades gently as you tighten. Your exact threshold is a matter of preference, so you can take the extra volume.
• A sudden cliff means one value is carrying the whole result. That is a classic over-fitting warning - worth a robustness check before you trust it.

Found the value you want? Click Use and the rule updates to it, then re-run the full analysis to refresh the other tabs. Sweeps run one back-test per value (up to 12), tightest first, and stop early if the cohort gets too large - narrow your date range if you hit that.

Frontier is part of the System Builder and needs a Proform Premium subscription.

Yes — two ways, both from any date window (a fortnight is the classic).

As research: the Trainer breakdown

Set the back-test dates to the last two weeks, run it, then open Breakdowns → Trainer. The PRB column is the average percentage of rivals beaten by each yard's runners — above 50 means the stable is running better than mid-field even in defeat. Sort by PRB and look for yards with 0 in the Wins column: horses finishing close without getting their heads in front. PRB² alongside gives extra credit for near-misses in big fields.

As a live rule: the Trainer PRB % filters

The Connections group carries Trainer PRB % (14d) and Trainer PRB % (28d) — the same yard-wide average as a pre-race filter, computed strictly from racing before each race day. The classic “due a winner” recipe combines Trainer PRB % (14d) of 55 or more, Trainer SR % (14d) of 0, and Trainer Runs (14d) of 4 or more — stables whose form the results column has not caught up with yet. Because the figures are point-in-time, the same rule back-tests honestly over history and lists today's qualifiers.

Part of the System Builder; needs a Proform Premium subscription.

Sectional timing analysis is a separate add-on, not part of the base subscription. You need a RaceMetrics Pro or Proform Premium subscription, plus the TPD Sectional Timing Add-On at £50/month — arranged by emailing admin@racemetrics.co.uk and paid by bank transfer (the full amount is passed on to TPD, our sectional data partner).

Two things worth knowing: the add-on must be set up through Proform — a subscription taken directly with TPD doesn't unlock it here — and the data provided is historical sectional data for analysis, not TPD's live in-race feed. Proform Premium desktop users who also want to export the historical data have a separate TPD option with a first-year upfront payment; email us for details.

The sectionals add-on is a separate extra (the TPD add-on) and is not included in the base subscription. It has to be purchased in addition.

Sectional data needs a Proform Premium subscription (£97.50/month, with 6-for-5 and 12-for-9 multi-month options) plus a TPD add-on arranged through Proform, not directly with TPD. Two TPD options, both £50/month: full software access with historical export (first year paid upfront by bank transfer, passed to TPD in full) or RaceMetrics-only access with no export and no upfront fee. The data provided is historical sectional data, not TPD's live feed.

Sectionals are processed around lunchtime each day and output the next morning alongside the results. Exact timing partly depends on when TPD finalise their side — some races take longer than others.

Worth restating: the sectional add-on provides post-race historical data for analysis, not TPD's live in-race feed. If you want live in-running data, that's a separate subscription taken directly with TPD.

In the desktop software's System Builder: choose the horse, add all the sectional fields in System Builder preferences, and run the system. Double-click the single-line output to drill into every run and every section for that horse, then right-click the column heading to export.

That gives you the horse's complete sectional record — every section of every run — in one exportable grid. (Requires the TPD sectional add-on with export, i.e. the software option.)

Sectionals are an add-on, not included. On top of Proform Premium there are two options: sectionals in the Windows software with full data export at £50/month but with the first year paid upfront (£600, required by TPD because the data can be exported), or £50/month for sectional access on RaceMetrics only — full history included but no bulk export and no upfront year.

No — the £50/month RaceMetrics option includes ALL past sectional history, you just can't bulk-export it. The upfront-year option exists specifically because the Windows software version allows exporting the entire dataset.

Yes, RaceMetrics 7 is completely free to enter for all registered users. There is no purchase or subscription requirement - even free tier users can compete for the weekly cash prizes. It's a skill-based competition, not gambling.

RaceMetrics 7 is our free weekly skill-based leaderboard competition. Pick 7 participants within a budget and accumulate points based on how their performance rankings change during the week. It's free to enter for all registered users – no purchase required.

User Rating 1 (UR1) is the Power Ratings — its rank, value and odds fields are the Power Rating rank, value and price. The race-guide Forecast Price is the UR1 odds: the Power Rating values converted to a 100% book (a Power Rating is roughly percentage chance × 10, so a 500-rated horse ≈ 50% chance).

The speed figure shown on the race guides is the static LTO speed figure (stLTO in the software): same race code, no zero figures, within the last year. Dynamic (dy) speed figures follow whatever filters you have set in the software at the time — filter the form book to Soft ground and the dy figures compute on Soft-ground runs only.

User Ratings 2–6 are yours to fill: import your own ratings into them (and UR1 too, if you'd rather not download the Power Ratings).

The desktop software holds a longer archive. The RaceMetrics System Builder holds less history but is where development is happening.

How far each goes back

• Proform desktop: 1997 for Britain, 2009 for Ireland.
• RaceMetrics System Builder: 2018 onwards.

Some RaceMetrics fields start later still. The RaceMetrics ratings filters and the bookmaker price fields begin in 2023, and the System Builder raises your start date with a warning if a rule you have chosen needs it.

Which to use

Use the desktop software when the question genuinely needs the deeper archive — long-run course or trainer records that predate 2018.

Use the RaceMetrics System Builder for everything else. The desktop System Builder has not been developed alongside it, so the online version carries filters, breakdowns, staking analysis and forward-looking qualifiers that the desktop tool does not have.

RaceMetrics uses official racing data covering UK and Irish racing. Our database includes comprehensive historical performance data. P/L calculations use Betfair Starting Prices (BSP) for accurate profit tracking.

P/L shows the theoretical profit or loss if you had backed every runner to £1 stakes at Betfair Starting Price (BSP). This gives a standardised measure of value performance, removing the subjectivity of individual price judgements.

RaceMetrics uses official racing data covering UK and Irish racing. Results are updated daily and include Betfair SP prices for P/L calculations. Our database includes comprehensive historical performance data.

Yes. When a horse is withdrawn from a flat race, the stalls handlers on the racecourse physically close the stalls up, so the remaining runners load from renumbered positions — a horse declared in stall 14 of 14 races from stall 12 if two horses drawn below it come out. The official result records that renumbered draw. The only exception is a very late withdrawal at the start, when there is no time to re-draw.

How RaceMetrics handles it

RaceMetrics applies the same renumbering live: the moment a non-runner is declared, the draw on the racecard is re-shuffled and Draw IV is recomputed for the new stalls — so the card, System Builder qualifiers and the eventual back-test all agree. Many racing sites carry the declaration draw unchanged all day, which is why their draw data looks wrong whenever there are non-runners.

For System Builder users this means a runner can move into or out of a draw-based system when the stalls re-shuffle. With qualifier emails switched on, the intraday follow-up email lists both the new qualifiers and any morning picks that no longer qualify. The Draw Group (low/high half) filter is more robust to re-shuffles than a narrow Draw IV band, since a renumbering rarely moves a horse from one half of the stalls to the other.

No — and there's an honest reason. With a data product, the value is the ratings, form analysis and system results themselves: everything could be read, noted down and taken away in a single afternoon, so a "trial" is really just the product, free. To keep prices fair for paying members, we don't do it.

What we do instead: the RaceMetrics free account unlocks one full meeting every day with real ratings and racecards — the closest thing to a trial there is. Our YouTube walkthroughs show every tool being used on real races, and both help centres document every feature with screenshots. And every subscription is a monthly rolling plan with no lock-in — if it's not for you, cancel any time and you've risked one month, not a contract.

There is no free trial, for an honest reason: with a data product the value is the ratings, form analysis and system results themselves, which can be read and taken away in an afternoon — a trial would just be the product, free. Instead: the RaceMetrics free account unlocks one full meeting every day with real ratings and racecards (the closest thing to a trial), YouTube walkthrough videos show the tools on real races, both help centres document every feature, and every subscription is a monthly rolling plan with no lock-in — cancel any time.

If this is your first renewal on the current Proform website: wait until your subscription expires, then log in and renew from your account — you can't renew early that first time. After that first renewal, your subscription becomes recurring automatically.

Your access and your saved work aren't lost during a short gap at first renewal. If anything looks wrong after renewing, email admin@racemetrics.co.uk.

They are two separate products, sold on two separate subscriptions. Most people only need one.

RaceMetrics

The website. It runs in a browser on anything — Mac, PC, phone or tablet — with nothing to install.

• RaceMetrics Ratings for horses, trainers, jockeys, sires, dams, damsires and owners
• Racecards, form study and the Form Expert
• The System Builder, for building and back-testing your own systems
• Saved patterns and daily alerts

It is sold on a monthly ladder, from a free tier up to RaceMetrics Pro. Current prices are on the pricing page.

Proform Premium

A separate subscription that adds the Windows desktop software on top of full RaceMetrics access.

• The Proform desktop software, with the full database and bulk CSV export
• Race Guides
• The Bet, Lay and Trade Finder
• Daily stats alerts

The desktop software is Windows only. If you are on a Mac, RaceMetrics is the one that will work for you.

Which one

Choose RaceMetrics if you want ratings, racecards and system building on any device. Choose Proform Premium if you also need the desktop software, the Race Guides and the Finder tools, or if you need bulk data export.

Two things worth knowing before you subscribe

Sectional data is not included in either subscription. It comes from a third-party timing supplier and is a separate paid add-on, arranged through us rather than directly with the supplier.

There is no in-place upgrade between the two products. If you are on one and want the other, the first subscription is cancelled and refunded pro-rata, and you subscribe to the second.

Yes, you can upgrade or downgrade your subscription at any time from your account settings. Upgrades take effect immediately with pro-rated billing. Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period.

Yes, you can cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings. When you cancel, you'll retain access until the end of your current billing period, then your account will revert to the free tier.

Yes. RaceMetrics partners earn 30% of every referred subscriber's first payment on any paid tier, and their audience gets 20% off for their first 3 months via a unique partner code. Apply by emailing admin@racemetrics.co.uk.

Each partner receives a unique discount code. Every checkout where the code is redeemed is attributed to that partner — no cookies or tracking links required, so attribution survives ad-blockers and cross-device journeys.

Yes — editorial sites, bloggers and YouTubers producing a genuine review can request 1 month of complimentary Proform Premium access (the top subscription, including sectional timing analysis on RaceMetrics and the System Builder) by emailing admin@racemetrics.co.uk.

Create a free account at www.racemetrics.co.uk using the same email address that's registered to your Proform software. You can check which email that is inside the software: open the options menu and look at the registration screen.

When the emails match, the system recognises your subscription automatically and unlocks the features included with your tier — Proform Premium subscribers get RaceMetrics access included. If you've accidentally registered with a different email, contact admin@racemetrics.co.uk and we'll link the accounts.

Create an account at www.racemetrics.co.uk using the SAME email address registered to your Proform software. You can verify your registered email in the software under the options menu, registration screen. Using the matching email lets the system recognise the subscription automatically.

Daily limits (profile views) reset at midnight UK time. If you reach your limit, you can either wait for the reset or upgrade to a higher tier. Pattern limits are total (not daily) and can be increased by upgrading your subscription.

Daily limits reset at midnight UK time. If you hit your limit, you can either wait for the reset or upgrade to a higher tier for more capacity. Pattern limits are total (not daily) and can be increased by upgrading.

Yes. It is a false positive, and there is nothing wrong with your download or your installation.

Proform is a specialist application with a small user base. Antivirus engines score unfamiliar executables on how many machines have run them, so a program that only a few thousand people install can be flagged purely for being uncommon, with no malicious code involved.

What to do

• Allow the file, or add the Proform installation folder to your antivirus exclusions.
• Only ever install from the download button on your account page on the Proform website. Do not install a copy sent to you by anyone else.
• If the antivirus has already quarantined the file, restore it from quarantine and add the exclusion before running the installer again.

If the installation still will not complete after that, contact support and a remote-support session can be arranged.

No. Microsoft SQL Server does not run on ARM processors, and the Proform desktop database needs SQL Server, so the software cannot be installed on an ARM machine.

The usual symptom is error 1067 from the database service on startup, after what looks like a successful install.

Check before you buy

Machines sold with Snapdragon X, Snapdragon X Plus or Snapdragon X Elite processors are ARM based. So are Copilot+ PCs built on those chips. If the specification lists an Intel or AMD processor, it is not ARM and will be fine.

If you already have one

RaceMetrics runs entirely in the browser and needs no local database, so an ARM laptop will run RaceMetrics without any difficulty. Only the Windows desktop software is affected.