The Form Line / Overview

Desk 67 · the figure next to the name

The figure printed next to a competitor

Every runner on a card carries a number: a string of finishing positions, an official rating, a figure from a rating service. This desk is about how those numbers are produced. It takes each one apart in turn - the string and what it leaves out, the mark and how it moves, the speed figure and the going allowance that decides most of it, the weight that moves it a little, the class that decides whether a runner can even take part, and the number of runs behind the whole thing.

Open the partner account What a figure cannot say

Sample spec

The string states: 48 of 48 positions
The string states about the race: 0 of 48
The mark moved: 4 times in 6 runs
The going allowance is worth: 19.2 points

the stringThe finishing position of the last six runs, newest first. On the samples it carries 48 of 48 positions and 0 of 48 margins, distances, grounds or field sizes.

the markThe official rating, set so a field of similar marks finishes close together on paper. On the samples it moved on four of six runs, for a net change of 8 lb.

the allowanceThe correction applied to a standard time for the ground. On the samples the going allowance is worth 19.2 points at six furlongs, against 2.4 points for the whole weight spread.

4 2 1 F 5 – 3 2 read left to right, newest run first: 4th, 2nd, won, fell, 5th, a break of 60 days or more, 3rd, 2nd

60708090100

Class 5 · 0-70 Class 4 · 0-80 Class 3 · 0-90 Class 2 · 0-100 sample B: 86

sample B's runner on 86: inside Class 3 and Class 2, outside Class 4 and Class 5. The mark is a position on a scale, not an amount of speed.

Direct answerA form figure is not one number but three: the form string, which is the finishing position of the last six runs; the official rating, which is a mark the handicapper moves after each run; and a speed figure, which is a time compared with a standard time, corrected for the ground and the weight. Only the first is fully published, and it is the one that says the least on its own.

Nothing here is a selection, a prediction or a tip. This desk does not say which number to trust or which runner to back, and it never ranks a field. It takes the figure apart: what it is computed from, what it cannot contain, and how much of it moves when an input moves. Five questions cover most of it, and each has a page: the string and its codes, the mark and how it moves, the arithmetic of a speed figure, the ground the time was run on, and the weight carried. Around them sit the class of the race, the size of the sample behind the figure, the sectionals inside the race, and the same arithmetic applied to a team rating.

Why the figure is the subject rather than a detail

A card can be read as a list of names and a list of numbers. The numbers look like measurements, and three of them are: a time, a weight and a ground reading. The rest are summaries. A finishing position is the outcome of a race between a particular set of runners over a particular distance on a particular ground, and the position on its own does not carry any of that. A mark is a number the handicapper gives so that the next race between those runners is close on paper, which means it is a relative number by construction. A speed figure is a time with two corrections applied, and the corrections are the part the printed figure never shows.

The desk's rule follows from that: a figure is quoted on this site with the inputs it was computed from. Where a source prints a figure without them, that absence is the finding and it is reported as one.

Sample C - the correction decides more than the running doesrace 6f, sample standard time 70.00 s going sample allowance +0.32 s a furlong 6 x 0.32 = +1.92 s adjusted std = 70.00 + 1.92 = 71.92 s the winner ran 71.40 s, which is 0.52 s under the adjusted standard sample scale 10 points a second, base 80 raw figure 80 + (0.52 x 10) = 85.2 weight credit 9-02 carried, 2 lb over 9-00, at 0.2 a lb = +0.4 figure 85.6 without the going allowance the same run scores 80 - (1.40 x 10) = 66.0 the allowance is worth 19.2 points the weight the winner carried is worth 0.4

The eight samples this desk is built on

Every figure on the site derives from eight invented samples, defined here once. Each is labelled illustrative, none is quoted from a company, race or service, and the arithmetic behind each is shown on the numbers page so it can be re-derived rather than believed.

Sample A

The string

Eight invented runners, six runs each. The printed string gives the finishing position of each run, most recent first, and nothing else.

positions: 48 of 48
margins and going: 0 of 48

Sample B

The mark

One runner's official rating across six runs, from a first mark of 78 to 86, moved by the handicapper after four of the six.

net move: +8 lb
mean move: 2.33 lb a run

Sample C

The speed figure

A 6f race with a standard time of 70.00 s, run on ground the sample charges at 0.32 s a furlong, with three runners inside three lengths.

winner: 85.6
allowance alone: 19.2 points

Sample D

The going

Twenty-four races at one invented meeting, with the published ground description and the times that were actually recorded.

state the description: 24 of 24
disagree with the times: 7 of 24

Sample E

The weight

Six runners from 9-12 down to 9-00, with a penalty for one, a claim for another and an age allowance for a third.

spread: 12 lb = 5.44 kg
worth: 2.4 points

Sample F

The conditions

A 0-90 handicap with forty entries and twenty places, so half the field is decided by a mark published five days before.

entries: 40
eliminated on the mark: 20

Sample G

The card

Forty invented race cards read for what they print. The weights and the string are on all forty; the inputs to a speed figure are on none.

standard time: 0 of 40
going allowance: 0 of 40

Sample H

The sample

One runner's six speed figures, which is the whole record a figure usually rests on.

range: 16.9 points
best run is: 1 of 6

The one figure to carry away

Sample A - what the string carries, and what it does noteight invented runners x six runs = 48 runs published in the string the finishing position of each run 48 of 48 not published anywhere on the card the distance of each run 0 of 48 the going of each run 0 of 48 the number of runners in each race 0 of 48 the margin beaten or winning by 0 of 48 the same 48 runs, described two ways as positions: a complete record as evidence: four inputs short, every time

A string of positions is a real record of what happened and a poor summary of how it happened. Two runners can both print a second, one beaten half a length in a field of twelve and one beaten eight lengths in a field of six, and the string cannot tell them apart. That is the desk's whole reason for existing: the figure is a compression, and a compression has an input list.

Sample F - the sample's own class bands, and what a band does
Class	Band on the sample's scale	Top weight	What it means for a figure
Class 2	0-100	9-12	a mark of 86 is 14 lb below the top of the band
Class 3	0-90	9-12	a mark of 86 is 4 lb below the top of the band
Class 4	0-80	9-12	the same mark of 86 cannot run at all
Class 5	0-70	9-12	the floor of 9-00 arrives at a mark of 63
Four classes	0-100 down to 0-70	heading the weights at 9-12	the same runner fits one band and not the others

What this desk is not. It is not a tipping service, it does not rate a field, and it names no real horse, race, track or rating service. Every string, mark, time, weight and card on it is invented for the sample it belongs to. Where a real mechanism is described - an official rating, a going allowance, a ballot - the description is of the mechanism, and the counts come from the 40 invented cards of sample G rather than from any real publication.

Where to go next

The string and its codespositions, letters and the dash that means a break The mark and how it movessix runs, four changes and a net of 8 lb How a speed figure is computedstandard time, allowance, weight, margin The ground the time was run onone description and twenty-four races The weight carriedpenalties, claims and a 12 lb spread The runs behind the figuresix figures, one range of 16.9 points