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The Form Line / The card
The figure ยท part eleven
What a card actually prints
Everything on this desk so far has been one input at a time. This page is the whole card: forty invented cards, read for what they publish and what they leave to be inferred, because what is missing from a card is as consistent as what is on it.
Sample spec
- Cards read
- 40
- Print the form string
- 40 of 40
- Print the official rating
- 27 of 40
- Print the standard time
- 0 of 40
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.
Direct answerAcross 40 invented cards, the form string and the weights appear on every one, the official rating on 27, a third-party speed figure on 12, the number of runs behind the string on 6 and the going stick reading on 2. The standard time and the going allowance appear on none, and 9 of the 40 print a form string without saying what its letters mean.
Sample G is an audit, not an opinion. Forty invented cards were read and each was counted once for each item it published. The pattern that comes out of it is the desk's argument in one table: the inputs that can be checked without knowing anything are on every card, and the inputs that make a figure verifiable are on none.
Sample G - forty invented cards, item by item
| Printed on the card | Cards | Share | What it lets a reader do |
|---|
| the weight carried | 40 | 100% | compare the field's loads on one scale |
| the form string | 40 | 100% | see the last six finishing positions |
| a definition of the string's letters | 31 | 77.5% | read a fall, a pull-up or a refusal correctly |
| the official rating | 27 | 67.5% | see the number the weights came from |
| a third-party speed figure | 12 | 30.0% | compare runs on a common scale |
| the number of runs behind the string | 6 | 15.0% | know how much record the figure rests on |
| the going stick reading | 2 | 5.0% | see the ground measured rather than described |
| the standard time used | 0 | 0% | re-derive the figure |
| the going allowance applied | 0 | 0% | check the largest correction on the card |
| Nine items | 160 mentions | 40 cards | the two decisive inputs are absent |
|---|
Sample G - the reversal in one calculationcards read 40
items that can be checked by anyone who knows the convention
weight 40 of 40
form string 40 of 40
the string's letters defined 31 of 40
items that cannot be checked without the publisher's own tables
the mark 27 of 40
a speed figure 12 of 40
the runs behind it 6 of 40
the stick reading 2 of 40
the standard time 0 of 40
the allowance 0 of 40
the figure and the inputs, counted the same way
the figure is published on 12 cards
the inputs are published on 0 cards
the card carries the conclusion and not the working
and the largest single input to the conclusion, the going
allowance, is worth 19.2 points on sample C's scale, which is
more than the 7.0 points that separated the first three runners
Two rows in the table are worth naming separately. The stick reading is published on 2 of 40 cards, and it is the only row that is a measurement of the ground rather than a word for it. The definition of the string's letters is missing from 9 of 40, which is the one gap a reader can close with a search - the other gaps cannot be closed at all without the publisher's own tables.
How to read a card in one pass
- Find the band and the conditions, because they decide who is in the field.
- Read the weights as one scale for the whole field, noting the top weight and the floor.
- Read the string for the positions, and set the letters aside before averaging anything.
- Look for the mark, and treat it as a position inside its band rather than a measurement.
- If a speed figure is printed, look for the standard time and the allowance beside it. If they are not there, treat the figure as a summary of an undisclosed calculation.
- Count the runs behind whatever figure is printed, or note that the card does not say.
The count is the sample's, not the industry's. Every number on this page comes from 40 invented cards created for this desk. The convention being described - weights, a string of positions, a published description of the ground - is the ordinary one, and a real card will vary in which of the items above it prints. What the sample shows is which items are cheap to print and which never are.
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