The weight carried

The weight is the one input printed on every card, and on a 6f race it is the smallest of them. It is written in stones and pounds, it is moved by a penalty, a claim and an age allowance, and its effect grows with the distance.

Open the partner account What a figure cannot say

Sample spec

Sample spread: 9-12 to 9-00
In pounds: 12 lb
In kilograms: 5.44 kg
Worth at 6f: 2.4 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.

Direct answerWeight is what the runner carries, written in stones and pounds where a stone is 14 pounds. The card weight comes from the official rating; a penalty for a recent win adds to it, and a rider's claim or a runner's age allowance subtracts from it. The heavier the load the harder the run, so a figure credits the weight carried - but over a sprint trip the whole field's spread is worth a couple of points.

Sample E is six runners in one invented 6f race, chosen because it contains every kind of move a card shows: a penalty, a claim, an age allowance and the rating floor. The moves are real arithmetic; the runners are invented.

Sample E - six runners, and what moves each card weight
Runner	Rating weight	What moves it	Carried	Value at 6f
E1	9-12	none (the highest-rated declared runner)	9-12	0.0 points
E2	9-09	3 lb below E1 on the mark	9-09	-0.6 points
E3	9-07	a 7 lb apprentice claim	9-00	-1.4 points
E4	9-06	5 lb below E1	9-06	-1.0 points
E5	9-10	a 6 lb penalty for a win since the weights were published	10-02	+2.0 points
E6	9-00	the rating floor, then a 3 lb age allowance	8-11	-3.8 points
Six runners	9-12 to 9-00	a 12 lb spread before allowances	10-02 to 8-11	-4.8 to +2.0 points

Sample E - the whole spread in pounds, kilograms and pointscard weights 9-12 down to 9-00 a stone is 14 lb 9-12 = 9 x 14 + 12 = 138 lb 9-00 = 9 x 14 + 0 = 126 lb spread 138 - 126 = 12 lb in kilograms 12 x 0.4536 = 5.44 kg on the sample's 6f scale, at 0.2 points a pound 12 x 0.2 = 2.4 points the three moves in the sample, each on its own the 6 lb penalty 6 x 0.2 = 1.2 points the 7 lb claim 7 x 0.2 = 1.4 points the 3 lb age allowance that took E6 to 8-11 = 0.6 points the same field against the ground of sample C the whole weight spread 2.4 points the going allowance 19.2 points the weight spread is 12.5% of the ground correction

That last line is the reason this page is short. Weight is the input a reader can see without asking anyone, and it is the one that moves a figure least over a sprint. The input that moves it most is the one that is almost never printed.

Why a pound is worth more over a distance

Carrying a load costs more the longer it is carried, so the value of a pound rises with the trip. Sample C and sample E work to 0.2 points a pound over 6f; the same sample's longer races use a larger figure, which is the assumption behind every weight-for-age table. The arithmetic is the same at either distance: the load is a number, the effect is a number per pound, and the two multiply.

Check whose weight the card is showing: a claim reduces what the runner carries, it does not reduce the rating weight.
Read a penalty as a number added after the weights were published, not as part of the original mark.
Add nothing up yourself without the sample or scale in front of you: 2.4 points and 24 points are both possible answers.
Compare weights only inside one race, where the top weight and the floor are the same for every runner.
Remember the floor. Below it, a runner carries the same weight as one rated higher and is out of the handicap.

Where to go next

The mark and how it moveswhere the card weight comes from The class of the racethe band that decides whether a runner gets in Every figure in one placethe arithmetic behind every number on this desk