UK Horse Racing

Review - UK Race Stats

Introduction

UK Race Stats is another one of these wonderful niche products which one finds; it's more than just a rating service, although horses are rated, its main strength lies elsewhere. Where UK Race Stats really succeeds is that it, somehow, manages to place all the relevant and pertinent data about each horse in race in a simple to view format.

Presentation

Each evening an Excel spreadsheet is sent via e-mail to the subscriber and each race is displayed in a very simple and clear format. The example shown in the following link is the 1,000 Guineas to be run at Newmarket in 2003.

CLICK HERE: The UK Race Stats spreadsheet example.

This is the whole width of the spreadsheet; though there may be two spreadsheets delivered; one for flat and all-weather racing and one for National Hunt.

Where the value of UK Race Stat's service is in the detail behind each of the comments which are inserted into most of the cells of the spreadsheet (the comments are indicated by the red triangles in the corner of each cell).

Depth Of Information

The amount of information which is carried in the daily spreadsheets is simply incredible. Move the mouse over one of the comments and a box will pop up expanding the statistics on a particular point. For example, moving the mouse over the SG heading (below) will show that this column lists all of the sire's progeny on this going and how well they fare.

Statistics like this are extremely useful; we have seen the records of UK Race Stats come up time and time again with a strong indication that a certain horse won't be able to take the trip because none of its siblings have managed it.

In the example below the siblings of Russian Rhythm have managed to win 13% of the races in the same going as the 1,000 Guineas (which was expected to be good going).

In this next example one can see how well the sire's progeny fare at this distance (the 1,000 Guineas is run over one mile). Here we can see that it's kin have almost a one in five success rate at eight furlongs. Note that this is about twice the amount of the favourite's figures for the same.

We can compare this, for example, with how the horse, Russian Rhythm, has run over various distances itself, below.

Almost what can be measured and spooned up into statistical groups has been. For example, the expected favourite, Six Perfections, is racing in the Guineas twenty-seven days after her last race. One of the questions the form student could ask is how does the horse cope with a return to the course after one month away. Some horses like a short rest to keep them primed and some like a long recovery period. In the case of Six Perfections there has only been four races in her history so, arguably, there perhaps isn't enough data to go on but it may be worth noting that she hasn't ever returned to the course after such a brief interval before.

This, to us, is the power of the data within the information as provided by UK Race Stats. A race can be analysed in minutes by moving the mouse over the various cells. Where the cells are written with blue text this usually indicates a plus point. For example the number of winners of Russian Rythmn's sire's progeny at this distance (19%) is impressive. Not so impressive is the number of days off the course for the horse; 212 days and it's written in red which is a warning.

The data also covers various times of the year when it is appropriate. Our last example shows how well Russian Rythmn's trainer, Sir Micheal Stoute, has performed and at which time of year he tends to do best. Some trainers seem to strike it hot at the start of the season, some strike later and others the time of year makes no difference as they could be equally good or useless all year around. The same, of course, applies to horses.

In the above example one could argue the Sir Micheal's best time of year is before September comes around. Some horses, it can be discovered, can run most of the year around but can only score in one or two months of the year. This is the sort of information which is vital when it comes to laying or backing horses.

Sample Download

A sample zipped ratings spreadsheet (234k) on the flat for the 19th April, 2003, can be downloaded from here.

Conclusion

We have been recieving the spreadsheets daily for months and we've always been impressed with the quality of service and the depth of information which UK Race Stats provides. What makes it particularly good to use is the fact that the data is presented within a spreadsheet and the imaginative use of the comments tag for the detailed information prevents clutter.

UK Race Stats is one of those wonderful niche products which we at UK Horse Racing wish we had thought of first. It's not a tipping service and, in all honesty, it's not a rating system though each horse has the UK Race Stats' rating attached to it. But, this isn't where the strength of the product lies as the aim of UK Race Stats is to present the information to the punter working on the form as a good guide as to what should happen on the race course the following morning.

We have no hesitation in recommending this service to anyone who takes their racing seriously; particularly at the price which they offer.

Cost

The cost of this service is very respectable considering the amount of information the spreadsheets contain and the ease in which one can get hold of the information. Obviously one needs a copy of Microsoft Excel on one's computer but that is the only requirement other than a regular e-mail service.

The cost for the UK Race Stats service is:
3 months - £75.00
6 months - £130.00
12 months - £200.00

UK Race Stats can be contacted through their web site, www.UKRaceStats.com where a free trial can be arranged.