Horse RatingsStar RatingsAs part of their racing coverage the Sporting Life provides Star Ratings which can be found in the information box above each race card. The top rated always receives five stars, but on occasions two or more runners may be receive top marks for the race. The Horse Ratings take into account many of the race day factors and are meant to be a finished article on the chances of each runner in the race, and as a quick overview of how competitive the race is the Horse Ratings Star method does a good job. As a basic rule of thumb, look for Horse Ratings in races where a maximum of four Runners have three or more stars. This is a reasonable filter to sort out the ultra competitive races where too many runners have claims in the race, so with no more than 4 runners being awarded 3 stars or more, the race qualifies for further study. A simple filter like the one mentioned above has long lasting benefits if used on a daily basis, after regular use you’ll start to gravitate to races which have a familiar “look” to them, whether it’s a certain class or type of race (Handicap/Stakes race) or an age group such as 2yo’s or races confined to 4yo’s and upwards. There is another benefit of course and that is forming your own prices from the Star Ratings, and once again, daily use will connect with your gut instinct as to whether a price seems out of line with a particular horse. Two easy ways of forming your own prices for selected runners are given below….. The first way is to take into account only the horses which have three stars or more, let’s say that four horses have three stars+. For the purpose of obtaining prices from the ratings each star counts as one point with half a star being half a point.
Selection A is the top rated and with three other runners qualifying, we set selection A’s price at 3/1, selection C is half a point behind so is 7/2, B is 5/1 and D is also a 5/1 shot. Of course the question must always be asked, do the prices look right? After all, this is just a rough and ready method but it’s a foot hold on the race and offers a systematic approach upon forming an opinion of what might constitute a value bet. The second method takes into account all the runners in the race, those that have any sort of rating. Again we convert stars into points and tot up all the points obtained by all the runners in the race. The four horses with three stars or more have 4 other opponents making it an eight runner race….
Total points from all the runners in the race adds up to 20, selection A has 5 points which we divide by 20 giving0.25 or 25% = 3/1, The odds of 3/1 about selection A can be termed “Fair odds” and anything above that price 100/30+ would be value. If over a sequence on 100 bets you were able to get 100/30 about a 3/1 chance your returns would be 108.3 or 8.3% profit which is fairly reasonable. Return from Horse Ratings to Sporting Life |