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Horseracebase – Step by Step – How to Use and Profit

horseracebase

Our step by step lessons will teach you everything you need to profit from Horse Race Base

This three part guide to HorseRaceVase will teach you everything you need to know to profit from HorseRaceBase and the HRB, systems, ratings and research tools.

We have now combined all three parts into one page.

We will teach you how to make better bets with Horse Race Base

It’s no exaggeration when I say I love Horseracebace.com. It’s my go to site for all the systems that I create for my own betting and the systems that I create for this magazine.

I first came across the site in 2013 and apart from the Racing Post for its library of race videos I couldn’t do without it.  It’s an indispensable tool that I use every day to help me become a more profitable punter.

It’s always been my intention to write a review on this fantastic resource. So, I was delighted when the guys at On Course Profits asked me to do one.

However, to do it justice in just one article has proved impossible. Thus, I decided the better way to give you a feel of how the site works was to do it via a series of tutorials.

Bear in mind, it’s been written with the ‘newbie’ in mind but hopefully more experienced users may find it useful also.

What Is Horseracebase?

In creator Chris Bagnall’s own words:

“I created HorseRaceBase initially as a hobby to assist with my studies into horse racing. I am a self-taught computer programmer and work on the site with the kind assistance of some family and friends who help out when able. After a while, a couple of my friends started to use the tools I had created and offered some very good feedback.

This made me think putting the site online for all of us to use and collaborate on would be worthwhile. We agreed a monthly contribution should be made towards the costs of running HorseRaceBase and to assist with its continued development. My idea was to avoid the site becoming like others I had become frustrated with. I want HorseRaceBase to be extremely powerful and unrivalled in terms of functionality but for example never plaster the site with adverts, pop-ups, items for sale, wildly extravagant claims of riches or any other irritating characteristic”.

It's just like it says on the tin. Chris’s philosophy remains the same to this day and every single tool and facility on the site has come about thanks to member’s opinions, requests and comments.

For those interested in horse racing and understand that strategy and discipline are required to become successful in the enterprise then HorseRaceBase can help the student with their studies.

I just wish I found the site earlier. Yes, there are other sites like Proform, another excellent resource by the way, but they also come with a much bigger price tag.

Horse Race Base is just one big database for horse racing statistics and offers a veritable playground for lovers of horse racing and those who love playing with data. Even better it runs in your browser, so you don’t even have to download and install any software which is a big bonus for me.

Why Did I Get Horse Race Base?

In short, I was looking for some horse racing software that could help me understand the sport in a more analytical way.

My requirements were simple.  Firstly, it had to be inexpensive but at the same time provide that extra information that wasn’t freely available on other sites.  Secondly, I didn’t want to have to download and install any software.

After a fair bit of research and plenty of trial and error I eventually found HorseRaceBase.

How I Use It?

It’s impossible to go through all the features of the site, in a short series like this, there are just too many of them. So, I have decided to focus on those features that I use on a daily basis. I intend to do this in three parts.

Part 1 – This first part will look at some basics of the site. The race cards and an excellent feature called Stat Attack.

Part 2 – In this part I will highlight tools like Hot and Cold Races. How you can use the site to profile a horse and find big race trends

Part 3 – The final part will focus on the System Builder. Arguably this is the most powerful and versatile area of the site.  It’s here where you can build and store your own systems.

Part 1 – Race Cards & Stat Attack

Horse Race Base home screen

This is what the site looks like on first visiting. Granted it’s not the most beautiful to look at but as the old song goes.

“You can’t judge a book by the cover”.

Once logged in you are like a child in a sweet shop.

So many tools to choose from.

Horseracebase tools directory

Today’s Race Cards

Moving onto the Daily Race Cards.

HRB racecards

At this point you can go through each individual race or you can short cut the process and arrange the cards by Race Class, Prize Money or Number of Runners.

Or you can look by race type or race code.

HRB racecard filter

Here I have arranged the daily race cards by flat handicaps so all the other races won’t appear. 

On this particular day there are seven such races. Next you can dig into an individual race.

HRB racecard

It’s all very simple from left to right you have:

Horses Number

Form

Age & Sex

Weight

Jockey

Trainer

Miles Travelled

Stall

Official Rating

Forecast Odds.

HRB Rating

Whether the horse has won at the distance or course, etc.

Runs in The Season

You can hide a horse from the card. Useful if you have already dismissed it as non-contender in a particular race.

You can also filter by any of the headings. 

For example, by odds as I have done here.

HRB Filter racecards

At the top of the card you will see a number of tabs.

You can look at the card by going for instance.

HRB filter by going

Once again you have plenty options to work with.

You can arrange the race by distance.

Horseracebase racecard filtered for distance

In the above example, you can see that Transition is 2 wins from 3 runs over a mile. 

You can arrange the race card by track.

Horseracebase racecard arranged by track

You can even change the number of days. The above is by lifetime career runs or you do it by 365-days, etc.

You can arrange by trainer records.

Horseracebase racecard arranged by trainer record

You can instantly see David Menuisier is 0 from 12 1 placed with his runners at Newbury and Tom Dascombe is 6 from 22 and 9 placed with his runners in the past two years. 

You have the P/L for the trainers and their records with today’s jockeys.

Once again you have plenty of options to use. In particular you can change the number of days you use. 

In this example I’m looking at the trainer’s record in handicap races over the last 14-days.

Horseracebase racecard trainers record

In the previous 14-days we can quickly see that John Gosden has a 44%- win strike rate with his runners in handicap races.

You can also break the race down by field size and odds.

Horseracebase racecard filtered field size

Or by race class.

Horseracebase racecard filtered for class

The HRB race cards give you a quick at a glance look at the race from all angles that interest you.

Stat Attack

Is a super little tool.

There’s also a Stat Attack Extra which I won’t go through here.

In short it gives you a burst of stats or horses relevant to that days racing and there are plenty of them to play with.

Horseracebase stat attack

You can choose to display by horse, trainer, jockey or stallion stats and you can choose win or place and a number of other variables. Once you have chosen your configuration you can save them.

For the purpose of this exercise I will just highlight ones I use. I will begin by looking at trainers. I use a minimum of 15 runs and a 31% win-strike rate but a user can use whatever filters they want.

Horseracebase today's stat attack

Using those criteria brings up a list of qualifiers for that days racing.  As you will notice Sir Michael Stoute has a 35%-win strike rate with his runners at Doncaster, in the past two years, so his runner in the 3:25 Joyful Mission would be of interest.

As would the two John Gosden runners at Sandown given the trainers record at that course. The tool also allows you to check by horse stats.

Horseracebase check by trainer course record

There are a number of stats that I really take notice of when using the horse filter. One of them is win strike-rate in the class of that day’s race.

Gale Force Maya for example is 3 wins from 5 runs in Class 4 races.

Horseracebase horse filter

Looking at the race card for the race.

Horseracebase racecard 2:15 Doncaster

We can see that Gale Force Maya is also top of the HRB ratings and she’s having her first start for 261-days.

Gale Force Maya Top Rated

Her first run of the season need not be a negative for the filly as she’s 2 wins from 2 runs when racing 121+ days since her last start.

I will take a more detailed look at horse profiling in part two.

That’s just a couple of the ways that you can use the Stat Attack tool.

Looking at the race in more detail from a form perspective may either strengthen or weaken your view about the horse’s chance in the race but it remains an excellent at a glance perspective on the runners that may be worthy of note today.

Before concluding I will quickly mention the shortcuts page for that day’s racing.

Shortcuts

It’s yet another fantastic tool to work with. You can filter by horse, jockey/trainer or other.

HRB Shortcuts
HRB Jockey shortcuts
HRB Other shortcuts

I won’t go into detail now but taking a couple of examples.

There’s just one horse racing under a penalty.

Horses carrying a penalty

If you want to find those horses who have switched trainer since their last run.

Horses that have switched trainer

Well I hope I have given you a bit of a flavour as to the awesome power of HRB that’s available at your fingertips. I have merely scratched the surface so far.

In part two, I will be looking at Hot and Cold Races, how you can use the site to profile a horse and find big race trends.

Horse Race Base How To – Part Two

Part two of my review of the horseracebase site. 

In Part One I gave you a flavour of some of the basics of the site that I use in a daily basis such as the race cards and excellent stat attack feature.

In this part I will highlight tools like Hot & Cold Races.

How you can profile a horse through the site and following the form of big races.

As with last month’s piece I will do it through a tutorial format giving examples from the site on the way.

Bear in mind, it’s been written with the ‘newbie’ in mind but even more experienced users will hopefully find it helpful.

Hot and Cold Races, Horse Profiles & Big Race Trends

Hot and Cold Races

Hot and Cold Races is an excellent tool for the serious punter.

HRB home page

When you come onto the site you will see the research tab on the top. When you click on the tab you will come to this page.

Reasearch tools

Click on Hot/Cold Races and you get the following menu:

hot and cold races

You have plenty of ways to dig into the hot/cold races function. For the purpose of this exercise I have set the filters to hot races, UK not Ireland and horses that are racing today.

When you click on Go you will normally be faced with a long list of hot races, of course you can use more filters, such as handicap races only, which will cut down the number of races looked at.  Below is just a snap shot of some hot races within the last 30-days.

hot races last 30 days

At the top you can see a Thirsk handicap for which four horses have subsequently won.

That’s a race worthy of further inspection.

When you click on the race you get this page.

Individual race from hot list

Ten runners have come out of this Class 6 handicap with four of them winning another two having placed.

Neat thing is you can be notified when any horses from this race run again.

If you find a hot race you can be notified when anything from the race runs again

You can follow the horses on just their next run, second run or third. 

When you click continue you will see this page.

Mr races feature

Here’s another example of the tool at work:

hot races tool at work

The Buckingham Palace Handicap at Royal Ascot has at the time of writing now produced four winners after Motakhayyel went on to Bunbury Cup at Newmarket’s July Festival.

You can also find Cold Races in the same way as you do hot ones.

cold races

Looking at the Class 3 Betway Handicap run at Doncaster on June 13th.

no subsequent wins from this cold race

As you can see there have been 12 subsequent runs from horses from the race with not one placing.

Likewise, this year’s G2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot isn’t working out too well so far.

King Edward VII stakes stats

Five horses have come out of the race and none of them have placed on their next run.

Now three of them finished unplaced in the Epsom Derby but still it’s form to be cautious of.

As with Hot Races you can get the site to notify you when horses from races are running.

In summary: The Hot/Cold Race feature is an excellent tool to identify those races where the form looks worthy of a second look or those where the form could be worth opposing. 

I probably don’t use the feature enough but others I’m sure do use it with great success.

Horse Profiling

I don’t use the previous feature enough but I do use the database to profile a horse. Most of you will probably understand the concept of horse profiles. For those of you unsure by the term. It’s basically finding a horse’s favourite and not so favourite conditions.

As ever the best way to show you how I profile a horse in horserace base is to show a couple of practical examples. Let’s have a look at Dakota Gold who was an improving sprinter in 2019. You can go into the database and find his race record.

Profiling a horse with HRB example

And there’s more.

Profiling a horse with HRB example part 2
Profiling a horse with HRB example part 3

There’s a wealth of information at your fingertips on a horse’s record on the going, race class, track. distance, days since last run, month, etc. You can even filter it to show placings which is a nifty feature as it gives you a nice at glance look at a horse’s form figures.

The stand out for me is his form at York over 5 ½ f & 6f.

Ecxample HRB form
HRB past runs

He’s never been outside the first two at the track over those two distances. His one poor run at York came over 5f, on good ground in May 2018. As he showed last season, he can win over minimum 5f but needs a stiff track and likely plenty of juice in the ground.

His two runs so far this season have been disappointing but they have both been on good ground and both over 5f.  He’s one I will be noting when he returns to York over 5 ½ f/ 6f.

Look at the record of another handicap sprinter the Jedd O’Keeffe trained Air Raid. He has won on good ground but his record on soft ground is notable.

Air Raid runs by going

Looking at course & distance his record at Hamilton over 6f really catches the eye.

Air Raid Course & Distance

His form since his last win hasn’t been great as you can see here.

Air Raid form since last win

There are probably some excuses for those poor runs. His return to action was on good ground in the Wokingham Handicap and his poor run in last year’s Goodwood Stewards Cup came on good to firm. His run at York is less excusable on ground that should have suited but he did sweat up badly before the race which may explain that poor performance.

Air Raid is now just 2lb above his last winning mark and if he gets soft ground at say Hamilton must have a good chance of adding another win to his cv. I have just skimmed the surface in regard to horse profiling.

You just as easily identify horses that are at their optimum when racing within a certain number of days of their last start or maybe better going right-handed rather than left-handed. There certainly plenty for you to play about with this feature.

In summary: Another great feature that enables you to spot horses at a glance that could go off at a value price and will be missed by other punters.

Trend Races

When I say trend races here, I’m not going to trend a big race which I have done before in past articles, but look at a relatively new feature on horseracebase and its one I started to us more and more of late. Probably one of the most underused tools on the site is the follow trend form from big races.  When you go to the big race trends page you will see the follow tab.

HRB Trend races

Clicking on that brings up this page.

Backing all horses from the Trend race

Testing just the winner of the 1000 Guineas on their next start.

Backing winners from the trend race

As you can see you would have made a profit backing the 1000 Guineas winner on their next start and even bigger one if they are sent off favourite as this year’s winner Love was in the Oaks.

The Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot presents a slightly different picture.

Jersey Stakes backing winner sonly

Backing every Jersey Stakes winner on their next start would have seen a loss of £2.25 to a £1 level stake.  However, if you backed the winner only if they were favourite or second favourite on their next start you would have had 5 winners from 14 runners 8 placed and made a profit of £6.25 to a £1 level stake.

I would definitely be interested in this year’s winner Molatham if he was to be favourite or second favourite on his next start. Digging a bit further and looking at the first three home in the race.

Jersey stakes back first 3 only

Backing the first three home in the Jersey Stakes blindly on their next start isn’t profitable as you can see. However, if they go off favourite on their next run then you should take a note as they have produced 10 winners from 24 runners 19 placed with a £7.44 profit to a £1 level stake.

Looking at the July Cup.

July Cup trends

It’s been profitable to follow the first three home in the July Cup on their next start if they start favourite.

The July Stakes at Newmarket also produces some interesting results.

July stakes trends

This 2-year-old race was won by Tactical in 2020 and if we look at the race’s trends, we can see he would be interesting if running back in Group 2 company on his next start.

Compare their record when racing in Group 2 to racing in Group 1 races on their next start.

Onto the Epsom Derby.

If you had backed blindly all Epsom Derby runners on their next start you would have made a profit.

If you had backed blindly all Epsom Derby runners on their next start you would have made a profit.

Backing only those running between 16 to 30 days of the race produces an even bigger profit of £65.42 to a £1 level stake.

In summary: Once again I have just skimmed through this very exciting tool and indeed, I could devote a whole article to looking at following big race form, which I may do at a future date. Trust me this tool is going to a big help in your punting going forward.

I hope I have given you more of a taste as to the awesome power of HRB that’s available at your fingertips.

Next month I will focus on the System Builder. Arguably this is the most powerful and versatile area of the site.  It’s here where you can build and store your own systems. I will also share with you a couple of systems.

HorseRaceBase Instructions – Part three

The final part of my review of the horseracebase site. 

In part one I gave you a flavour of some of the basics of the site that I use in a daily basis such as the race cards and excellent stat attack feature.

In part 2, I highlighted how you can use tools like Hot & Cold Races.

How you can profile a horse through the site and follow the form of big races.

This month I am going to show you how you can build systems in HRB.

As with the previous articles, I will do it through a tutorial format giving examples from the site on the way.

Bear in mind, it’s been written with the ‘newbie’ in mind but even more experienced users will hopefully find it helpful.

HRB System Building

An Introduction

The system builder tool is the most powerful versatile area of horseracebase website and I have about 50 systems set up in there. Here are just a few examples:

HRB system builder screenshot

The good thing is that any system qualifiers for the days racing are presented in the daily qualifiers in this area of the site.

system qualifiers

It’s an immensely powerful, short cutting tool to look at horses that I’m interested in for that day’s racing.

Do Systems Work?

There are many systems that do work. These can be simple systems based on a unique stat. For example, back Sir Michael Stoute handicappers on their seasonal return.

simple system Stoute Handicappers on seasonal return

That’s a very simple system. Sir Michael has a 25%-win strike rate with such runners since the start of 2016. And, if you had backed all his handicap runners having their first run of the season. You would have made a profit of £41.53 to a £1 level stake and a £64.17 to Betfair SP.

All successful horse racing systems share the following:

  1. They must be logical.
  2. They should be uncomplicated and simple.

Many punters like to back favourites because they have the best chance of winning a race.

Looking at the fate of the clear favourite on the flat since the start of 2016.

Performance of favourites

And we can see Clear favourites have won 34% of all flat race in the period under research.

However, if you had backed them all you would have made a substantial loss. Now this clearly isn’t a profitable system but with further research you can make it profitable.

Let’s add a logical filter and look at trainers’ record with clear favourites. Here are the leading trainers (with a 100+ qualifiers).

Favourites broken down by trainer

Aidan O’Brien has had the most winning favourites. 

We can break those winning favourites by say track. To get a decent sample I have looked at those racecourses where he had 10 or more qualifiers.

Aidan O Brien favourites by track

You can quickly see three courses stand out: Chester, Galway, and Goodwood. 

With all three tracks providing backers with very high win strike rates.

O Brien favourites at top tracks

By year:

O Brien favourites at top tracks broken down by year

Granted not many qualifiers but they are performing 36% better than market expectations and have provided a decent profit.

You could look at his record with clear favourites in handicap & non-handicap races:

O Brien favourites at top tracks by handicap or non handicap

Or you can break them down by age:

O Brien favourites at top tracks by age

Going back to the trainer table. There were only two trainers whose clear favourite had been profitable to back blind: Joseph O’Brien and Clive Cox.

only two trainers make a clear profit with all favourites

As with Aidan you can look at Joseph O’Brien’s runners by track:

Joseph O Brien favourites at top tracks

Or by handicap or non-handicap races.

Joseph O Brien favourites by race type

His handicap favourites are worth interrogating further.

Bearing in mind any filters that you use should be logical. 

Digging his handicappers down by age.

Joseph O Brien favourites in handicaps by age

Or even more interestingly by last time out placing:

Joseph O Brien favourites in handicaps by lto place

Those qualifiers that had finished in the first three in their last race have produced a decent profit and are probably worth following.

Looking at Clive Cox’s qualifiers by age:

Clive Cox favourites in handicaps by age

His juvenile favourites have performed 17% better than market expectations.

Digging further by jockey. Twenty-seven of those juvenile favourites were ridden by Adam Kirby.

Clive Cox favourites in handicaps by jockey

The hypothesis I was testing was the fate of the clear favourites and how you can use logical and simple filters to build winning favourite systems that can be profitable.

Systems can be simple or more complicated.

Other systems can be a bit more complicated but they also work.  One system that has stood the test of time is this one:

It’s a simple one, although does contain several filters. It’s based on beaten favourites in novice hurdles that finished close-up to the winner last time out (within five lengths) and that are sent off 10/1 and under on their next run.

A simple system following favourites who ran well last time out

Nothing fancy or any huge profits but a small return on investment nonetheless. You can of course dig further and look at how particular trainers perform with such qualifiers.

simple system broken down by trainer

By year:

simple system broken down by year

The Exp/Wins stat suggests we have a good sample size and the Chi score is indicating that we are looking at results that are not based on luck either.

It’s also an easy system to implement and of course if you add it to HRB your systems page will show up when there are any qualifiers.

Building A System in HRB

Now I’m going to take you through building a system from the start. In this case I’m going to look at trainers who do well in fillies only handicaps on the flat & all-weather.

However, I’m going interrogate the data further by looking at those trainers who have a better than average record with fillies that raced against the colts and geldings on their last run and are now running against their own sex

I have focused on those trainers who had 15 or more qualifiers in the period under research.

Females in female only races that ran against males last time

Now ordering by trainer win percentage:

Females in female only races that ran against males last time ordered by trainer

I have selected a group of British & Irish trainers who have a good win strike rate with such runners.

Females in female only races that ran against males last time. Trainers system

Filtering further by odds SP. Those qualifiers going off 18/1 and bigger are:

Females in female only races that ran against males last time. Outsiders

If we ignore any qualifiers 18/1 & bigger, we get the following set of results:

Top trainers no outsiders system

Breaking those results down by year:

results broken down by year

This group of trainers have shown they do well in fillies only handicaps, with runners now racing back against their own sex.

The strike rate and profitability are good to both industry SP and even better when backing to Betfair SP.

It’s not too difficult a system to do manually but finding any qualifiers is made so much easier by using HRB.  Granted we are not talking about many bets during a year.

However, as part of a portfolio of profitable systems covering all types of racing during the year you can make a consistent profit. Some systems will underperform but others will keep the portfolio ticking along nicely. 

Summary: The above system is a good example of a simple, but, logical system that you can build and save in HRB. I have just touched the surface as to what systems you can build within the database.

I hope this short series has given you an idea as to the awesome power of HRB that’s available at your fingertips.

Give yourself a chance to improve your punting and take advantage of a 3-day free trial of the service and you can do so here

https://www.horseracebase.com/extended.php

During that time, you'll be free to use all the functionality of the site without constraint.  You can create your own systems like I have and you can in-depth analysis every horse race run in UK & Ireland.

I can’t recommend HRB highly enough. It really is the business, and tremendous value in the process.

Until next time

John Burke

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