From today, the actual going on jumps races uses a new scale. The old one used the same steps for jumps as for the Flat, and on jumps it called the ground too firm far too often: since mid-September it called 28.5% of British jumps races Firm, when not one of them was officially Firm. The new scale calls 10.7% Firm, and the share of races two or more steps away from the official going falls from 22.2% to 7.1%. Flat and all-weather races do not change.
What the actual going is
The official going is the clerk of the course's description, given before racing. The actual going is our own reading of how the ground really rode, worked out from the race times. Each race's winning time is compared with a standard time for that course and trip, and the difference becomes a going allowance in seconds per mile: a minus figure means the races were run slower than standard (softer ground), a plus figure faster (firmer ground). The actual going is that allowance turned back into a word: Heavy, Soft, Good to Soft, Good, Good to Firm or Firm.
The allowance figures themselves are not changing. What changes is where the steps between the words fall on jumps races.
Why the jumps scale had to change
The old scale was built on the Flat and used for jumps as well. Jumps races are run differently, and on jumps the old steps leaned firm. Over the 477 British jumps races between 17 September and 5 November 2026 that have an allowance:
- The old scale called 136 of them Firm (28.5%). The official going was Firm for none.
- It called the ground firmer than the official going almost half the time (223 races, 46.8%).
- 106 races (22.2%) were two or more steps away from the official going, Good to Firm against Good to Soft, for example.
We refreshed the standard times on Good ground over the last two years, and set new jumps steps that fit them. The new steps reproduce the refreshed standards to within a quarter of a second a mile for nine races in ten.
The new jumps scale
Going allowance in seconds per mile:
| Actual going | Old scale (jumps and Flat) | New jumps scale |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy | -6.50 or below | -7.30 or below |
| Soft | -6.49 to -3.50 | -7.29 to -3.40 |
| Good to Soft | -3.49 to -1.00 | -3.39 to 0.00 |
| Good | -0.99 to +2.00 | +0.01 to +2.80 |
| Good to Firm | +2.01 to +2.99 | +2.81 to +4.49 |
| Firm | +3.00 or above | +4.50 or above |
The finer descriptions you see beside the actual going, from Very Soft down to Extremely Bottomless, follow the same steps on jumps races: Very Soft from -5.90, Very Heavy from -8.80, Extremely Heavy from -10.30, Bottomless from -12.80 and Extremely Bottomless from -15.80.
What it does to the same 477 races
- Firm: 136 races on the old scale, 51 on the new (10.7%).
- Two or more steps from the official going: 106 races on the old scale, 34 on the new (7.1%).
- Firmer than the official going: 223 races on the old scale, 178 on the new.
- Same word as the official going: 203 races on the old scale, 211 on the new.
154 of the 477 races (32%) change their actual going. It is still our reading of the times, so it will not always agree with the official going, and it is not meant to: a race run much faster or slower than the official description suggested is exactly what the actual going is there to show.
The whole archive changes, not just new races
Every jumps race in the archive has been re-labelled on the new scale, back to 1997: roughly 35,000 races take a new word. Races with no allowance keep the label they had.
We have also rebuilt the allowance for 4,585 Irish jumps races that had been left at 0.00, because those courses had no standard times of their own. They now carry a real allowance worked out from standard times, and take the actual going it gives.
Where you will see it
- On the RaceMetrics website: the Actual Going option in Form Expert, the By Going (Actual) table on every profile, the Actual Going rule in the System Builder, and Match This Race in the Race Guides filters.
- In the Proform desktop software: version 1.95 re-labels your own database when you upgrade, and the going legends in the filters and the System Builder now show the jumps scale beside the Flat one.
If you have saved systems, patterns or filters that use the actual going on jumps races, the races they pick out will change. Run their back-tests again to see the new figures.
What does not change
- Flat turf and all-weather races keep the scale they have always had.
- The official going is untouched.
- The going allowance figures are the same, apart from the 4,585 Irish races rebuilt above.
