Three members asked versions of the same question in a single week. One had used RPR and Topspeed for years and wanted to know how a figure in the 1500s compared. One was returning to Proform after a long gap and wanted the Power Ratings and speed ratings back. One was buying the historical database and wanted to know whether a rating against a 2015 race was knowable the evening before it.

Different questions, one underlying problem: there are several figures on a racecard, they are on different scales, and nothing on the page says so. Here is the map.

The RaceMetrics Rating

A performance rating. Every horse starts at 1500 and moves up or down after each run, according to how it performed against the quality of the opposition it met. Roughly, 1500 is average, 1550 and above is a consistently good horse and 1600 and above is elite.

It is not in pounds, so it does not line up with a handicap mark. Read it within a race: the horse and the connections carrying the highest ratings are the ones the model rates most highly in that field. It is on every plan, including the free one, and there are ratings for trainers, jockeys, sires, dams, damsires and owners as well as horses.

The official rating

The handicapper's mark, in pounds. It appears in the OR column of the At-a-Glance view and on the form lines, and it is on every plan.

Speed figures

Proform's, built from race times, standard times and going, in the same way Topspeed is. There are two places to read them. The TS column in the At-a-Glance view is the horse's best figure of the last twelve months. The SR column in the form lines is the figure it recorded in each individual run.

Both are on every plan. RaceMetrics Pro adds the figure for each of the last four runs, and Enterprise has the Handicap Analysis tab, which scores a horse's recent figures against the class par for today's race.

Power Ratings

Proform's own composite rating. This is the one that catches people out on plan choice: it is not part of the RaceMetrics Enterprise plan. On RaceMetrics it starts at RaceMetrics Pro. On the Proform side it is on Proform Standard and above.

My Ratings

There is no single house rating in pounds to set against RPR. Instead, members on RaceMetrics Pro or Proform Premium build their own. My Ratings puts a performance rating on the official-rating scale, and one preset re-expresses the speed figures in official-rating points, so every run carries a handicap-style figure you can read beside OR and see whether a horse ran to, above or below its mark.

It appears on the racecards and the form lines, and it can be back-tested in the System Builder like any other rule.

The point-in-time question

The third member's question is the one that decides a purchase for anyone building a model. Speed figures and Power Ratings are never revised after race day: not for a horse's later runs, not for a re-assessed going allowance, not for collateral form. The Power Rating is produced for the declared card before the race. The last-time-out and other speed figures sit on each runner's row as they stood going into that race. The class par is the one published at the time.

Two exceptions are worth knowing. Sectional figures describe the race itself, so they are post-race figures, and they arrive two to three days later. And the draw and pace summary statistics are rebuilt regularly and always show the current picture, though every run's own draw, finishing position, run style and field size is stored, so the picture as at any past date can be worked out.

The short version

  • In pounds: official rating, My Ratings, speed figures on the official-rating preset.
  • Not in pounds: the RaceMetrics Rating, Power Ratings, raw speed figures.
  • On every plan: the RaceMetrics Rating, official rating, speed figures.
  • Pro and above: Power Ratings, My Ratings, the last four runs' speed figures, the System Builder.

If you are choosing a plan on the strength of one figure, that last pair of lines is the part to read twice.