Query Recipes: Complete Guide

Query Recipes are a visual query builder that appears below the input box on the Ask RaceMetrics page. Instead of typing a question from scratch, you pick a recipe, fill in the options, and the system builds a precise natural language query for you automatically.

There are 11 recipes available, each targeting a different type of analysis. Click a recipe card to expand it, adjust the options, then click Run to execute the query.

Find the best-performing trainers, jockeys, sires, or owners over any time period, ranked by strike rate, profit, or wins. Set a minimum runner threshold to filter out small samples.

Option	Choices
Show Top	5, 10, 20, 50
Participant	Trainer, Jockey, Sire, Owner
Ranked By	Strike Rate, Level Stakes Profit, Wins
Min Runners	3, 5, 10, 20, 50

Filters available: Time Period, Race Type, Classification, Going, Runner type, Festival

Example output: "Top 10 trainers by strike rate with at least 10 runners in handicap hurdles on soft ground this year"

Look up the historical record of any named trainer, jockey, horse, sire, dam, damsire, or owner. Type the name and optionally specify the participant type — or leave it on Auto-detect and the system will identify the correct type.

Option	Choices
Name	Free text (e.g. "Paul Nicholls", "Frankel", "Ryan Moore")
Type	Auto-detect, Trainer, Jockey, Horse, Sire, Dam, Dam Sire, Owner

Filters available: Time Period, Race Type, Classification, Going, Festival

Example output: "Paul Nicholls's record as a trainer in chases last year"

Quickly surface runners that match a specific angle on today's (or tomorrow's) cards. Choose from a wide range of preset conditions covering form, headgear, class, market moves, ratings, and connections. You can also filter by a specific course.

Condition	What it finds
First time headgear	Horses wearing headgear for the first time
First time blinkers	Horses wearing blinkers for the first time
First time cheekpieces	Horses wearing cheekpieces for the first time
Dropping in class	Horses stepping down in class from their last run
Won last time out	Horses that won their previous race
Won last two races	Back-to-back winners with consecutive victories
Beaten fav last time	Horses that were beaten as favourite in their last race
Making debut	First-time runners making their racecourse debut
Unbeaten runners	Horses with a 100% win record from at least one run
Off a break (90+ days)	Horses returning after 90 or more days off
Proven off a break (50+ days)	Horses off 50+ days that previously won or placed off a similar break
Placed last 3 runs	Horses that placed in each of their last 3 runs — consistent form
Won or placed last 3 runs	Horses that won or placed in each of their last 3 runs
Quick turnaround (7 days or less)	Horses running within 7 days of their last race
Course winners	Horses that have won at today's course before
C&D winners	Horses that have won at the course and distance
Stepped up in class	Horses running in a higher class than their last race
First time in handicap	Horses making their handicap debut
Career-best OR needed	Handicappers that need a career-best official rating to win
Carrying a penalty	Horses carrying a weight penalty
Gelded since last run	Horses that have been gelded since their last race
Market drifters	Horses whose price has drifted since the evening
Top score + top horse rating	Runners ranked first for both combined score and individual horse rating
Stable first strings	Trainers' top-rated runners when they have multiple entries
Stable second strings	Second-string runners from multi-entry trainers
Jockey with one ride	Jockeys who have only one booked ride today
Top power rated horses	Runners with the highest Proform power rating in their race
OR raised (not won LTO)	Horses given a higher official rating despite not winning last time
Sectional upgrades 7lb+	Horses whose sectional analysis suggests 7lb+ improvement potential
Longest travellers	Horses that have travelled the furthest distance to race today
Hot T/J combos with runners	Trainer/jockey partnerships with strong recent strike rates
Best course for favourites	Courses where market leaders have historically performed best
Rating movers (14 days)	Horses whose RaceMetrics rating has moved significantly in the past 14 days

Optional filter: Limit results to a specific course from the full UK/Irish course list

Find trainers or jockeys who are currently in form based on a minimum number of winners over a recent time window. Useful for identifying professionals to follow or avoid on any given day.

Option	Choices
Participant	Trainer, Jockey
Min Winners	2, 3, 5, 10
Period	Last 7 days, Last 14 days, Last 30 days, Last 3 months

Filters available: Race Type, Going

Example output: "Trainers with 3+ winners in the last 14 days on flat turf"

Analyse performance at a single course. Choose any of the 81 UK and Irish racecourses and rank trainers, jockeys, sires, owners, or draw positions by your chosen metric. When Draw is selected, a distance filter appears so you can analyse draw bias over specific trip lengths.

Option	Choices
Course	All 81 UK & Irish courses (Aintree, Ascot, Cheltenham, Chelmsford City, Dundalk … York)
Analyse By	Trainer, Jockey, Sire, Owner, Draw
Metric	Strike Rate, Level Stakes Profit, Wins
Distance (Draw only)	Dynamically loaded distances that have been run at the selected course

Filters available: Time Period, Race Type, Going

Example outputs: "Top jockeys at Cheltenham by strike rate last 5 years" • "Draw stats at Chester over 5f-6f"

Find the most productive partnerships between two participant types. Currently covers Trainer + Jockey combinations — identify which pairings consistently deliver results and set a minimum winners threshold to cut out noise.

Option	Choices
Combine	Trainer + Jockey
Min Winners	2, 3, 5, 10

Filters available: Time Period, Race Type, Going

Example output: "Trainer jockey combination with 3+ winners in flat turf races this year"

Find horses that show a consistent in-running trading pattern — specifically those whose Betfair price drops significantly from their BSP during the race. Useful for identifying horses that attract strong in-play support based on their recent record of doing so.

Option	Choices
Dropped More Than	30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% from BSP
At Least	2, 3, 4, 5, 6 times
Out of Last	4, 6, 8, 10 runs
When	Today, Tomorrow

Example output: "Show me horses running today that dropped more than 50% from their BSP in running 3 times out of their last 6 runs"

A dedicated recipe for the Cheltenham Festival with three modes of analysis: Festival-wide angles that examine cross-race trends, Race-specific trends that break down historical statistics for individual races, and a Qualifiers mode that profiles each declared runner against the trend data when declarations are available.

Stat badges are shown for the most relevant angles to give you an instant data snapshot before you run the query.

Mode 1: Festival-Wide Angles

These angles analyse the Festival as a whole across all races and years:

Angle	What it analyses
Leaderboard	Top trainers, jockeys, or sires at the Festival by year, race type, and nationality
Previous Winners	How horses with prior Festival victories perform on their return
Dublin Form → Cheltenham	Horses that ran at the Dublin Festival and how they fared at Cheltenham
Graded → Festival Handicaps	Graded race form as a pointer for Festival handicap performance
Irish vs British Runners	Head-to-head record of Irish and British-trained runners at the Festival
Favourite Performance	How market leaders fare at Cheltenham across races and race types
Age Profile	Win rates by age group across Festival races
Course Form / Festival Experience	Impact of previous Cheltenham course experience on Festival performance
Last Time Out Winners	How horses that won their prep race perform at the Festival
Days Since Last Run	Whether freshness or match-fitness is an advantage at the Festival
Handicap Weight Analysis	Performance of top-weights and lightweights in Festival handicaps
Festival Trends & Overview	Broad trends covering the entire Festival (Irish dominance, going impact, etc.)
Year by Year History	Season-by-season breakdown of Festival winners and notable statistics

Conditional filters: Race Type filter appears for Leaderboard angle; Year filter appears for Year by Year History

Mode 2: Race-Specific Trends

Select an individual race to see a detailed statistical breakdown across 16 categories. The recipe covers the major Festival races including Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup, Champion Chase, Stayers' Hurdle, Triumph Hurdle, Mares' Hurdle, Arkle, Brown Advisory, Ryanair, Ballymore, Supreme, Albert Bartlett, Champion Bumper, all six handicaps (Ultima, Coral Cup, Boodles, Grand Annual, County, Martin Pipe), and more. Use the optional Year filter to limit the analysis to a specific year.

Section	What it shows
By Age	Win and place rates for each age group
Market Position	Performance by SP rank (favourite, 2nd fav, 3rd fav, etc.)
Nationality	Irish-trained vs British-trained vs French-trained
Last Time Out	Won LTO, Placed LTO, or Unplaced/No prev run
Days Since Last Run	Freshness bands from 0-14 days up to 91+ days
BHA Rating	Official rating bands (Unrated, Under 130, 130-139, 140-149, 150+)
Headgear	With or without headgear (blinkers, cheekpieces, etc.)
Beaten Fav LTO	Horses that were favourite but lost last time out
Country Bred	Where the horse was bred (IRE, GB, FR, Other)
Sex	Mares/Fillies vs Geldings/Colts
Course Experience	Previous Cheltenham form (any month) vs course debutants
Festival Experience	Previous Cheltenham Festival form (March only) vs Festival debutants
Prior Discipline Runs	How many runs the horse has had in the same discipline (chase, hurdle, NHF)
Season Runs	Number of runs since October 1 of the prior year
Won This Season	How many wins the horse has had this season
Weight Carried	Performance by weight band (handicaps only)

Each section shows Runners, Wins, Win%, Places, and Place% for every bucket.

Mode 3: Qualifiers

When Festival declarations are available on RaceMetrics (typically the Sunday before the Festival), a Qualifiers button appears for race-specific trends. Click it to see a per-runner profile table showing how each declared runner maps to the trend categories above.

The qualifier table includes one row per declared runner with columns for:

• Horse — name and card number
• Age — horse's age
• OR — BHA Official Rating
• Headgear — whether headgear is worn
• Trainer Nat — trainer nationality (IRE/GB/FR)
• Bred — country of origin
• Sex — mare/filly or gelding/colt
• LTO — last time out result (Won/Placed/Unplaced)
• BF LTO — beaten favourite last time
• DSLR — days since last run
• Chelt Runs — prior Cheltenham runs (any time)
• Fest Runs — prior Festival runs (March only)
• Disc Runs — prior runs in the same discipline
• Season Runs / Wins — activity and wins since October 1

This lets you quickly cross-reference each declared runner against the historical trend data from Mode 2 and spot which runners fit the winning profile.

The Great British Bonus (GBB) is an HBLB-funded scheme that rewards the breeding, buying, and racing of British-bred fillies with bonuses of up to £20,000 per race. GBB-eligible races are run across Flat, Hurdles, Chases, NHF, and All-Weather — over 15,000 races in the database since 2020.

This recipe lets you analyse who thrives in GBB races by leaderboarding trainers, jockeys, sires, and owners, or breaking results down by race type.

Option	Choices
Angle	Top Trainers, Top Jockeys, Top Sires, Top Owners, Race Type Breakdown
Show Top	10, 20, 50
Ranked By	Strike Rate, Wins, Level Stakes Profit
Min Runners	10, 20, 50

Example output: "top 20 trainers in gbb races by strike rate with at least 20 runners in flat races this year"

Available filters: Time Period, Race Type

Rider Restricted Races are all-weather races limited to amateur, apprentice, and conditional jockeys (with or without a weight claim). There are around 142 races in the database since 2022 — a small but growing dataset with some strong statistical patterns.

Key findings: Market leaders strongly underperform (favourites return a ~29% loss to SP, A/E 0.74). LTO winners are heavily overbet (–40% loss in these races). Outsiders show better value at Betfair SP than at industry SP. The Jockey Meeting Rides angle surfaces the popular "5+ rides system" — jockeys with multiple rides at the meeting.

Angle	What it analyses
Top Jockeys	Jockeys ranked by strike rate or wins in rider restricted races
Top Trainers	Trainers ranked by strike rate or wins — identifying those who specifically target these races
Top Owners	Owners with the best record in rider restricted races
By Price Range	Strike rate and profit/loss by market position — shows how poorly favourites perform
LTO Winners	How horses that won last time out perform in these races (strongly overbet)
Jockey Meeting Rides	Jockeys with 3, 4, 5, or 6+ rides at the same meeting — the basis of the "5+ rides system"

Example output: "top 20 jockeys in rider restricted races by strike rate with at least 2 runners"

Available filters: Time Period only (all races are All-Weather)

Note: Min Runners defaults to 2 due to the smaller dataset size

Surfaces interesting jockey and trainer changes or situations on today's cards. Choose an angle to find runners where the connections have changed or where significant jockey/trainer patterns apply.

Angle	What it finds
Jockey change	Horses with a different jockey compared to their last run
Jockey upgrade	Horses whose jockey today is rated higher than the one who rode them last time out, with both riders' RaceMetrics Ratings and the difference, biggest upgrade first. Ask for "a significant jockey upgrade" (100+ points), a number of points, or a downgrade. Enterprise, RaceMetrics Pro and Proform Premium; "Build this as a System" opens it as the System Builder's Jockey Rating Change vs LTO rule
Jockey riding horse for first time	Jockey has never ridden this particular horse before
Jockey previously won on horse	Jockey has won on this horse in the past — a proven partnership
Jockey's first ride at track	Jockey making their first appearance at this course
Trainer change	Horses having their first run for a new trainer — the horse has never previously run for that yard
Trainers with only 1 runner today	Trainers sending just one horse to the meeting — may signal intent

Optional filter: Limit results to a specific course from the full UK/Irish course list

Most recipes offer additional filter tabs to narrow results. Filters appear as clickable chips — select one or more to add conditions to your query. The Time Period filter is exclusive (only one can be active at a time); all others allow multiple selections.

Filter	Options	Notes
Time Period	Today, This Week, Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days, Last 3 Months, This Year, Last Year, Last 2 Years, Last 5 Years	Exclusive — one at a time. Custom From/To date inputs also available
Race Type	Flat, Jumps, Turf, All Weather, Chases, Hurdles, Bumpers	Multi-select
Classification	Handicap, Non-Handicap, Maiden, Group 1, Listed, Nursery	Multi-select
Going	Heavy, Soft, Good to Soft, Good, Good to Firm, Firm	Multi-select
Runner	Favourites, 2yo, 3yo, Fillies	Multi-select
Festival	Dublin Festival, Cheltenham, Aintree, Royal Ascot, Goodwood, Galway	Multi-select — limits data to festival meetings only