class

[twmills]

Can anyone help not sure where to post this as site I think I should be posting is password protected, anyway, does any one know of a way to rate the class of a race horse, apart from the VDW method of prize money divided by wins. Thanks.

[BC]

You could use it's OR perhaps.

Alternatively, maybe you could find a way to combine some ratings - e.g. average speed figures / RP Mark / OR.

Or you could look at the level (grade or prize perhaps) of the races they have been competing in, and try to find their 'level' given the make-up of those races.

[Kimmy]

twmills

You asked this question on another forum and started a thread on it. You had a number of replies but the thread was never updated.

The site you refer to which is password protected is for members established systems, staking plans etc. I have moved your post to 'Chit Chat' which is for asking questions on.

[twmills]

Thanks I have been asking it on many forums, but as yet have not received what I am looking for, and I just thought that there must be some one out there with all their racing knowledge could help.
I have put together a way of rating the horses in the race for speed, and the winning horse is always one of the top three rated, but I remember reading somewhere if a class rating could be combined with a speed rating, that you could be on to something.
I am happy with my rating, but I just cant find a way of rating class to combine it with my rating, so therefore I keep asking and hoping someone might know of a way.

[twmills]

To hopefully give you an example these are my ratings for Wolverhampton 7:35.

Blackdown Spirit 76
Keene´s Pointe 78
Blazing Knight 75
Midnight Dream 81
Tanghan 76
Sylvia Pankhurst 77
Sewn Up 78
Hazza The Jazza 75
Sylvia´s Diamond 46

Have put these up this will probably be the first time a horse out of the top three rated wins, but I hope not.
So looking at these the winner should come from Keene's Pointe, Midnight Dream, Sylvia Pankhurst or Sewn up.
Thats why I am looking for class rating to combine with my ratings in the hope of just one coming out on top.

[Old Timer]

Twmills,

The way I see it, class can be measured in a number of ways, but like any other rating it doesn't mean a whole on its own, plus each will have it's own blindspot.

With the VDW method, the drawback is that the value of races can be inflated on occasions, which throws a spanner in the works.

I use a method based on the average OR of a race, but the drawback there is that it doesn't really measure the ability of rapidly improving horse rising in the official classes.

I know of other methods based on the average rating of horses in a race based on their previous 6 starts taking into account the distance beaten and days between races, though that does take rather a lot of time to calculate.

The important thing with ratings is to know exactly what you are rating by any particular method, be it speed, form (whatever that is) or any other parameter. You have to know exactly what you are taking account of and if combining different rating, make sure you're not counting the same parameter twice.

I guess the key is to combine in their relative importance a whole host of factors that are important for the race under consideration. For example, speed would rank of higher importance for a 5f sprint than for a 28f chase, whereas weight would be more important in the latter case.

It's all a matter of how much time and effort you want to put into out and how much you expect to get out of it. I've never personally had much joy with ratings, but certainly don't decry them. However, I've yet to come across the key to making them useful.

Good luck to you if you can.

Oldtimer

[Kimmy]

Twmills

Good luck with this. I am sure if you post your systems selections in 'Members Systems & Pointers To Help You Win' thread for a few months you will get a lot more help with your question. There may not be many members post on here but I can assure you there is a lot of knowledge out there.