How To Read Gallops Form

Ever wondered what those numbers and letters meant in a formguide? Hopefully this will help. Picking the winner is another thing altogether.

Let’s take a look at the AJC Derby and how the race information would typically be presented.

A.J.C. Derby 2400m
(Apprentices cannot claim). 3-y-o. Prize money: $2,000,000
1 _ 7X11 He’s No Pie Eater mh (2) J Bowman 56.5
2 _ 4543 Gorky Park h (10) D Nikolic 56.5
3 _ 1116 Redoute’s Dancer d (14) J A Cassidy 56.5
4 _ 1312 Ambitious General (8) D Oliver 56.5
5 _ 2206 Danever mh (5) G Boss 56.5
6 _ 1232 Mettre En Jeu (9) G J Childs 56.5
7 _ 3113 Fiumicino m (7) D Beadman 56.5
8 _ 3612 Pacino (1) D Dunn 56.5
9 _ 2510 Ruling Power h (11) S R King 56.5
10 _ X167 Red Lord h (4) Tim Clark (a) 56.5
11 _ 1215 Sir James mh (6) C W Brown 56.5
12 _ X677 Fianchetto h (12) Z Purton 56.5
13 _ 4111 Miss Finland h (3) Craig Williams 54.5
14 _ X214 Tuesday Joy h (13) D R Beasley 54.5

The first line is self explanatory with the race name and race distance, in this case 2400 metres. The second line outlines the race conditions. ‘Apprentices cannot claim’ means that apprentice jockeys cannot claim the usual race allowance or reduction in weight they have to carry. Apprentices are allowed this concession but it is not usually available in feature races such as the Derby. Being a Derby the race is restricted to three year old horses (3yo) and the prizemoney for the race is nothing to sneeze at.

Now let’s look at the horses engaged in the race itself. The first number you see is the horse or TAB number of the horse with number one here happening to be He’s No Pie Eater. Number 14 is Tuesday Joy. The next set of numbers represent the horses performance at their most recent race starts. So He’s No Pie Eater has 7X11 next to his name. The numbers represent race placings. So a few starts back he ran 7th before his most two recent runs where he has won. The ‘X’ denotes that in between he had a spell of three months or more. You’ll also see letters after the horses name and for He’s No Pie Eater he has ‘mh’. The ‘m’ denotes he has won on a rain affected track and the ‘h’ denotes this is his home track. The full legend is below:

Legend: T – Won at track. C – Won at this distance on this course. D – Won at this distance on another course. M – Won in heavy going. B – Beaten favourite at last start. H – Home track. X – Spell of three months. N – Won at night. F – Fell.

So now you can see that amongst other things this is also Gorky Park’s hometrack, Fiumicino has also won in the wet, and Redoute’s Dancer has won at this race distance on another track previously.

The next piece of information concealed in parentheses is the barrier the horse will start from. Note that the barrier and the number of the horse are rarely the same and only coincidence if they are. He’s No Pie Eater will start from barrier two.

The name of the jockey (first initial, surname) is the next piece of information presented so J Bowman takes the ride on He’s No Pie Eater in the Derby.

Finally the last set of numbers is the weight or handicap in kilograms that the horse must carry in the race. As a Derby the horses are three year olds and the weights are the same except for sex. The boys carry 56.5kg and the two girls carry 54.5kg. To find out more information we need to read on.

Way2Bet also provide a comment for every runner in a race and we’ll use the Pie Eater as the example below.

HE’S NO PIE EATER (G A Rogerson) 3c (15:5-2-3): First up charged along rail to deny WFA star sht nk win (56.0) Desert War, Mentality 1600m W Farm Chipping Norton dead trk Mar 3 then back to own age for 1/2 len win (56.5) Ambitious General, Fiumicino 2000m R’hill Rosehill Gneas Mar 24. Racing in super form and among the leading hopes.

This next level of information tells us He’s No Pie Eater is trained by G. Rogerson. The 3c denotes the horses age and sex, in this case he is a three year old colt. Ages are self explanatory and sexes are as follows:
Legend: c – colt (aged 2-3; tackle intact). g – gelding (no tackle). f – filly (aged 2-3; female). h – horse (same as colt except aged 4+). m – mare (same as filly except aged 4+).

Next is a summary of the horses career starts (15:5-2-3). This tells us that He’s No Pie Eater has had 15 starts for 5 wins, two seconds and three thirds. Following this is generally an overview of the horses last two starts – a little more explanation behind the letters and numbers. In this instance the translation is:
He’s No Pie Eater was having his first run back from a spell when he charged along the rail to deny a weight for age star (Desert War) and won by a short neck win carrying 56kg over 1600m in the Warwick Farm Chipping Norton Stakes that was rated a dead track on Mar 3. At his most recent run he raced against his own age for 1/2 length win carrying 56.5kg in defeating placegetters Ambitious General, Fiumicino over 2000m in the Rosehill Guineas on March 24. He is racing in super form and among the leading hopes.

Finally the betting and this is a tad easier. The number preceding the horses name simply represents how much you collect for every $1 you place on the horse and it wins. For instance He’s No Pie Eater would return $8.50 for every $1 bet (a profit of $7.50) should he win the Derby. For the afficinados he would have been fractional odds 15/2

AAP Odds2.25 Miss Finland 7.50 Tuesday Joy 8.50 He’s No Pie Eater, Ambitious General 10.00 Gorky Park, Fiumicino 11.00 Redoute’s Dancer 21.00 Sir James 35.00+ Others

05 Apr 9:21 AM