Daily Racing Form Explained

The Daily Racing Form, “America’s Turf Authority Since 1894”, is easily the most recognizable name in horse racing media and the company behind the appropriately named “Daily Racing Form”, a vital tool few horseplayers can live without. While the company started in 1894 as a media company dedicated to horse racing, it wasn’t until 1904 when the major breakthrough took place. According to the history timeline of the DRF on their website, in 1904 Frank “Brunell revolutionizes horseplaying, when his belief that a horse’s past record was a major factor in determining present performance leads him to compile and print DRF’s first past performances record for each horse in a race.” This concept caught on quickly when the bettors realized they were dealing with creatures of habit, no pun intended. Commonly referred to as DRF PP’s, the past performances tell the story of a horse’s racing career through figures and comments that are attributed to each race. The PP’s give you knowledge about the distance of a horse’s races, the surface they ran on, the condition aka the caliber of the races, and the running style of a horse based on where we was located at various points in his previous races. Combining all of these data points to predict the outcome of a future race is the basis of “handicapping.” We will discuss handicapping a race in a future post and will include an explanation of how to read and use the data in the Daily Racing Form PP’s, so please keep your eye out for that post.

WHAT TO DO IF IT IS YOUR FIRST TIME LOOKING AT A DAILY RACING FORM.

There are numerous data points on a Daily Racing Form PP, so many that it is impossible to learn them all in a short period of time. For example, I have been using DRF PP’s for the past 18 years and still find myself learning new things on a consistent basis. To get you started and to encourage you to pick one up the next time you are at the racetrack, I will share some tips to get you started. The first thing I would recommend is to look at the horses last race. This will be the race at the top. Once you locate this, move your eyes to the right and look for a bolded number a couple of inches over. This bolded number is known as the Beyer Speed Figure and is a numerical value of a horses performance. Now that you know how to find the Beyer Speed Figure, take a look at each horses Beyer’s and come up with an average for each horse in the given race. The higher the Beyer the better, so the horse with the highest average “should” win the race. However, this method is introductory and as a result it is unlikely to lead to consistent winning and big profits, so please tread lightly.

MANY HANDICAPPERS SIMPLY BET ON THE HORSE WITH THE HIGHEST LAST BEYER SPEED FIGURE OF THE GROUP.

This approach is popular among beginners, but because of this the horses are almost always overbet, or underlays. It is never wise to bet on these types of horses, as their payouts decrease while their chances of winning remain the same. Instead, try to look for horses who’s last race Beyer is considerably lower than the rest of the field, but have Beyer’s in previous races that would make them competitive against the average Beyer of the current race. These horses are likely to be overlooked, ensuring you a fair price should your horse be victorious. Now that you have an understanding of the Daily Racing Form and their Past Performances and an idea of how to use it to “handicap”, it is time to pick up a copy and give it a try.