FAQ

UK Horse Racing's use of BHA Race Class

We've had a number of requests to include the BHA Race Class values into our reports. After much persuasion they have now been included and, already, they have found to be useful.

First, it would be best if we were to show how the Class data is presented by this example from Wolverhampon in March, 2016.

In the information string, the row underneath the main heading one can see that the Race Class is 95 though the BHA would prefer to call this Class 6.

Look now at the table below the main table and there's extra data added to the right of the jockeys' names and that is presented as three pieces of information, each seperated by slashes.

The first of these is the BHA Class the last time this horse ran on the same race type as today. So in this example we can see that the top rated, Captain George, last trip on the all weather was in a Class 7 race, or as we say in the Diseased BHA Class of 7, and today's Diseased Race Class is 6. So, as for as the BHA are concerned, and all of the rest of the punters who don't subscribe to these ratings, the horse is going up in class for today's race.

The next two bits of information show the 5 Year Class Differential and then the 5 Year Weight Differential. In the above axample we can see that Captain George is actually falling in class by 6.9 pounds compared to his normal trips these past five years whilst the weight differential is slightly worsened by 0.6 pounds.

Captain George went on to win at 16/1. The forecast price was 12/1 but it is believed that because everyone else will be thinking that such horses are rising in class then the price will lengthen. And though we don't use the Diseased BHA Class for our analysis and calculations it may well go to point out horses whose prices will lengthen when they ought to drop.

Updated 20th March, 2016