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What Is A Form Guide?

A form guide is the most useful resource to any punter - without one it's almost impossible to figure out the chances of horses in a given race. And as many seasoned punters will tell you, even with access to a form guide picking the winner can be a tough assignment...

As well as traditional print publications, FREE form guides are now widely available online.

A definition of form

Form refers to certain information relating to a horse, including its age and pedigree, career statistics and performance history. Form is the essential information used by punters in their bid to predict the outcome of a race.

Without it racing would be an almost unknowable prospect due to the vastness of the industry and the many statistics that are used to chronicle a horse's career history. Anyone that takes their betting seriously will know well the importance of 'form' to horse racing.

Use of the term 'form'

The term 'form' can be used as defined above, but it can also used be used more broadly to refer to the act of studying the form for a particular race or race meeting. E.g. One mate says to another, 'Have you done the form for Saturday's racing?'

Form guide

Form guide is the name given to any publication containing form statistics and information. The form guide is considered by many to be the punter's bible and is widely preached from by punters at racetracks all around the world. Traditionally form was limited to a publication's particular print specifications, but as technology has advanced so too have form guides and the formats they're presented in.

Comprehensive form guides are now widely available online. Many of the corporate bookmakers offer their own form guides through their websites and mobile phone apps. See our Form Guide for racing meetings both here in Australia and abroad.

Form Guides - Online vs. Print

Studying the form - old and new methods

There is no right or wrong in the print vs online form debate, it really depends on where you are and what your expectations are. Certainly online form allows for a more comprehensive offering, not to mention the added bonus of race replays.

Online Form

Online form is widely available in Australia. There are many free form guides out there, while others are paid or members-only services. The main advantage of online form is it allows for the complete career history of a horse without requiring forests worth of paper and hard-to-handle form guides. Online form can also provide punters with one thing that print publications simply can't: race replays! At this stage these are only available through the websites and apps (if available) of the Principle Race Authorities in each state.

Punters offers a comprehensive Form Guide section, including horses' complete career history along with sectional times, speed maps, ratings and other useful data.

Traditional Form Guides

A range of print publications offer daily form guides for race meetings all over the country. Traditionally, mainstream news publications are the most widely consulted form guides thanks to being inexpensive and widely circulated. However, they can be limited in the information they provide and are by no means the most comprehensive resource.

The format of form guides varies but there are several dedicated broadsheet racing papers (i.e. Winning Post, The Sportsman, ) as well as more compact race books such as Best Bets.

Printed race books can also be purchased on-course at all race meetings.

Form guide layout - getting started

Form guides can appear daunting due to the volume of information they present, but in reality they're quite straightforward - you just need to know the basics! What you see first will depend on the format of your form guide, but generally speaking form guides are divided up into race meetings and then specific races. Here's our breakdown of what all the stats mean.

Race details:

Top-level information for each race is as follows: race number, start time, race distance and race name

- Echuca Race 6 (2:20pm) 1600m - Moama Bowling Club 0-58 Handicap

TOTAL PRIZE POOL - the gross amount of money horses will be competing for, i.e. 18K TOTAL
RACE CONDITIONS - the specific conditions of the event, i.e. No age restriction. BenchMark 64. No sex restriction. Handicap.
TRACK CONDITIONS - the tracking rating based on the condition of the track surface, i.e. GOOD 4
RAIL POSITION - the position of the rail relative to its True Position. The rail is often shifted out from its True (or default) position to manage the wear and tear of the track surface. i.e. RAIL: Out 8m Entire Circuit

Below this is the field for the race, with each horse having its relevant performance history chronicled.

Horse details:

NAME, AGE, SEX AND PEDIGREE- basic information relating to the horse, including its pedigree
TRAINER & JOCKEY - the names of the trainer and jockey
EARNINGS/PRIZE MONEY - the amount of money won by a horse throughout its career
WEIGHT - the amount of weight to be carried by the horse
BARRIER - the barrier or gate from which the horse will jump
RATING - a figure based upon its performance history. This allows the handicapper to place and weight horses according to their relative ability.

Horse statistics:

CAREER - The number of career starts a horse has had including its number of wins and placings
TRACK - Its record at the track, including its number of starts, wins and placings
DISTANCE - Its record at the distance (also known as 'trip'), including starts, wins and placings
TRK/DST - Combined stats for a horse at this track and trip, including starts, wins and placings
1ST-UP - Stats for the number of times a horse has performed first-up (this includes its first ever run as well as any subsequent runs that follow a spell in the paddock - Punters deems a minimum 60-day break as an official spell - anything short of that is considered being 'freshened')
2ND-UP - Stats relating to a horse's second run after a spell
TRACK CONDITIONS - These include Firm, Good, Soft and Heavy. The stats for each classification relate to a horses performances racing on ground rated in that category. The track classifications operate on a sliding scale with Firm being the driest and Heavy the most rain-affected.

Additional info:

TURF/SYNTHETIC - career stats on the respective surfaces
LAST 10 RUNS - finishing positions from its last 10 race starts. An "s" or "-" usually indicates a spell (or break from racing), typically lasting 30+ days.
12 MONTHS: win/place record over the last 12 months, i.e. (7:1:2:0)
WIN RANGE: distances a horse has won throughout its career, i.e. 1400-1600m
WIN/PLACE%: win and place strike rate, i.e. Wins 11%, Places 26%
GROUP/LISTED: performances at Listed level or above (many horses won't make it to this grade of races and thus will have no relevant data).

Check out Punters' comprehensive Form Guide section to see what we're talking about!