2025 – A Short Review
Master Rating performance
The Master Rating is the best Inform Racing speed rating achieved by each horse within the previous 12 months.
It is the rating I sort my race cards by and the one that I count as most useful, whilst other subscribers may prefer the Lto1 rating, the Avg rating (the average of the last three runs/ratings), the distance rating or whatever.
With all 'top 3' rated horses highlighted on the cards in red for each main column, it is then easy to see those runners that will likely have the best chance.
As you can see on the example card below from yesterday with top rated (83) Master Mcfly winning at 5/2 and all other main columns highlighting their top 3 rated in red
Click all images to enlarge them if need be.
Over the last ten years the Master Rating has enjoyed a pretty stable strike rate of around 20%, with last year having a slightly better year with just over 21% and a level stakes profit of over 140 points.
It is worth noting that the top Bsp favourite showed a loss of 78 points last year and the SP favourite a loss of over 200 points.
Here is my simple query using the system builder to find all top Master Rated horses in 2025.
These results are of course from every race and race type and it is worth looking into the details a little further to see where the Master Ratings perform best, by looking at the Results Breakdowns that show in the results, for each category that you have selected.
There are over 300 categories you can choose from to drill down into the form and the results, all shown below. You just select or deselect those that you want or don't want and save your settings.
Example result breakdowns
First of all we look at the class of the race, followed by the race type, the age of the horse and the run style - how the horse is likely to run. So 1 is the horse likes to lead, 2 prominent, 3 midfield and 4 a habitual slow starter or held up type.
Such a simple way to breakdown each part of the results as you see and these results, for whatever system rules you wish to use can be broken down into hundreds of categories, allowing you to see what parts of your rules are working for you and those that aren't.
Some things that stand out straight away are the poor strike rate and loss to BSP on class 6 races and possibly class 1, however the results from class 6 races are far more pronounced.
This probably highlights the unpredictability of low grade races and if you had this breakdown as part of your system results - one being far more involved than just the one rule we have here - I think it would be safe to say avoiding class 6 races would be very beneficial.
So just add another rule now saying; race class is just between 1 and 5 (or race class not equal 6), run it again and take another look at all of the breakdowns again.
Do this as many times as you like to find just the best form criteria for your idea. Making sure that you use some common sense and not just removing one or two random rules that give poor results for no reason.
Think things through and try to understand racing and why a particular piece of form may be under performing. This way you will be able to teach yourself how to become far more disciplined punter and start to win more.
Moving on the other examples.
Race type
The race type breakdown shows a pretty steady strike rate all round but more profits overall from the flat and the all weather.
National hunt flat races have a very good strike rate and profits and you can choose between handicap race and non handicap races too when running your ideas to separate these. Just to clarify, National hunt flat races are all non handicap races.
Horse age
The horse age can often favour the younger horses of course and you can see the strike rates drop between 6 year olds and 7 year olds plus. However you will find that handicap races only will show less of a difference when it comes to age and if you think about it, there are more 2 and 3 year olds running on the flat too.
There is so much to look at here and to learn and as I say you will become a better punter overall when you see these breakdowns, then understand why certain criteria works better with some rules, race types etc. than others.
Run style
You can see here that those horses that usually start slowly, either by design or per their nature - run style 4 - have a very poor record, compared to the other run styles.
Whilst the top rated front runners practically broke even last year, those along with the runners who are usually ridden prominently, have the better strike rates and overall profits.
I would be concentrating on those that like to be on the front end, looking at these results - something you would never have known without these system builder breakdowns.
How much money are you unknowingly throwing away on horses that already statistically have less of a chance of winning?
One extra one here showing last time out data
Below you have the stats for top master rated horses and their last time out finishing position and last time out starting price at SP not Bsp
I have highlighted the top three in each which show horses that came 1st, 2nd or 3rd and those with an SP of 11/2 (decimal 6.5) last time out. These both have by far the better strike rates which probably understandably get smaller as you go down each list.
The column on the right shows the lowest and highest SP's for each row. So as you can see for example, there was a top rated horses that had a SP last time out of less than 2.0, so odds on, that won at BSP odds of 29.06.
The three highest in each one here also show decent profits, so it may be looking into these going forward, especially top rated horses that had an SP last time out of 11/2 or less.
Jut adding this one rule would have doubled the Bsp profits.
My Daily Selections
These aren't an official part of the Inform Racing subscription package but I have been posting these for two years now on the Noticeboard, once you have logged in.
In 2024 there was a total profit to Bsp of 191.74 points.
Last year, 2025, wasn't as good but they did end up with a profit of 54.42 points.
Removing the 2% commission, freely available in the UK at least would still give profits of 187 and 53 points profit to Bsp.
Whilst the strike rate was down from the previous year too, there were still 200 winners and a further 189 that came second - 35 at double figure odds up to one with a Bsp of 44.0.
'If' (ha ha), just a small percentage of the 189 could have got their head in front, the end result and profits could have been better.
The feeling of deja vue came upon me yesterday, January 1st, when two of the five selections came second, one beaten a short head and the other by a head - with the first of them at 10/1.
Rather annoying but that is how the cookie crumbles and the first bet of today has just gone in at Chelmsford at 5/1, so onwards and upwards.
You can see all of the results for yourself by clicking here >>
Bsp or SP?
One thing very much worth noting is the difference both years in the profits between the bookmakers starting price and the Betfair starting price.
2024 Bsp +191.74 points
2024 SP +69.72 points
2025 Bsp +54.42 points
2025 SP -86.64 points
About 120 and 140 points difference each year respectively, which is massive.
I haven't bet with a bookmaker for quite a few years now so I don't know what offers they are doing now. I believe most guaranteed odds are now in the early morning (?) and of course you may be able to take a bigger price before the SP but I would seriously wonder why I was using the bookmakers odds, just taking these two years as examples.
That ends this post, which hopefully has given you something to think about and how basing your betting around the Master Speed Rating and using the result breakdowns on our system builder, could give you an advantage along with a profit
Daily selections reminder
These are posted on the website each day for subscribers. Just login and they are on the Noticeboard.
