System Builder: Cumulative Lengths Beaten

I had an email yesterday from a subscriber asking about some missing results he thought he had when using the Inform Racing system builder.

I like getting these emails because it lets me see what issues users are having and allows me to help them as well as point this out to others who may be experiencing the same thing.

The issue came down to the system builder category, 'Cumulative Lengths Btn'.


Cumulative Lengths Btn Versus Lto1 Lengths Btn (CLB)

In most cases, what the user is looking for is how many lengths a horse was beaten last time out and if that is the case, you will want to use Lto1 Lengths Btn, as this means the number of lengths beaten last time out.

The category Cumulative Lengths Btn, is a filter that will only show horses that qualify under all of your other rules, that also qualify under your Cumulative Lengths Btn rules, when looking at past results.

General Cumulative Lengths Btn Example.

Year >> Equal >> 2021
Distance >> Equal >> 5f
Number of Runners >> Between >> 10 and 12
Cumulative Lengths Btn >> Less or Equal >> 5

This query will return all horses that ran in 2021, over five furlongs, when there were between ten and twelve runners - that finished within five lengths of the winner.

It will ignore the losers that finished more than five lengths behind the winner and will mean that the profit and loss figure for all runners will be incorrect.

Lto1 Lengths Btn Example.

Year >> Equal >> 2021
Distance >> Equal >> 5f
Number of Runners >> Between >> 10 and 12
Lto1 Lengths Btn >> Less or Equal >> 5

This query will return every horse that ran in 2021, over five furlongs, when there were between ten and twelve runners - that were beaten five lengths or less in their previous race.

Now you will get an accurate profit and loss figure as all horses are counted. 

In both queries, winners are counted as they are effectively beaten less than 5 lengths.


Some examples.

Below you can see the first query that shows all horses that ran in 2021, over five furlongs, where there were between ten and twelve runners. It is then filtering these results to show just those that were beaten five lengths or less in these races.

System Builder: Cumulative Lengths Beaten Inform Racing

Now look at the image below and you can see, we are now looking at all horses that ran in 2021, over five furlongs, where there were between ten and twelve runners and where the horse was beaten five lengths or less - last time out.

System Builder: Cumulative Lengths Beaten Inform Racing

These are two very different queries as the Cumulative Lengths Btn, just filters the results from the other category rules. The second is including every runner that ran in a five furlong race in 2021 with between ten and twelve runners that was beaten five lengths or less last time out.

You can see a list of all system builder categories on the link below with an explanation of what each one means.

System builder category list >>


How you can use the Lto1 Lengths Btn category to find future winners.

You can use the system builder to find horses each day that qualify under any number of rules and this will help you find horses that you want to bet on in a matter of seconds, rather than it taking you hours to troll through your race cards manually.

For example, you may like to bet on horses that weren't beaten far last time but didn't finish second or third, as this may throw up something at a decent price.

If a horse won, came second or third last time out, then punters will jump on these horses expecting them to run well and perhaps this gives a slight edge to those who are lookking at different angles like we are here.

Below you can see I have selected the Declarations button at the top so that all queries will be run against today's declarations rather than results.

I have selected that the race must be 1m 2f or less, have 8 runners or more, the horse must have finished within 2 lengths of the winner, finished 4th or worse last time out and ran within 21 days.

Click apply rules and you can see that in 0.239 seconds, we have found the one selection today, Dreamseller, running at Ripon.

System Builder: Cumulative Lengths Beaten Inform Racing

I am not saying that it would have taken hours and hours to find this horse but to be fair you would have to look at every runner on the day that came 4th or worse last time out, check the number of days since it last ran and then go through its form to see how many lengths it was beaten last time out.

I'm pretty sure it would take a lot longer than 0.239 seconds anyway!

And you can use far, far more complicated rules on the system builder. Rules that will allow you to find horses each day that you would never have bothered to look for before, as you know it would take up far too much of your time.

So take a look at the system builder today and see how it will make finding your winning bets every day a lot easier than it probably is now, as well as letting you check back your system ideas over up to years of racing form.

{Edit, added the next day.

As it happened the one horse selected, won at 5/2, so I ran the rules above on the system builder results, back to 2018.

Then using the system builder result breakdown filters, I came up with a simple set of rules that gave the results below. Nothing mind blowing but a nice enough profit each year and an excellent ROI%, to add to a systems portfolio and something I managed to complete in about half an hour, just from this original set of basic rules. (You can click the image to enlarge it if needed).

System Builder: Cumulative Lengths Beaten Inform Racing

The results breakdown, breaks each form criteria into separate parts so that you can see what isn't working for your system and what you may want to remove. For example, you may find a system doesn't work very well using races on Heavy or Soft going.

You can watch a short video explaining how to use the results breakdown by clicking here >>

End of Edit}


Another system builder category, similar to Cumulative Lengths Beaten.

There is a second category on the Inform Racing system builder that filters results from your query and that is Finishing Position.

Using the same three filters as before but adding Finishing Position >> Equal >> 1, you can see below that the results you now get show only the winners and the reason why the strike rate is 100%.

System Builder: Cumulative Lengths Beaten Inform Racing

You could choose to show all horses that finished second, third or whatever but showing all winners is probably most useful. 

You can then see the prices of all the winners, how many days between each winner, download the list for future reference or do whatever you want to, but you must be sure that you don't complicate this category with Lto1 Pos Numeric.

This is the category that will select only horses that for example, finished first last time out, (Lto1 Pos Numeric >> Equal >> 1), or that finished between second and sixth last time out, (Lto1 Pos Numeric >> Between >> 2 and 6).

Just remember that Cumulative Lengths Btn and Finsihing Position, just filter the other rules you have chosen.

To find horses that were beaten by any number of lengths or finished in any position last time out, use either Lto1 Lengths Btn or Lto1 Pos Numeric.


System builder category list >>

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Ian Welch

Creator and owner of Inform Racing.com since 2003, I have over 30 years of racing and betting experience to share. Speed ratings are my main passion whilst updating the website and writing the odd blog post keeps me busy and hopefully other users well informed.

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