Turf Backing Systems

How to use the Backing Systems Reports

Basics
This page is used for generating reports on precreated systems. You can browse a system and see a comprehensive report showing the full performance stats for the system. You can even tweak this page to see if the system would perform better under different conditions such as type of race, field size, or price etc.

Choose a System
First select a category of system you wish to examine. You can choose systems based on horse Gender, Price, or Jockey etc. Once you have selected a category you can then choose one of the preset systems from the second drop down list. e.g. If you chose category Last Time Out you can select one of the systems such as Last Time Out Winners, Quick Returners, 4 Day Winners etc.

Private Datasets
Some of the preset system are available for all Flatstats subscribers and some of them are available to visitors to the Flatstats site. If you wish, you can request that a private dataset is created so that you can examine your own system without anyone else having access to the data. In order to create a private system you need to send us the rules of the system, we will generate a dataset of results from those rules and provide you with a unique code which you can use to access the results of the system.

Report Options
There are various options you can choose for the report:

Detailed Analysis: It is possible to show a detailed analysis of the system which shows a breakdown of all the main stats of the system such as by season, race distance, age ranges etc.

Chart: The chart shows the strike rate and profitability of the system over time.

Staking Plans: This shows the results of backing the system using various basic staking plans.

Generate Runners List: This will generate a spreadsheet type table of all contenders of the system. You can also download this list in csv format for viewing in a spreadsheet.

Report Filter
You can either click Generate Report straight away to see all the stats for your selected system or you can filter the report by changing some of the options on the form.

The report options consist of check boxes which you can use to include or exclude criteria, drop down boxes which you can use to select ranges of numbers, and entry boxes you can use to type in specific ranges such as the SP.

When filtering a report it is best not to be too specific else the number of results returned may be too low to produce a meaningful report. If the report returns insufficient data then you may want to widen your search to include more races.

e.g. If you want to find out how well a particular system does in the summer months then select July to August, if you want find out how well the system does in 2yo races then select 2yo races only.

Generated Report
When you are ready to view the full stats for the system just click the Generate Report button. The report should open in a new window and show you comprehensive information about the system.

The report is split into 4 main sections: Heading Info, Filter Settings, Summary, and Detailed Stats.

Heading Info: This shows the name of the system and the core rules used to generated the system. e.g. The 4 Day Winners System has the following rules: "Won last time out on turf within 4 days".

Filter Settings: This shows any filters you have set up on the form. If you changed any of the form settings from the default then the information will be shown here.

Summary: This shows a quick overview of the system's stats. You can view basic infom such as the total wins, runs and strike rate, as well as the more important expected wins, A/E, and profits.

Expected Wins: the number of wins the system should have had based on the odds of all their runners
Total Earnings: the total win and place prize money earned
Earnings Per Start: the total earnings divided by the total runs - this can be used as a class indicator
Avg Win SP: the average odds of all the system's winners
Avg All SP: the average odds of all the system's runners

Max Winning Run and Max Losing Run: shows the number of consecutive winners and losers for the system.

Detailed Stats: This is the main part of the report which shows a break down of individual groups such as the record of the system for each of the past 10 years, in different classes of race, in different types of races, with different prices and much more.

The stats show:

Category: This is the stat being shown such as Class, Distance, Going, Field Size etc.

Item: This shows the individual stat item such as Group 1, 12f, Good to Form, Small Fields etc.

Wins, Runs, Win%, Plc%: Basic stats for the item including the strike rate (Win%) and the place strike rate (Plc%)

I.V.: This is the Impact Value stat. It is a measure of how much more or less an item is winning within it's category. e.g. If the Category is Gender and the item for Fillies shows an I.V. of 0.75 then fillies are winning less than their fair share of races.

A/E: This is the A/E value stat. It is a measure of how much over or under bet the item is - basically if the item is value or not. If a figure is more than 1.00 then the item has tended to be underbet by the public (it won more races than it was expected to), whilst if the figure is much lower than 1.00 then the item is not so good value.

£1Win, ROI%: These are the profit figures. The £1Win figure shows the total profit or loss from backing the item to a level £1 stake whilst the ROI% shows the return on investment or the profit / loss in percentage terms.

All stats are shown in colour where the colour is based on the the ROI% figure:

• 30% or more ROI
• more than -30% to less than 30% ROI
• -30% or worse ROI

If you still do not understand the stats terms such as ROI, IV, and A/E you may want to read our useful Guide to Horse Racing Stats