How to use the Trainer's Second String Reports

Basics
The Flatstats Trainer's Second String Reports shows the performance of trainers with 2 or more runners in the same race.

When a trainer has 2 or more runners in a race the more fancied of those runners is deemed to be 'the first string' and is the horse who is more likely to win. The trainer's second most fancied horse is deemed to be the 'second string' and so on.

It is rare for a trainer to have more than 2 runners in a race but there are plenty of occassions where a trainer has 2 and thus has a first and second string. Usually this happens in big handicaps, or top Group class races where the trainer wishes to run a pacemaker to make sure the more fancied of his string has the race run to his advantage.

Quite often the first string does not fare so well and the second string wins at much better odds. Punters do not like this but it is they who made the horses their relative position in the betting market!

Use the report to find out which trainers are good when runner 2 or more runners in the same race. See which ones return profits with their first string and big losses with their second string. And look for the opposite to see which trainers tend to fool the market.

Report Filter
You can filter this report for specific races such as big field handicaps, group races, or 2yo maiden stakes races. You can also set specific paramerts for the second string reports:

• Runners in Race Usually this is set from 2 to 2 as this will run a report for all trainers who had exactly 2 runners in the same race.
• Threshold This can be used to set the sample size threshold. If the figure is too high there will be very little data returned. Too low and the report will not be accurate. Try the defaults and only tweak up or down depending on the size of the report returned.

Generated Report
The report show a leaderboard type table listing all qualifying trainers and the following stats:

• SSI This is the Second String Index. It indicates how many more times the second string wins compared to the first string. If the figure is above 1.00 then the second string wins more than the first string. e.g. If the SSI is 2.0 then the trainers second string won twice as many times as the first string.
• W R W% A/E ROI% (first set) This first set shows the record of backing all of the first string where W = Wins, R = Runs, W% = strike rate, A/E = the A/E value stats and ROI% = the profit or loss
• W R W% A/E ROI% (second set) This shows the record of backing all of the second string.
• W R W% A/E ROI% (third set) This shows the record of backing all of the trainers runners in the same race to level stakes.

If you generate a report for 3 or more runners in the same race only the table will only show the W R W% .. results for the first string, second string, and all string combined.