At THM, our aim is to provide the best horse racing racecards and ensure that you are using all our exclusive features efficiently and maximising the information to best inform your betting decision.
In this blog, we want to cover the Average Speed Analysis (ASA) tab, which we know can act as a powerful tool for horse form study and can add real value alongside the regular form study metrics, such as ground, course, and distance. You'll find it on the furthest tab to the right on our racecards. Here's a little helping hand...
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Why should you use our ASA tool?
The bare form metrics may show a horse finished 3rd on soft ground over 1 mile. But was the race run at a fast pace? Did the horse ultimately clock an impressive speed? Is the horse improving from 1 run to the next? Is a horse only posting impressive average speed figures in certain race conditions? These are all reasonable questions which our THM ASA tool can answer.
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What is ASA?
The tool displays 3 main components for each horse's last 4 races:
1. "AVG. SPEED": This is the raw average speed value achieved by the horse in the given race.
2. "+/- to STD AVG": This part is super useful. The value here denotes whether the average speed achieved was faster or slower than the standard average for a race of those race conditions. These standard averages are THM data-driven values calculated from an extensive history of UK horse racing data.
3. "RACE INFO": The conditions of the race and finishing position of the horse. Simple.
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When should it be used?
All the time! The beauty of the ASA tool is that it can be used in any kind of race. Where a horse has limited form, most other form metrics will have missing data points, whereas you can guarantee speed comparisons can always be made. In large fields, the green and red indicators allow for rapid creation of a selection shortlist. It's also easy to see which horses are running under similar race conditions to previous runs, and which are not.
Strong Average Speed figures correlate well with overall performance - we see the regular alignment between what the THM ASA tool presents and the bookmaker odds. It's also possible to extract valuable information from poor speed figures - was it a genuine poor performance, or was the overall race run at such a slow pace that it didn't suit? Maybe this race will be run in a different way?
The ASA tool will also link the pace of a race with the success of a given horse. Slow race speeds coupled with good finishing positions indicate those contenders which perform well in slowly run races, perhaps thriving when a turn of foot is required off a slow pace; whereas truly run races with an end to end gallop may bring out the best in others. Much to consider.
Head over to our racecards now to check it out!