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The Tin Man flagged to us last month of new restrictions accessing the Racing Post database to a subscriber-only basis. It can’t be beyond the the realms of possibility that access to all Form Book data could be restricted to Racing Post members only. Not being the sharpest tool in the TRF Mens’ Shed I would appreciate any answers or thoughts on these questions.
1. Maybe I’m just lazy but The Racing Post online website is the only one I use. Is it indispensable? Do some folk ignore it and get by fine with Sporting Life and other specialist racing publishers?
2. Is there any independent Form Book freely available to the public from the Racing Authorities in the UK? If not, should there be?
3. How does the Racing Post reward Horse-Racing for the privilege of publishing the Form Book and other racing data thus enabling it to garner enormous revenues from the Betting and Breeding industries?
4. Should the B.H.A. or the relevant Racing authority if they don’t already do, pay the Racing Post to make their Form Book database free to all? Or would this be a case of the tail wagging the horse?
How does this part of the Racing ecosystem work?
Elucidation appreciated!Answering Q2, there are other good sources, of which by far the best is IrishRacing.com.
That site provides full UK results, with comments on running, a search option for individual horses that gives all the basic info you need, as well as upcoming entries and details of all public sales of the horse.
Different from the Post, so takes a while to get used to, but all the info you need is there.
Just to clarify on this, you don’t have to be a paid subscriber but you do need to create a free account with the Racing Post which they presumably use for marketing purposes, can’t see any other reason why they’d have changed how it was. Its a pain in the arse because it tends to log you out every time you leave the site.
I’ve not got much in the way of answers, but think these are good questions!
It would be interesting to know if there is just a single form database that all parties are using. I suspect so as there are scenarios that are open to interpretation (e.g. whether a horse fell or got brought down), yet the different sites always seem to agree in such situations. Obviously the accompanying comments are site-specific.
And who owns and maintains this form database if there is just one? I presume Weatherbys are involved somehow.
I check the comments sometimes between RP and Sporting Life and there are often little differences that could ultimately sway on a decision. For example a horse will be said to be ‘staying on’ on one site but ‘kept on same pace’ or ‘no extra final 110 yards’ on another.
If I had to pay for RP for the form then I would as I am so accustomed to it now and the little idiosyncrasies that give me the confidence to place a bet. Like TinMan states, you just have to sign up and all that takes is a username and password, just a bit annoying that you tend to have to sign in every time, but not that annoying to be put off.
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