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Timeform publications

Timeform Publications is a publishing company in Halifax, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom founded in 1948 to provide information to fans, bettors, and others involved in the horse racing industry. Annually in March, the company puts out its book Racehorses which currently contains more than 1,200 pages and provides information and ratings on the top horses in Australasia, Dubai, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, North America and Scandinavia.

Timeform publishes a number of books. Its Horses to Follow: Flat Season is comprised of short essays on fifty horses deemed worthy of following in the upcoming year's classics. The horses are selected by Timeform's team of experts along with selections from five leading broadcasters. The book also provides a guide to the most significant two-year-old performances from the previous year.

Timeform also compiles a system based on speed and class which appears in the Daily Racing Form for all horse racing events run in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and the United Arab Emirates.

According to the publishers the ratings are "the merit of the horse expressed in pounds and is arrived by careful examination of its running against other horses using a scale of weight for distance beaten which ranges from around 3 lb a length at five furlongs and 2 lb a length at a mile and a quarter to 1 lb at two miles".

In the United States, the Beyer Speed Figure is used which has a set up that yields a different rating number. The popular rule of thumb for obtaining a rough equating of the Beyer score is to add 12-14 points to achieve the Timeform number.

Timeform ratings for 3-year-olds & up are as follows:

• 140 - An outstanding horse
• 130-135 - Above average Group 1 winner
• 125-129 - Average Group 1 winner
• 115-120 - Average Group 2 winner
• 110-115 - Average Group 3 winner
• 100-105 - Average listed race winner

Timeform states that 2-year-old averages are slightly lower. As an example, see this website for the evolution of ratings for horses from age two and on up in the American Grade I Arlington Million [1]

Steven A. Roman, Ph.D., a professor at Columbia University created the Chef-de-Race website, a resource that contains significant information on speed ratings for Thoroughbred racehorses. The figures below are official All-Time Highweights for horses who raced in Australasia, Dubai, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, and Scandinavia as supplied by Mr. Neil O'Connor of Timeform.

• Chef-de-Race website
• A Comparison of Performance Figures, Beyer Figures, Timeform Ratings, Racing Post Ratings, BRIS Ratings and Equibase Ratings
• Timeform official website