What Is Moneyform - and how to use it

The Moneyform concept was conceived by Martin Kilgariff and introduced into the patternform family of tools in 2012.

Welcome to MONEYFORM the next paradigm shift in the world of horserace punting.

Back in the day, all we had was form. Initially this consisted of a single figure, a horse's finishing position. Over time this evolved to include a numerical form rating, a private handicapper's view of the value of any run. Then came speed ratings. In the United States Beyer, in the UK Timeform, Topspeed and others which are again numerical estimations of a runner's ability, this time based on how fast a race was run. There has been tinkering around the edges since, but it is only since the advent of exchanges in the late 1990's and the introduction of In-Play betting and the Betfair Starting Price (BFsp) that a body of information has built up which has the potential to be the single most powerful weapon in the punters armoury and this is encapsulated in the concept of MONEYFORM.

In essence MONEYFORM is the distillation of the opinion of every punter who participates in both the betfair Pre-Race market and In-Play markets. To distil something is to separate out its essence and that is what the In-Play market does. Thousands of eyes watch every event and the In-Play price movement is a distillation of the opinion of every race watcher who is punting in the In-Play market. Some may be there to trade back Pre-Race positions, others, like professional layers, looking to lay at the lowest possible price, but the vast majority are looking for the winner and it's that desire which primarily drives the In-Play market. These are not lightly held opinions, they are opinions which are supported by HARD CASH.

The challenge is to encapsulate the price movement between a runner's Betfair SP and the lowest price it trades In-Play into a single figure which both represents the lowest price traded and the relationship between that price and the Betfair SP. This duality of meaning is important since it addresses two different markets. The absolute In-Play lowest price is of interest to those who want to use MONEYFORM to find winners and the relationship between the In-Play lowest price, and the Betfair SP to those who want to trade between the Pre-Race and In-Play markets.

This relationship between the In-Play lowest price and the Betfair SP is important since, if a runner trades down to 2.2 In-Play but its Betfair SP is 2.5, then this only represents a drop of 20% which limits the scope for making a profit trading between the Pre-Race and In-Play markets. But a drop from 8.0 Pre-Race to 2.2 In-Play is much more significant and give much more scope for Pre-Race/ In-Play trading.

MONEYFORM PRICE CODES

To represent both the lowest In-Play value a runners trades, and how this compares to it's BFsp, MONEYFORM uses a combination of price code and colour. The price code indicates the price range of a runner's In-Play low, and the colour represents how this compares to it's BFsp.

Price Code

0 - (0 in Italics) means that the runners didn't DOB (click for full description) - but it's lowest price In Running was between 50 and 75% of it's BF starting price

0 - means that the runners didn't DOB but it's lowest price In Running was between 75% and 90% of it's BF starting price

0 - means that the runners didn't DOB(i.e. It lowest price In Running was OVER half it's BF starting price - for a BFsp of 16.0 it's lowest prive InPlay was 8.2 or higher)
? - means that the In Running price isn't currently available (i.e. could be foreign race or point-to-point form.)
n - means the BFsp was less than 2.02 so a DOB isn't possible

All other figures indicate the the runner DOBBED
* - is a 1.01 which usually means a win
1 - In Runner low between 1.99 to 1.02
2 - In Runner low between 2.99 to 2.0
3 - In Runner low between 3.99 to 3.0
4 - In Runner low between 4.99 to 4.0
5 - In Runner low between 5.99 to 5.0
6 - In Runner low between 6.99 to 6.0
7 - In Runner low between 7.99 to 7.0
8 - In Runner low between 8.99 to 8.0
9 - In Runner low of 9.0 or over - but less than half it's BFsp price i.e. DOBBED

The colour code is used to indicate how low the InPlay price reached relative to it's BFsp:

Green means the runner DOBBED at between 50% and 25% of the BFsp (DOB) - i.e. for a BFsp of 16.0 it has an In Running low of between 8.0 and 4.1

Gold means the runner DOBBED at between 25% and 12.5% of the BFsp (Double DOB) - i.e. for a BFsp of 16.0 it has an In Running low of between 4.0 and 2.02

Red means the runner DOBBED at less then 12.5% of the BFsp (Treble DOB) i.e. for a BFsp of 16.0 it has an In Running low of 2.0 or lower.

The Moneyform card consists of two sections, the runner list, and the filters.


Runner List
The Runner List is the heart of Moneyform and consists of all the runners in the race and information about them. There is one line per runner with various columns some of which can be sorted. On initial load the Moneyform Racecard is sorted by speed.

The first Column is the MoneyForm figure (* = 1.01 IR). Unlike most form cards, this doesn't give a finishing position but a Moneyform code, including colour coding as described in the preceeding section.

Unlike most formcards you can choose which previous races are included in each runners formline by using the filters
- but more on that later.

The second column is DOB% and gives the percentage of DOBS from the current formline for each runner. These only relate to the MoneyForm figures in the MoneyFormline as displayed. If you have filtered using the Race Distance of 5 Furlongs, then only those races over 5f (upto 5f 110yds) are displayed and the DOB% will be the runners DOB% over 5f.

The third column is N/A Not Applicable - will be removed at a later date

The fourth column is Runners and is the Runners name

The fifth column is AgeWei and give the current age, and weight carried by the runner (excludes any jockey allowances and Over Weight)

The sixth column is DOBVal and gives for each runner the three most valuable races in which it DOBBED, measured in £1,000's (3 = £3,000 to £3,999). This again relates only to those races which are in the formline.

The seventh column is Speed Figure. The best three are given and again relates only to those races which are in the formline.

The eighth column is Multi figure which was suggested by a user and is the speed figure multiplied by the RanTo figure and adjusted downward, and again relates only to those races which are in the formline.

The ninth column is RanTo and is the traditional form figure adjusted to today's weight for each runner and again relates only to those races which are in the formline.

If you move the "mouse pointer" over a column heading, and it turns into a "down Arrow" then you will be able to sort on that field. Sortable fields are:
DOB% - DOBVal - Speed - Multi and RanTo


As part of the runner list there is the "Form Panel"

To activate the form panel click on any of the formlines - preferably one with form figures.

A New "Form Panel" will be displayed, holding only those races from the formline.

At the same time the filter section is hidden.

To hide the "Form Panel", click again of any of the runners formlines and the "Form Panel" will be hidden and the Filter Section will be un-hidden.

The Form Panel has the following columns: Date, Trk, Gng, Dist, Ran, Prize, Grade, Class, FPos, Wei, Speed, Multi, Hcap

Each line

The first Form Panel Column is Date and is the date on which the race was run.

The second Form Panel column is Trk and is the racecourse on which the race was run.

The third Form Panel column is Gng and is the Official going on which the race was run.

The fourth Form Panel column is Dist and is the race distance over which the race was run.

The fifth Form Panel column is Ran and is the number of runners in the race.

The sixth Form Panel column is Prize and is the winning prize money to the nearest 1K

The seventh Form Panel column is RacTyp and is type of race Full list of Race Types

The eighth Form Panel column is Class and is the BHA Class for the race 1 - 7

The ninth Form Panel column is Form and holds the Moneyform code.

The tenth Form Panel column is Wei and is the weight carried by the horse

The eleventh Form Panel column is Speed and is the speed rating the runner achieved in the race adjusted for weight carried

The twelfth Form Panel column is Multi and is a figure which was suggested by a user and is the speed figure multiplied by the RanTo figure and adjusted downward, and again relates only to those races which are in the formline.

The thirteenth Form Panel column is Hcap and is the traditional form figure adjusted to today's weight for each runner and again relates only to those races which are in the formline.

Filters
Below the Runner List section is the Filter Section.
This section currently consists of 16 different filters. These filters allow the punter to select which type of races will be displayed in the formline within the Runner List section.

Filter 1 is the Going filter - Official going

Filter 2 is the Race Distance filter - To the nearest Mile and Furlong

Filter 3 is the Race Type filter - Select between handicaps/group/sellers etc

Filter 4 is the Course filter - Racecourse on which today's runners have raced previously

Filter 5 is the Surface filter - choose between flat course or degrees of undulation

Filter 6 is the NH/Flat filter - flat, hurdle, chase, NHflat

Filter 7 is the Class filter - Official class of the race 1 - 7

Filter 8 is the Prize filter - Winning prize money of race to nearest 1k

Filter 9 is the Weight filter - Weight carried in a race

Filter 10 is the Field Size filter - Number of runners in a race

Filter 11 is the Run Order filter - Number of runs to look back i.e. look only at a runners last x runs

Filter 12 is the Rest Days filter - Number of days between runs

Filter 13 is the Config filter - Sort of course - Galloping, sharp, uphill finish

Filter 14 is the Look back filter - Number of month to "look back" i.e. only look at runs over the last 3 months

Filter 15 is the LH/RH filter - Racecourse direction - Left handed / Right handed / other

Filter 16 is the Month filter - Time of year by month

To activate a filter you need to select at least one value from a filter list.

For instance, if you select the 5f entry from the Race Distance filter and clicked the Re-run button then only races over 5 furlongs (5f to 5f 110yards) will be displayed in the formline of the Runner list section.

When no selections are made from a filter then all values of that filter are allowed when selecting races to display in the formline (i.e. if no race distances are selected then all race distances are included).

When the Moneyform card first loads the only filter to have values pre-selected is the Look back filter. The value 6 Months is selected which means that only races run in the last 6 months are included in the runners formlines.

Once the Moneyform card has loaded, it's upto the user to decide to change the filter selection to analyse the race.

To do this, either single value in the filters can be selected of multiple values. Once all filters have been selected the Re-Run button under the "Generate" heading must be clicked.

To change the default "look back 6 month" setting, select the period you want to look back over - 1 month - 24 months, or 24+ months for all races and click the Re-Run button.

To select multiple value from a list, select the first value, then Hold Down the "Ctrl" key and click the next selection.

If the Selections are consecutive, click the first selection in the list, then find the last Selection and hold the "Shift" key down while selecting the last value. (i.e. to select 5f to 7f, click to select 5f, hold the shift key down and click on 7f. The 5f, 6f and 7f should be selected)