The header
Every chart opens with the race's conditions: the track, date and race number; the distance and surface (dirt, turf or synthetic); the race type and class (maiden, claiming, allowance, stakes and its grade); the purse; and the track condition. Dirt runs fast, good, muddy or sloppy; turf runs firm, good, yielding or soft. Read the header and you know what kind of race you're looking at before you reach a single horse.
The running line
The body of the chart is one row per horse. Reading across, you'll usually find:
- Finish position and the horse's program number.
- The horse's name, with its jockey and trainer.
- Points of call, the horse's running position at each stage of the race (start, the early calls, the stretch and the finish), each with the beaten lengths back from the leader at that point.
- Odds, the final win price, with the betting favourite often marked.
- Sometimes a comment such as "rallied" or "faded".
Points of call and beaten lengths
The points of call are the story of how the race was run. A horse near the front early and still there at the finish made the running. One far back early and closing late came from off the pace. The small numbers are the beaten lengths, how far behind the leader the horse sat at that point. A "length" is roughly the length of a horse. On TurfAtlas we treat it as the Equibase-standard 8.167 feet when we convert lengths to time for our figures.
The leader at any call shows no beaten-lengths margin. Instead the chart notes the margin back to the second horse, which tells you how strung-out or bunched the field was.
Fractional and final times
Below or beside the field, the chart lists the fractional times (the leader's clock at each split) and the final time. Fast early fractions followed by a slow final split describe a contested, tiring pace. Slow early fractions and a fast finish describe a race that was sprinted home. These splits feed our speed and pace figures.
Odds and payouts
At the foot of the chart sit the payouts: the win, place and show returns for the top finishers, then the exotic results (exacta, trifecta, superfecta, daily double and the rest), each with the winning combination and what it paid. Payouts are quoted to a standard base bet, commonly $2 for win/place/show and sometimes $1 or $0.50 for exotics, so check the base before you compare.
Footnotes and also-rans
Finally, the chart records the scratches (horses withdrawn before the race), any stewards' notes such as an inquiry or a disqualification, and an also-eligible or trouble line. If a result changed after the race, say a demotion for interference, this is where it's explained.
If the vocabulary is unfamiliar, the racing glossary defines the terms used throughout, and the bet types guide covers the wagers behind those payouts.