EQS Horse Report

Methodology: how the figures in a horse report work

Every figure in an EQS horse report is worked out by fixed rules. This page sets them out, so you can see what a number means before you rely on it.

Where the figures come from

A report is built from the EQS database when you generate it: racing results and ratings, pedigree names, and the sales records EQS holds. EQS tracks more than 50,000 horses across more than 120 racing regions. No database holds every record, and a report always says what it could and could not find. Ratings are shown as held: OR is the official rating, RPR the Racing Post Rating and TSR the Topspeed rating.

Sire and damsire figures carry an “as at” date, which is the date they were last calculated. The cross is worked out when the report is built.

Definitions

Progeny

Horses in the EQS database recorded as by a given sire, or as out of a mare by a given damsire. Fractional share entries are not counted as horses.

Runner

A progeny with at least one run on record.

Winner

A runner that has won at least once.

Black type

A race graded Group 1, 2 or 3, Grade 1, 2 or 3, or Listed.

Black type secured

A horse that has finished first, second or third in a black type race. It is a win or a placing, so the report never calls it “wins”.

Peak OR

The highest official rating on record for a horse across its runs. Only numeric ratings count.

Median peak OR (rated runners)

The middle value of peak OR across the progeny that have one.

The cross

Progeny of the sire out of mares by the damsire.

Not held

No figure is on record. It is shown as “not held” and never as a zero, because an absent figure and a figure of zero mean different things.

How each rate is worked out

A rate is the numerator divided by the denominator, as a percentage to one decimal place. Every rate in a report is shown with its denominator (for example “n=1,285”), so you can judge how much weight it can bear.

The 30-record floor

A rate that rests on fewer than 30 records is flagged “indicative only” and is not used as a headline figure. The cross and a dam's produce often fall below the floor, which is why those sections are often marked partial.

Database medians

The “database median” beside a sire's rate is the median of that rate across all sires with at least 50 progeny on record. Damsires are measured against damsires in the same way. A report states how many lines the median covers, so you can see how large the comparison group is.

Dam and produce

A dam's produce is listed only where it can be matched to the horse's own family: the same damsire, a plausible age, and foaled after the damsire's first crop. Where more than one horse in the database shares the dam's name, rows that cannot be matched are removed, the report says how many, and the section is marked partial.

Section status

Each section carries a label. Held means the figures are on record. Partial means some are missing or rest on a small sample. Not available means nothing is on record. The last page of every report is a data coverage table that lists the status of each section.

Finishing positions and prices

Non-finish codes such as PU, F and UR are shown as codes. A number that could not be a real finishing place, which can come from a data feed, is not shown as a position. A recorded price of zero means no price was recorded, and it is not shown as a sale for nothing.

Limits

• The pedigree in a report holds names of raced horses only, and coverage thins beyond the second generation. The report says what share of the tree it holds.
• Figures are a guide drawn from the EQS database. They are not advice, and they do not guarantee how a horse will perform or what it will be worth.