Kimbo’s Girl won at Ascot Racecourse on New Year’s Day
Information is king and knowledge is power so Perth Racing has partnered with Punting Form to assist punters wagering on the club's Ascot Racecourse races.
Punting Form race reports are a data-driven approach to understanding the relative strengths of each runner in an upcoming race. Using benchmark ratings, the reports feature the most recent performances of each competitor and their respective personal bests within the last two years, as well as a speed map indicating likely settle positions and computer-generated price assessments.
Benchmarking is the process of converting times into standardised figures that account for prevailing race conditions to provide a means of understanding the relative performance of any past run. The figures are expressed in lengths and the smaller (or more negative) the figure, the better (faster) the performance.
Speed map positions are based on the average historical settle position for each runner as a percentage of field size, while prices are derived from the Punting Form neural ratings, which take into account a range of 20 statistical factors.
According to the Punting Form race reports for Saturday's meeting at Ascot Racecourse, there are several competitors which should be of interest to punters, particularly Kimbo's Girl in the Gas&Air Wangara Handicap over 1,200 metres. Kimbo Girl's most recent run, in which she finished fourth behind Oliver's Travels, rated very highly compared to the last-start efforts of her weekend opponents - it was 3.9 lengths superior to the next highest rating of Akiko. Admittedly, Kimbo's new two-year personal best occurred over 1,400m but she is a proven fresh commodity so she should appreciate her eight-week space between runs and drawing gate two for her reappearance over 1,200m means she maps well.
You can download the Punting Form race reports for all eight Ascot Racecourse races on Saturday and they appear in the club's official racebook as well.