Hi Guys,

I'm giving my ratings a final overhaul/adjustment given a number of old and current threads i've read recently along with a bunch of stats I recorded last year and stats recorded on the R&S website. I believe i'm across most area's pretty well and don't forsee any problems besides determining a 'Class' variable. The seems to be no uniform conclusion on what determines the 'Class' of a horse.

Some have suggested career prizemoney (API), some have suggested prizemoney within the last 12 months, others suggest utilising times and splits to come to a conclusion, and there are a number of other methods as well.

I'm looking for a reasonably simplified approach that can be automated quite easily through excel using imported form to calculate a class variable for each horse. All thoughts, idea's, suggestions are welcome and will be greatly appreciated as its the one aspect of my ratings that I haven't really pinned down yet.

I'll offer up my thoughts, is that it needs to be some kind of equation that deals in the average prizemoney won in the last 12 months potentially adjusted for the starting odds of the horse in that race. i.e. i'd suggest a horse that wins a $30,000 race at 3/1 probably has more class then a horse that wins a $30,000 race at 40/1 particularly if it has placed poorly on all other occasions.

I'm not exactly sure what other ways can utilized easily from a form guide to gauge the 'class' of a horse besides prizemoney.

Thoughts?