How a Cruising and Acceleration Rating Works

Recorded July 2025 for Max Bet Ep 1. Any figures mentioned are from that time.

When I look at a race, the class, speed and weight ratings often sit very close together. In those races they do not separate much for me. What does separate horses is the cruising and acceleration metric. It is two numbers doing two different jobs. The cruising figure tells me where a horse is likely to settle. The acceleration figure tells me what that horse can do off the pace the race is going to produce. Read together, they tell me which horses the setup suits.

What the cruising number tells you

The cruising number is about early speed and position. In a race I went through, the top-rated horse had a cruising figure of 82, higher than the horse rated next to it. That tells me it will probably sit slightly in front of the other one. That is useful on its own. If two horses are close on overall merit, knowing which one is likely to be in front of the other changes how the race looks, and it changes how much each of them has to do late.

I am not guessing at a map from form comments. The number comes from what the horse has actually done early in its races. So the cruising figure is the first half of the picture, and it feeds straight into the second half.

Where the acceleration number comes from

The acceleration figure is not a general rating of how fast a horse can finish. It is built around the pace I expect in the race. If the race pressure is going to be fast, I look back at what those horses have done out of fast run races. I am looking at their faster early sections and what they produced after them.

In that example, the two top-rated horses had clear acceleration over the rest of the field on those terms. They were on 100 and 96, and the field was well behind them. That is not the same as saying they are the two best horses. It is saying they are the two most suited by the setup. What I am trying to do is fit the setup to the past form of the horse. If the pace is going to be fast, I want horses that have already shown me what they do off a fast pace.

Why weight is left out

This is the part people need to understand. The acceleration metric does not factor in weight at all. That is deliberate. It is measuring one thing, which is how the horse accelerates off a given pace, and I do not want weight blurring that measurement.

It does mean the number cannot be read on its own. A rating of 100 off a fast pace is telling me the horse is suited by the run of the race. It is not telling me what that horse is carrying, or who it is racing against on the day. That part sits with the conditions of the race, and it is my job to put the two together before I decide anything.

So use the cruising number to work out where horses will be, use the acceleration number to work out who the likely pace suits, and then go back to the conditions of the race for the things the metric deliberately leaves out.

Every race on the card, rated, with Kingsley's selections and the speed maps behind them. Your first day is free, no card needed.

More from Kingsley

• How Do You Split Two Horses With the Same Rating?
• Can You Forgive a Beaten Favourite First Up?
• Spotting the Pattern of a Horse at the End of Its Preparation

From the full video: Max Bet Ep 1 | Finding Bullets

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