What a Time Rating Is and How Class, Speed and Weight Go Into One Number
What a time rating actually measures, and how class, speed and weight get combined into one number for today's race.
Recorded August 2025 for The Grind Ep 4. Any figures mentioned are from that time.
A time rating is just a number that describes how well a horse ran. That is the whole idea. You take a run and you turn it into a figure so you can compare it with other runs and other horses. On my screen it shows up as RSR, but the name does not matter. What matters is understanding how the final number in front of you gets built, because it is not one measurement. It is three things pulled together: class, speed and weight. That is where the CSW rating gets its name.
Where the speed number comes from
The speed part is a judgement call dressed up as a figure. Take Cumin as an example. Its last run was on 13 April 2024, so it had not raced for over a year. Go back through its form and you see the numbers: 84, 85, 92, 97, 95, 78. My job is to come up with one number out of all of that. Not an average, the best representation of what this horse can run today.
That means looking at the distances. The race at Morphettville was 1,200 metres. So do I use the last run, or the first-up run? Do I go back and look at its past first-up efforts? Do I throw out the thousand metre runs, like the one where it rated 96, because today is 1,200? These are the decisions sitting behind the figure. For Cumin, the class speed weight rating came up with 93 for the speed component.
How class gets into it
The class part runs off race strength. Every race has a strength number, and that tells you the quality of the field the horse was actually beating or being beaten by. Today's race strength for Cumin was 92.7. Then you look back at the race strengths it has been running in: 93, 98, 97, 90, 92, 88.
So 92 sits roughly in the middle of all that. There is nothing great there in terms of class. Cumin has been running in both lower and higher grade races, and today's race is about par for what it has faced. That matters because the speed figures need context. If Cumin had been running in 85 strength races the whole time and then turned up in this one, I would be marking those speed ratings down. The figure was earned against weaker opposition, so it does not carry across at full value.
Why weight moves the number
The third part is weight, and it works the way you would expect. Anything high in the weights for today's race gets marked down. Anything low in the weights gets marked up, because it is carrying less. The horse has to lug the weight around, so the rating has to reflect it.
Put the three together and you have one figure that says: this is the speed this horse can produce, against this grade of opposition, under today's weight.
When you look at a rating, do not treat it as a fact handed down from somewhere. Ask yourself which past runs went into the speed number and whether they fit today's trip and grade. That is where the real work sits.
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 I Compare Top Mares on Peak Ratings Over the Last 600 and 200
- How to Spot a Horse That Is About to Improve
- Will a Horse That Sprints Over 1200m Sprint Over a Mile?
From the full video: The Grind Ep 4 | Turning Ratings Into Profits – Real Betting Analysis & Mindset in Action
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