The Australian Racing Board has ratified the proposed terminologies to rate tracks on Australia.
The ARB decided to modernize the language for track ratings to be more easily understood by punters especially young people.
The new track rating system will come into effect from December 1 "as extensive changes are required to the IT systems and data feeds of RISA and their commercial customers”.
The fast rating has been replaced by firm while the slow rating has been substituted with soft. Dead tracks are a thing of the past with the dead (4) rating to be classed as good while a dead (5)
has been added to the soft category.
The delay in introduction is due to the need to backdate track conditions so as to accurately record a horse’s performance. The historical data is essential information to punters.
The new track rating system is as follows:
Rating Numerical Description of numerical rating
Firm 1 Dry hard track
Firm 2 Firm track with
Good 3 Track with good grass coverage and cushion
Good 4 Track with some give in it
Soft 5 Track with a reasonable amount of give in it
Soft 6 Moist but not badly affected track
Soft 7 More rain-affected track that will chop out
Heavy 8 Rain affected track that horses will get into
Heavy 9 Wet track getting into a squelchy area
Heavy 10 Heaviest category track, very wet, towards saturation