National Hunt 2018-19 : Dodlands Steading mid season review (published 31st December '18)

A statistical review of the season to date for Dodlands Steading is provided below.

*  statistics from 1st August 2018 - 31st December 2018
** placed runner cover those of our horses in the first 4 in a race where there is prize money won

The seemingly endless summer of 2018 did have a lingering impact upon the National Hunt scene with trainers the length and breadth of the country loath to introduce their 'winter' horses until the ground conditions eased. At Dodlands, we were maybe held back a couple of weeks, our first runner of the new season being Baby Ticker on 12th November.

So, how have we done so far?

In Mark Johnston's The Authorised Biography, written by Nick Townsend, he refers to how statistics can reveal telling insights in current stable trends.

The measure is to look at the percentage of horses getting placed. If we're hitting 50% then we're really flying (and this only at certain parts of the year). If we're running at a third everything's fine. But if it drops below 25%, we're in dire straits.

As you can imagine, we're delighted to record a 58.8% of place-to-runner ratio in the months of November and December, plus a winning strike ratio of 23.5%!
Although based on a very much smaller sample than Britain's winningmost trainer, to record such a high place-to-runner ratio is a massive achievement.
The sample is slightly skewed in that we tend to introduce our unraced youngsters in the second half of the season, those being less likely to be placed, but 58% is 58%!

Incidentally, if anyone reading would like to help in increasing the sample size, please get in touch...................

Another method (and this one is our own idea) that we use to measure how the yard is doing is by analysis of Racing Post Ratings (RPR), which are allocated to every horse after each race that it completes.
These give an indication of the quality of performance achieved by the string. Taking an RPR of 100 to represent an average level of performance, the yard had 7 of our 12 horses who achieved one or more performances at a higher than average level during the first part of the season.

The table below lists each of these individual performances.

So, a fantastic effort by the team in the early months of the season and whilst it is unrealistic to expect a place-to-runner ratio of 58% to be maintained, we will continue working on those incremental improvements and striving to be competitive in each race in which we compete.

Many thanks to this season's team - Georgina, Alan, Cameron, Grahame, Callum, Garry, Ryan, Pinky, Kingy, Leah, Laura and Rebecca. Plus of course our vet Sarah S, and Helen!
Thanks to all our owners too, it goes without saying none of this would be possible without you.   

One winner caught us on the hop slightly - Stainsby Girl (white blaze) at Carlisle in December