How do you source the form you study?

[Desert Orchid]

I'm just putting this out there in its most general sense since we seem to be picking up new/younger members.

There are some excellent judges on here who put up winners pretty regularly and I understand if they swerve this thread completely.

I'm prompted in part by this week's considerable increase in the cover price of the Weekender, my primary source of information.

I don't really read the paper as I don't really rate the journalists too much although I usually check to see what Paul Kealy mentions in his column since I noticed over a period of time that we often end up with the same selections.

I buy the Weekender for the form pullouts. I tried Raceform Interactive for a short while many years ago but couldn't get used to it, on top of which it was expensive back then and there was a lot of features I didn't bother with since I'm not into stats or trends, etc.

I also worried what would happen if there was some kind of cyber attack or IT malfunction at Raceform. With the paper hard copy I can annotate races/cards with my own notes, abbreviations, numbers, etc, and it's all there at my fingertips.

I used to buy the Form Book and had for many, many years all the annual compilations stored in my loft but ended up binning them when I moved house four years ago since nobody on here wanted them. However, there were often issues with delivery. It wasn't uncommon for the instalment to arrive a week late and Raceform always blamed Royal Mail, which I totally understood as they are a dreadful outfit.

The Form Book didn't include Irish racing either, which was inconvenient. I happened to buy the Weekender one time to see if it was the kind of thing that suited me, having for many years when younger been a subscriber to the old Handicap Book, then the Update so when they merged with the Sporting Life I wanted to see how it was panning out.

To my pleasant surprise, the Weekender form pullout included the race comments, analysis (as per the old Notebook), Irish racing and future ratings. Bar that short spell with RI, I've been taking the Weekender ever since.

I did have a postal subscription for some time since the local shop didn't always have it but the old Royal Mail issues soon surfaced and I had to go back to my newsagent and ask him to order a weekly copy for me, which he did.

Over the years the price has gone up, obviously, but the latest hike took my breath away. Up from £6.50 to £7.20. I'll be honest, I've spent most of the last 24 hours wondering if this is the end of form study for me as the alternatives out there are even more expensive.

I reckon I don't watch enough racing - it's really only the Saturday and festivals TV stuff - to rely purely on my eyes. I'm instinctively more of an empirically minded person. I like to see the numbers in front of me and to come up with numbers of my own.

But is there anything out there I'm missing? Are there alternatives that would give me the same info in hard copy form?

And do the rest of you just rely on your eyes? The RP/ATR results pages, etc?

Just curious.

(I have to give a wee shout out to my local newsagent. He's only in the shop every now and again, presumably when the other staff can't be there. When I'm buying the Weekender he'll look at the price and go off his head about how a paper can be so expensive. Last week I handed over a tenner and he gave me a fiver change. I said, "The paper's £6.50, you've given me too much change." He replied, "Ach, it shouldn't cost any more than that!")

 

[barjon]

You’ll have to update yourself, desert . If you get the computer version you can scribble on it to your heart’s content nowadays. As a matter of interest I’m beginning to use AI. For example I’ve just asked Gemini - Can you give me a detailed breakdown of how Sober Glory ran at Newbury last Saturday.

It came back with this in seconds.


Sober Glory’s performance at Newbury last Saturday (February 7, 2026) was nothing short of a statement. Running in the 1:00 William Hill Racing Epic Boosts Novices' Hurdle, the Philip Hobbs and Johnson White-trained six-year-old justified his 1/3 favoritism with a dominant 27-length victory.


Here is the detailed breakdown of the run:


Race Overview


• Distance: 2m 69y


• Going: Heavy (Soft in places)


• Jockey: Harry Cobden


• Result: 1st of 8 runners (won by 27 lengths)


Tactical Breakdown


• The Start: Harry Cobden wasted no time, sending Sober Glory straight to the front. He "made all," setting a strong, relentless gallop that immediately tested the field’s stamina in the testing ground.


• Mid-Race: By the second hurdle, he had already opened up a significant gap. He had one slight blemish—a "not fluent" jump at the fifth—but otherwise traveled with immense ease.


• The Challenge: Heading toward the straight, the Dan Skelton-trained Kadastral (the 2/1 second favorite) began to close the gap. By the time they reached the third-to-last hurdle, Sober Glory’s lead had been "much reduced," and it looked like a race was on.


• The Finish: The challenge was short-lived. Cobden remained cool, keeping the horse "going well" until before the last hurdle. When asked to quicken, Sober Glory produced a "taking burst of pace," leaving Kadastral and the rest of the field in his wake. He crossed the line 27 lengths clear, barely needing a "shaken up" hands-and-heels ride.


Key Takeaways & Future Outlook


• Condition: After the race, the vet reported that he had "struck into" his right-fore leg (a minor injury where a horse hits itself with its own shoe), which makes the margin of victory even more impressive.


• Course Specialist: This was his second successive year winning on this specific card, having won the Listed bumper at the same meeting in 2025.


• Cheltenham Prospects: Following the win, bookmakers slashed his odds for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival to 20/1 (from 33/1). His ability to handle a fast pace and deep ground makes him a very intriguing "dark horse" for the festival opener.

 

[Desert Orchid]

You’ll have to update yourself, desert . If you get the computer version you can scribble on it to your heart’s content nowadays.

A number of years back I took up one of the RP offers to the site - can't remember for how long - and I recall it allowed me to calculate my own ratings via my own input re pounds per length (which I calculate differently from the commercial outfits).

I recall Sunybay was keen on using the RP form and then got heavily into Timeform sectionals. I imagine he's combining them somehow but we've all but lost touch with just the very occasional exchange of email.

Would I not need some highfalutin hardware to be able to 'scribble' my own stuff?

 

[barjon]

No, you’ve got two options. You can print off the relevant pages you want or you can save them to files. Once saved you can just click the round pencil tab at the top right which allows your scribbling.

I think the digital Weekender is £4 if you subscribe for a month(£16), but I don’t know if you can buy just the results pull out

 

[Euronymous]

I used to get the Weekender back in the day and keep the form pullouts. I agree...it's too dear now.

These days my form study is mostly done via video (RP and ATR) and if I need anything confirming or I want to look at pedigrees I use the Racing Post.

 

[Ian_Davies]

I source my form using my local free parish magazine "The Old Basing Bugle," which, in addition to giving the ever-changing opening times at Mrs Salt Biscuit's Coffee, Tea and Alligator Steak Emporium, seems underpinned by an enviable database and every issue comes with a complimentary abacus, specially calibrated for sectional time analysis.

(Disclaimer: It is possible the above contains one or more factual inaccuracies).

 

[barjon]

No, you’ve got two options. You can print off the relevant pages you want or you can save them to files. Once saved you can just click the round pencil tab at the top right which allows your scribbling.

I think the digital Weekender is £4 if you subscribe for a month(£16), but I don’t know if you can buy just the results pull out

Just had a look in the RP shop and there is a weekly form book for £5 - dunno whether it just replicates the pull out. I’d forgotten about that.

Jumps Formbook 2025-26 - downloadable version (PDF) - Issue 25 - 10/02/2026​

£5.00

 

[tiggers1972]

I like the Sporting Life website for free video replays.

 

[viking]

Me too SP website/mobile app for race replays. RP generally for text form but that can be misleading and there’s no substitute for seeing for myself

 

[Danny]

I've often found that where you source data from is a lot less important than how you interperet it.

There's a hell of a lot to be said for logic, common sense and the ability to read what's going on in a race well.

Also importantly stay away from hype. If you find your saying things that 99% of other people are saying in betting then you aren't on the right path long term. Also if you find yourself thinking that every unexposed novice at top yards is the next big thing or thinking that horses rated mid 120's are mid 150's horses in disguise with no tangible evidence then you're also on the wrong path. The answer to a horse could be anything is a lot more likely to be that it's ordinary than it is special. Trying to spot plots or thinking everything is a plot is a lot less profitable than common sense, form based and evidence based opinions.


Some punters could pay for all the best subscriptions and still not be able to bet the information correctly. Whilst others need nothing more than the information found in " The old basing bugle" a dash of common sense.

 

[Desert Orchid]

Just had a look in the RP shop and there is a weekly form book for £5 - dunno whether it just replicates the pull out. I’d forgotten about that.

Jumps Formbook 2025-26 - downloadable version (PDF) - Issue 25 - 10/02/2026​

£5.00

Yes, that goes back a couple of years to when "to save costs and keep prices down" they stopped publishing in the Weekender both codes for most of the year. They have a QR code in the NH Weekender for the AW Flat form and once the Whitbread meeting, occasionally they include Punchestown, is past the QR code is for the 'summer' jumps results through to the end of October.

Access to them is free but I'd need to print off every page when I might only be interested in one or two of the actual races so it isn't really for me. For every page of the pullout I'd probably need two sheets of A4.