Going in horse racing explained: firm to heavy and the GoingStick

What the going is, and who decides it

The going is the official description of the ground a race is run on: how firm or how soft the surface is. On a turf course it runs from rock-hard to bottomless; on an all-weather track it describes how quick the artificial surface is riding.

The going is declared by the clerk of the course, the racecourse official responsible for the track. The clerk walks the course, looks at the weather and the recent watering, takes instrument readings (see the GoingStick section below) and then publishes a description. It is a professional judgement, not a measurement, so two clerks looking at similar ground can describe it differently, and the same clerk can revise the description during a meeting.

The British turf scale

From fastest to slowest, the descriptions used on British turf courses are:

You will also see qualifiers such as "Good to Soft, Soft in places" or "Good (Good to Firm in places)". They mean the course is not uniform: a patch may be drier or wetter than the headline description, often on the stretch that has had less water or less sun.

Irish going descriptions

Irish courses use a slightly different vocabulary on the softer side of the scale. In place of "Good to Soft" you will see Good to Yielding and Yielding, and the softer end is spelled out in more steps. A rough translation, from firm to soft:

• Firm, Good to Firm, Good mean much the same as in Britain.
• Good to Yielding sits between Good and Yielding, close to what a British clerk would call Good to Soft or Good.
• Yielding is the Irish word for ground with a fair amount of give, and is usually the nearest match to British Good to Soft.
• Yielding to Soft, Soft, Soft to Heavy and Heavy carry the scale on to the softest ground, with Yielding to Soft sitting between Yielding and Soft.

The two scales are not an exact match, so treat the translation above as a guide to the direction, not an equivalence. When you compare a horse's Irish and British form, read the description against the horse's performances on that day rather than assuming "Yielding" is the same ground as "Good to Soft".

All-weather going

All-weather surfaces such as Polytrack and Tapeta are not affected by rain in the same way as turf, so the scale is shorter and describes pace rather than moisture. From quickest to slowest it runs Fast, Standard to Fast, Standard, Standard to Slow, Slow. Most all-weather meetings are simply "Standard".

The surface can still change: freezing temperatures, heavy rain and the maintenance routine all alter how it rides, which is why you will occasionally see an all-weather description move away from Standard.

The GoingStick

The GoingStick is a hand-held instrument that is pushed into the turf. It measures two things: how hard the ground is to penetrate, and how much it resists being pulled sideways, which is a guide to how much the turf would give under a galloping horse's hoof. The instrument turns that into a single number, and teams take readings at a number of points along the track before the meeting and again if conditions change.

Courses publish the GoingStick reading alongside the official description. Two things matter when you read it:

• Higher means firmer. A higher reading means firmer ground, a lower one means softer. It is read in the same direction as the words, Hard at one end and Heavy at the other.
• It informs the description, it does not replace it. The official going is still the clerk's decision. The number is a second opinion that helps you see whether, say, a "Good to Soft" is closer to Good or to Soft, which is where the words are least precise.

Readings are often published separately for different parts of the course, for example the straight track and the round course, and the exact numbers that count as "Good" or "Soft" are not fixed across courses and surfaces. We do not quote reading bands here for that reason: compare a course's reading with what the same course reported on its recent meetings, not with a table.

Watering and why the going changes on the day

The description you see in the morning is not always the one you will race on. Several things move it:

• Watering. In dry spells, especially in summer, courses irrigate to stop the ground becoming too firm to race on safely. Watering is why a dry week can still produce Good or Good to Firm rather than Firm, and clerks publish how much has been applied and what more is planned.
• Rain. A shower during the afternoon can soften the ground between races, and a downpour can change the description by a whole stage.
• Sun and wind. A drying wind and a sunny day can firm the ground up, and it often dries faster on the stretches that are open to the wind.
• Wear. On a soft turf course, the ground is cut up as the meeting goes on, and the clerk may update the description or note that the inside rail is faster or slower than the rest.

The practical lesson: check the going late, and note when it has changed. A horse that was a confident choice for Good to Firm may be a different proposition after a heavy shower, and a change shows in the market before it shows in anything else.

How the going affects form reading

When you read a form line, the going is part of the question "was that run comparable to this one?". A few habits help:

• Read each run against its own going. A win on Heavy and a fourth place on Good to Firm are not directly comparable. Ask whether the horse has run well on ground like today's, and how it did when conditions were different.
• Look at the margin and the ground together. A horse that was beaten a long way on ground that did not suit it may be better than the figure suggests; a horse that wins easily on ground that suits it may be harder to repeat when conditions change.
• Expect slower races on soft ground. Times are longer and the finishing effort is more of a stamina test, so a horse that stays well can move up through the field late. Pace maps matter differently on testing ground: see pace maps.
• Watch for first-time-on-the-going. A horse that has never raced on today's ground is a question mark whatever its overall form. Breeding gives a clue but not an answer, as covered below.
• Remember the draw. The going can change where the best ground is, and that changes which side of the track is favoured. See draw bias.

For the wider routine, how to read horse racing form and how to read a racecard put the going in the context of everything else on the card.

Why some horses need soft ground

Horses do show real preferences for ground, though it is easy to over-read a single run. The usual explanations are:

• Action. Some horses have a long, low, daisy-cutting stride that skims the surface of fast ground, while others have a rounder action that gets a better grip when the ground gives. Neither is better; they suit different conditions.
• Stamina and cushioning. Soft ground makes every stride harder, so it favours horses that keep going and can be a poor fit for a quick-actioned horse that wants to use speed. Firm ground jars the legs, so some horses simply dislike it.
• Experience. Many horses are called "soft-ground" horses because they have run well on it, which is a narrower claim than having a genuine preference. A small number of runs on one type of ground is weak evidence.

The best evidence is the horse's own record on similar going, with the sample size beside it. A handful of runs can say little, and a horse can win on ground it does not like because the rest of the field was worse suited. Our racecards show each runner's going record alongside its course and distance form, so you can check this directly.

Breeding and going preference

Going preference is partly inherited, which makes pedigree a useful clue when a horse has little or no form on today's ground. A sire whose runners do notably better on soft ground tends to pass that on, on average, though any single foal can go the other way.

• Each sire page breaks down the sire's progeny results by going, so you can see how his runners have fared on different types of ground before reading anything into it.
• The damsire pages cover the maternal grandsire. They are the place to look when a horse's dam side is the part of the pedigree you want to know more about.

For what sire, dam and damsire mean and how to read their statistics, see sire, dam and damsire explained.

Treat breeding as a tiebreaker for horses without form on the ground, not a reason to ignore the horse's own record. A sire's going numbers are averages over many horses, and a small sample behind one going band is as unreliable here as anywhere else on a racecard.

Where to find the going on TRF

The going board lists the declared going at every UK and Irish meeting today and tomorrow on one page, with a link to each course. On the racecards, every race shows its official going in the race header, and every runner's going record sits alongside its course and distance record. Each runner's going record is also one of the inputs to the score our machine-learning model gives it, so the score and the going you see should be read together rather than as separate evidence.

For a track's character, the racecourse pages cover all the UK and Irish courses we list, with going information and the draw data for Flat and all-weather courses. For pedigree, start from the sire pages, which carry the going preference, and the damsire pages.

Going: frequently asked questions

What does "going" mean in horse racing?

It is the official description of the condition of the racing surface, from Hard or Firm at the fast end to Heavy at the slow end on turf, and from Fast to Slow on all-weather tracks.

What is the going scale in horse racing?

In Britain it runs Hard, Firm, Good to Firm, Good, Good to Soft, Soft, Heavy. Irish courses use Yielding, Good to Yielding, Yielding to Soft and Soft to Heavy on the softer side. All-weather tracks use Fast, Standard to Fast, Standard, Standard to Slow and Slow.

Who decides the going?

The clerk of the course at each racecourse. They make the call from a walk of the track, weather and watering information and instrument readings, and they can change it during a meeting.

What is a GoingStick and what do the readings mean?

It is an instrument that measures how firm the turf is and how much it gives under force. Higher readings mean firmer ground. Readings are published with the official description, and they are a guide to it, not a replacement.

What does soft ground mean for horses?

Soft ground is more tiring and slows the race, so stamina matters more and horses that rely on speed can struggle. Some horses handle it much better than others, and the best evidence of that is their own record on similar ground.

Why does the going change during a meeting?

Rain, sun, wind, watering and wear on the track all move it, and clerks update the description when the ground changes.

How do I find a horse's going preference?

Look at its record on each type of ground, with the number of runs behind it, and check its breeding on the sire pages (and the damsire pages for the maternal side) if it has little form on today's ground.