Form Hacking in 2026: Part 2 of your Report
Hi, it's Matt here, and welcome to the second and final part of this report I've called 'Form Hacking in 2026'.
If you missed the previous part, you can grab it by clicking on the link and image in the 'Previously...' section on this page.
Right, let's get to today's guide. It starts at the start - and features a short but crucial activity that most losing bettors, and very few winning bettors, ignore...
Just click here, or on the image below, to download the report.
Enjoy, and good luck!
Matt
p.s. please do leave a comment below and let me know what you thought of this two part guide - thank you!
Previously...
Part 1
I’d love to know what you think of the ‘Form Hacking’ guides. Please do leave your comments and/or questions here – I’ll be very happy to answer them.
Matt
Hi Matt,
I’ve already won using Hack 1, 4.10 at Headquarters on Tuesday, Darn Hot Gallop! Plus Mr Winston and Air Force One today.
All the best,
Martin
Great to hear, Martin, well done. Save some winners for the rest of us! 😉
It should point out, however, that the draw hack is intended for use on turning tracks, which Newmarket is not. Beverley has a dog leg so is also not a ‘classic’ turning track.
Matt
Hi Matt,
Excellent stuff and it’ll be bedtime reading night after night after night.
The big eyecatcher for me was the inside draw on turning tracks. On the face of it I can see many a hold up horse to ignore when in the supposedly favoured draw. And, of course, the smartly away stylist being quite properly favoured by that draw, despite the apparent poor stats for that draw overall.
Thx very much for the two gems.
John
You’re very welcome John, and thanks a lot for your comment.
Matt
Having read Part 1 earlier in the week (and left a comment) I now feel better prepared for the Flat season (My first love is chases and always will be).
When I commented on Part 1 I mentioned I would need to use the Pace Tab alongside Query Tool – now I think I will need to add Instant Expert to my Flat racing armoury (I already use IE for my Tracked Horses to see if they are good fits for todays race conditions.
I guess I will also need to start filtering the Races before starting on implementing these hacks.
John W
Hi John
You don’t ‘need’ to do anything! But it might be fun, and it might help to keep the form hack pointers in mind, as you’ve suggested.
At the end of the day, most of us have an approach that we’re used to, and deviating from that can be difficult. That’s just human nature.
Hopefully you’ll have some fun – and some luck – with it.
Best,
Matt
Thanks Matt, another thought provoking article, all the racing books I read whilst learning the game told me the smaller the field the more chance of finding the winner. It wasn’t until I actually starting keeping accurate records that it showed me how wrong I was. I wont go below 7 runners now, that seems to be my cut off point., with 14 being my maximum. In saying that I do like the big sprints in the summer but often splitting them in half and treating them as 2 races and ending up with 2 selections sometimes 3
Sounds like a good strategy. Smaller fields are undoubtedly more often tactical, and taking two or three in big field handicaps would be my default as well. If you’d bet 7/2 in a small field, why not two at 7/1 or 8/1 in a huge field? It’s basically the same thing.
Matt
Hi again, Matt.
Another interesting read. I’ve always been aware that front runners have a big advantage on turning tracks up to a mile, especially on the AW, and I intend paying more attention to that now that I’ve read this report.
Regarding entry and field sizes etc, I thought you might be interested in some results in action taken from the Geegeez Shortlist. All I’ve done here is concentrate on those horses running in handicaps with a maximum of ten runners and non-handicaps with a maximum of twelve. Potential selections have to be at the business end of the market, in this case 2-1 to 5-1 (it’s worth pointing out here that the smaller the field, the smaller the over-round in general, which is another reason to confine selections to smaller sized fields).
Having narrowed down the Geegeez Shortlist using the above criteria, I then identify a key run (usually a recent win) and assess the form to see if a horse is likely to reproduce it. If the answer is yes, I’ll back it.
Here are the results to date…
173 Bets 53 Winners (30%) Profit +36.89 pts (21%)
Applying similar rules to Instant Expert but putting more emphasis on good recent form has produced the following returns this NH season (including AW)…
156 Bets 50 Winners (32%) Profit +31.72 pts (20%)
So these results really do exemplify the importance of field size, price range, and most of all, value. All achieved from a Geegeez Lite subscription!
Hi Paul
That’s excellent work – well done!
Thanks so much for sharing your experience using your own version of ‘form hacking’: I suggest using the racecard menu filters, you use the Shortlist report. Potayto, potarto!
30%+ strike rate is crushing it with the ROI numbers, too. Well done again.
Matt
Hi Matt great articles as always maybe these hacks could assist me with my place pot bets by applying it to all races under a mile and any age and any track its food for thought
regards
Barry
They definitely help me with my placepots, Barry!
Best,
Matt
Hi Matt
An interesting read and I’ll be putting this to use soon. Many thanks for the article.
Thanks for the excellent article Matt. Even as an amateur I found it easy to understand except for one section.
Where and how do you grade the 6 criteria of:
Going
Class
Course
Distance
Field size
O. R.
It probably blindingly obvious but somehow I can’t figure it.
Please enlighten me
Thanks
Hi David
I’m pleased you found the article easy to understand, that’s very good to hear.
Regarding how and where to grade the criteria, from your racecard of choice you’ll need to do a bit of combing the form. Most display rows of form lines that include all of going, class, course, distance, field size and OR; so it’s then a question of looking at the last 6-10 rows and picking out the ones that match today’s race criteria. Sounds fiddly, but once you get the hang of it, it doesn’t take very long at all.
Matt
Thanks Matt. I’ll give it a try.
Hi matt, I’ve had a look at 17 20 at Bath tomorrow. Using Full Form tab I’ve tried to determine where to put the category for each horse except draws 1,11&12.
I just can’t relate anything from the info ime looking at to give any sort of grading.
Do I need GG gold to get the info I need.
Sorry to be a pain but can you make it a bit clearer how I get the ratings.
Thanks
The ratings are good, ok, not good. So you base your judgement on how well the recent form maps to today’s conditions. It’s not supposed to be an exact science, or an exam. Sorry if it feels that way from the guides, that wasn’t my intention.
Hi Matt
Really interesting hacks, Ive introduced them into my system. Getting rid of the chaff is more than half the battle and leaves time to look into the real contenders.
Great work
Regards
Anthony
Absolutely right, Anthony. In financial trading, the first rule is “don’t lose, protect bankroll”. But it’s a lesson we all forget sometimes in racing (and sports) betting. I certainly do.
Cutting out some of the losers means we don’t necessarily have to back more winners!
Matt
Superb advice that every punter should take note off. Time to re- evaluate for me. Thanks Matt
Excellent article, as normal.
I would not exclude horses drawn wide completely, the fact that they are often ignored means that they can offer good value.
From my data over the last 12 years horses drawn 12 or higher in handicaps have made a profit of 1,036 points with an AE of 1.04. The downside is the low strike rate with 3,372 winners from 51,304 runners.
If first and second favourites are excluded the profits increase to 1,277 points with an AE of 1.06.
10 out of 12 years have shown an AE of 1.02 or above, unfortunately 2025 was the worst year with an AE of 0.93 and a loss of 278 points. I’ll keep a watching brief this year !
Thanks for that, owls – good intel. I think I highlighted in one of the two reports that outside stalls can/do win, especially when they have a forward going run style. I’ll be sharing a video tomorrow where I underline that point, albeit while focusing on those drawn closer to the rail generally. And yes, you’d need a solid tank and an even more robust constitution to stomach a near 300 point drawdown across a season. Ouch.
Matt
Great advice again, a timely reminder to focus and don’t get overwhelmed. Thanks Matt
Thanks Pete, simple but effective mindfulness for punters!
Matt
thanks Matt. personally i don’t have that much time to look at ground, distance form etc I think trainers plot so many horses around winning a certain race in the future and campaign accordingly over the wrong ground, trip etc to produce them in their ideal conditions some time in the future. Its guess work for us punters. The information is fascinating and for me I wonder if its worth going down the route of backing all runners in stalls 2 -7 and incrementally increasing the stake based on possible run style allowing for jockeys missing the break as they sometimes do. Less chance of losing even tough probably smaller profits. Brilliant work as usual thanks again. JOHN
Hi John,
Thank you for your kind words and for your comment/question.
Each to their own, and of course there are sites (like geegeez) where a lot of that form analysis has been shortcutted (is that a word?) for you.
As for dutching stalls 2-7 on an incremental staking basis, I wouldn’t advocate for any progressive staking system. Eventually, they all come to an excruciatingly painful punting end as far as I’ve ever seen.
Matt
Lots of good stuff in there. Can be used for laying horses on the exchanges that look to offer poor value.
As an aside am having my first go at Tix Pro today at Epsom. All fascinating info.
Thanks Murph, and good luck at Epsom today.
Matt