Punters on both sides of the Tasman will benefit from a change being made to the New Zealand Track Ratings early next month. 

From Monday, 4 April the New Zealand Track Ratings will once again align with those introduced to Australia in 2014. 

While this move is part of NZTR’s shift to the Single National System, it is being implemented at this time due to the significant amount of work needed to update racing data around horses currently racing. 

Punters can therefore be comfortable that, when assessing form from 4 April onwards, it will have been updated to reflect the new Track Ratings. 

The key aspects to note are: 

• Track categories will align with those in Australia – Synthetic, Firm, Good, Soft, Heavy 

• The rating numbers remain aligned to the penetrometer reading for that number 

• There will no longer be a Heavy 11 category 

While point one is self-explanatory, it does remove the mental gymnastics which were required under the current system when betting into the Australian market and vice versa. 

With regard to the second point around penetrometer readings, a Good4, will still fall into the 2.6-2.8 penetrometer range. 

Likewise, a Soft 5, a track with a reasonable amount of give in it, is still within 2.9-3.2, and a Heavy 8, a rain affected track which horses will get into, falls into the 3.9-4.2 range which was previously described as a Slow 8. 

By focusing on the numbers and how they relate to the penetrometer readings it is a very straight forward transition which aligns New Zealand with Australia, and which will provide more consistency for punters betting across both markets. 

Click here to see the Track Ratings or refer to the attached PDF.