Online Form: make lighter work of studying

IT'S not all that long ago that people who wanted to undertake serious form study had to carry around a stack of books heavy enough to make a backpacker wince.

To say that racingpost.com makes things so much easier would be a gross understatement.

At the click of a button punters can now find out everything about a horse other than what it eats.

Consider a maiden race. In the past you'd be lucky to have any more than the breeding at hand, although unless you are a bloodstock nut it wouldn't have done you much good.

Now, though, you can check out allthe horse's relatives at a single click, look up all the sire's (and dam's) progeny and even get a statistical breakdown on how they have performed on different ground surfaces.

Want to get a clue from the sales? One click on the sales icon and you can find out how much it cost as a foal, a yearling, at the breeze-ups. If it went to a public sale, we've got the figures.

What about the thoughts of connections? Not only do we give you pre-race quotes for big races, we also store comments given by connections after the heat of battle -and they can be so much more revealing.

Here's what one trainer said after his horse won at Doncaster in April 2010: "He quickened nicely for a horse who will get further and I think the manner in which he did it, not just the result, is exciting."

Had you been armed with that little nugget you may just have been on James Given's Dandino when he followed up at 17-2 at Epsom and 7-1 at Royal Ascot. Punters with access to Members Club could not have missed him.

And they're just the little extras. There has never been an easier way to study horse form. One click on the horse's name from our racecards gives you its entire lifetime form with, for those who like numbers, figures from our own handicapper, Racing Post Ratings, to give you an idea of the value of the form and speed figures from our time guru Topspeed.

Click on any race in the horse's form and the full result will appear, paving the way for you to check its worth for yourself. Failing that, read our expert analysis or even watch a re-run yourself. There really is no need to go anywhere else.

Join Members' Club today.