Standard times

GET /v1/courses/{course_id}/standard-times

Median winning time per distance, with the implausible ones counted.

Available on

Free key not on this plan

Live not on this plan

Archive not on this plan

Complete not on this plan

Complete + Analyst 2017 → upcoming

Send your key in the X-API-Key header, or as ?key= if your tool cannot set one. A date outside your plan's window returns 403 outside_window naming the window, never an empty array.

Parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Description
course_id	path	string	yes	Opaque course identifier.
run_type	query	string	no	Restrict to one run type.
going	query	string	no	Restrict to one going. A standard time without a going is close to meaningless on turf.

Request

curl https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/courses/cr_JSRC8Z/standard-times \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AHR_KEY"

$ch = curl_init('https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/courses/cr_JSRC8Z/standard-times');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER     => ['X-API-Key: ' . getenv('AHR_KEY')],
]);
$data = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true)['data'];

const res = await fetch(
  'https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/courses/cr_JSRC8Z/standard-times',
  { headers: { 'X-API-Key': process.env.AHR_KEY } }
);
const { meta, data } = await res.json();

import os, requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/courses/cr_JSRC8Z/standard-times",
    headers={"X-API-Key": os.environ["AHR_KEY"]},
).json()

Response

200 OK application/json harvested 8 days ago

{
    "meta": {
        "request_id": "d64f8e9397180233",
        "data_as_of": "2026-09-12T05:10:27+00:00",
        "plan": "analyst",
        "window": "2017 → upcoming",
        "count": 26
    },
    "data": {
        "course_id": "cr_JSRC8Z",
        "course": "Fontwell",
        "window": {
            "from": null,
            "to": null,
            "note": "The whole archive. Your plan sets no date limit."
        },
        "method": "Median of recorded winning times, five race minimum. p10 and p90 rather than the extremes, because a single mistimed race would otherwise define the range. \"implausible\" counts times more than 30% either side of the median, which are almost certainly source errors.",
        "times": [
            {
                "run_type": null,
                "distance": "2m 1f 162y",
                "races": 262,
                "standard_seconds": 269.68,
                "p10_seconds": 257.7,
                "p90_seconds": 287.67,
                "implausible": 0
            },
            {
                "run_type": null,
                "distance": "2m 5f 164y",
                "races": 112,
                "standard_seconds": 330.6,
                "p10_seconds": 319.2,
                "p90_seconds": 354.8,
                "implausible": 0
            },
            "… 24 more"
        ]
    }
}

A real response from /v1/courses/cr_JSRC8Z/standard-times, captured by calling the live API rather than written by hand.

Response fields

Each field is described once and rendered on every endpoint that returns it, so the wording cannot drift between pages.

Field	Type	What it is
course_id	string	Opaque course identifier.
course	string	Course name.
window	string	How far back and forward that plan can read.
run_type	string	Flat, Hurdle, Chase or NH Flat.
distance	string	Official distance as published, e.g. "3m 3f 119y".

What varies by jurisdiction

Run type is filled in behind the results crawl

The code a race was run under lives on the horse profile rather than the race, so it arrives on a later pass. A null run_type means not yet fetched, not unclassified.

Errors this endpoint returns

Code	Status	When
unauthorized	401	No key, or one we do not recognise. Check the header name and that the key has not been rotated from your account page.
upgrade_required	403	The endpoint returns computed statistics and your plan does not include them. The body names every plan that does reach it, so you never have to look it up.
not_found	404	The identifier is well formed but nothing has it. Distinct from invalid_id, which means the identifier itself is wrong.
invalid_id	422	The prefix does not match the kind of thing the path expects, or the identifier is malformed. A horse id passed where a race is wanted lands here rather than returning the wrong race.
invalid_param	422	A date that is not YYYY-MM-DD, a by= dimension we do not have, or a cursor that did not come from us. The message names the parameter.
rate_limited	429	Past your per-minute rate. Retry-After is set, and X-RateLimit-Remaining tells you where you stand on every successful response too.
server_error	500	Ours, not yours. Every response carries a request_id; quote it and we can find the exact request.

Run it live

A real request from your browser straight to api.apihorseracing.com with your own key. Nothing is proxied and nothing is logged by this page.

Your API key

Remembered in this browser so you do not paste it on every page.

course_id

run_type optional

going optional

What this is for

The median winning time per distance, with the tenth and ninetieth percentiles, so you can see the spread rather than just the middle.

Median rather than mean, because winning times contain obvious data errors and a mean chases them. A single race recorded at four seconds moves an average and does nothing to a median.

Every row also returns how many times were implausible and therefore excluded. That count is part of the answer: a distance where a fifth of the times were unusable is one whose standard time you should not trust, and hiding that would be the dishonest choice.

Times are only published in some jurisdictions. Britain, Ireland and South Africa carry them on most races; France, America and Germany carry almost none. The coverage page has the measured figures.

Common uses

Building a speed figure

The median per distance and going is the baseline. The percentiles tell you how much spread to expect before a time is remarkable.

Spotting a fast run race

Compare a winning time against the ninetieth percentile for that distance and ground rather than against a single published standard.

Deciding whether to bother

A high implausible count means the times at that track are not good enough to build on.