APIHorseRacing

Documentation / Races & markets

Race detail

GET /v1/races/{race_id}

Conditions, the market, and every runner with its price and position.

Available on

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Archive back to 2017
Complete 2017 → upcoming
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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

NameInTypeRequiredDescription
race_id path string yes Opaque race identifier, as returned anywhere a race appears.

Request

curl https://api.apihorseracing.com/v1/races/rc_1P005G7 \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AHR_KEY"

Response

200 OK application/json harvested 8 days ago
{
    "meta": {
        "request_id": "920735f5ff5ae2a9",
        "data_as_of": "2026-09-12T05:10:27+00:00",
        "plan": "analyst",
        "window": "2017 → upcoming"
    },
    "data": {
        "race_id": "rc_1P005G7",
        "meeting_id": "mt_3NKDYYE",
        "course_id": "cr_JSRC8Z",
        "course": "Fontwell",
        "country": "ENG",
        "region": "GB",
        "date": "2021-02-28",
        "time": "16:40",
        "off_time": "16:40:58",
        "name": "Taste Champagne At champagnepiaff.com Open Hunters' Chase",
        "run_type": null,
        "class": "6",
        "age": "5YO plus",
        "distance": "3m 1f 210y",
        "going": "Soft (Good to Soft in places)",
        "surface": "TURF",
        "handicap": false,
        "winning_time": "7m 10.95s",
        "book_percentage": 127.62,
        "runners": [
            {
                "cloth": 13,
                "draw": null,
                "horse_id": "hs_V8JGH6",
                "horse": "The Galloping Bear",
                "age": 8,
                "weight": "11-2",
                "official_rating": null,
                "form": "5/2111-2",
                "headgear": "Tongue strap",
                "owner": "Mr Adrian Paterson",
                "trainer_id": "tr_2QVAXT3",
                "trainer": "Ben Clarke",
                "jockey_id": "jk_1ABH146",
                "jockey": "Millie Wonnacott",
                "silk": null,
                "sp": "10/3",
                "sp_decimal": 4.3333,
                "price_path": {
                    "opening": "6/1",
                    "opening_decimal": 7,
                    "touched": null,
                    "sp": "10/3",
                    "sp_decimal": 4.3333,
                    "drift": -0.381,
                    "source": "movements",
                    "direction": "shortened"
                },
                "favourite": false,
                "market_position": 2,
                "position": 1,
                "beaten_distance": null,
                "casualty": null,
                "last_run_days": 119
            },
            {
                "cloth": 4,
                "draw": null,
                "horse_id": "hs_SJX1WR",
                "horse": "Sametegal",
                "age": 12,
                "weight": "11-6",
                "official_rating": 139,
                "form": "3-33641",
                "headgear": "Cheek pieces, Tongue strap",
                "owner": "Mr and Mrs J D Cotton",
                "trainer_id": "tr_14HQ75P",
                "trainer": "P F Nicholls",
                "jockey_id": "jk_VY5K52",
                "jockey": "H Cobden",
                "silk": null,
                "sp": "2/5",
                "sp_decimal": 1.4,
                "price_path": {
                    "opening": "4/11",
                    "opening_decimal": 1.3636,
                    "touched": [
                        "1/3"
                    ],
                    "sp": "2/5",
                    "sp_decimal": 1.4,
                    "drift": 0.0267,
                    "source": "movements",
                    "direction": "drifted"
                },
                "favourite": true,
                "market_position": 1,
                "position": 2,
                "beaten_distance": null,
                "casualty": null,
                "last_run_days": 24
            },
            "… 14 more"
        ],
        "placed": 3,
        "stage": "WEIGHEDIN",
        "result_available": true
    }
}

A real response from /v1/races/rc_1P005G7, 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.

FieldTypeWhat it is
race_id string Opaque race identifier. Stable, and safe to store.
meeting_id string Opaque meeting identifier. A meeting is one course on one day.
course_id string Opaque course identifier.
course string Course name.
country string Country code as the source publishes it.
region string Jurisdiction, normalised. Welsh and Scottish racing is GB.
date date Race date, YYYY-MM-DD.
time string Scheduled off time, local to the course.
off_time string Actual off time where recorded.
name string Race title as published, sponsor and all.
run_type string Flat, Hurdle, Chase or NH Flat.
class string Race class.
age string Age restriction, e.g. "4YO plus".
distance string Official distance as published, e.g. "3m 3f 119y".
going string Ground description at the off.
surface string Turf, Dirt, Polytrack and so on.
handicap boolean Whether the race was run off official ratings.
winning_time string Winning time as published.
book_percentage number The field's implied probabilities added up. 100 would be a fair book; the excess is the margin. Ours average 117 in small fields and 133 in sixteen or more.
runners integer Runners who took part.
cloth integer Cloth number.
draw integer Stall. Null in jumps racing, which is correct rather than missing.
horse_id string Opaque horse identifier.
horse string Horse name.
weight string Weight carried, stones and pounds.
official_rating integer Handicap mark. Values outside 0 to 200 are dropped as source errors.
form string Recent finishing positions, most recent last.
headgear string Blinkers, cheekpieces, tongue tie and so on.
owner string Registered owner as published.
trainer_id string Opaque trainer identifier.
trainer string Trainer name.
jockey_id string Opaque jockey identifier.
jockey string Rider name.
silk string Colours described in words. We do not serve the source's silk images.
sp string Starting price, fractional, as returned.
sp_decimal number Starting price as a decimal, computed once at load so you are not parsing fractions per row.
price_path object What the price did before the off. See its own fields below.
opening string The price the runner opened at, where published.
touched array Prices touched between opening and starting price.
drift number Starting price against opening, as a ratio. Positive drifted, negative shortened.
source string full_history where a complete price series exists, movements where only an opening price does, starting_price_only where neither.
direction string drifted, shortened or unchanged.
favourite boolean Shortest price in the race. Joint favourites are all flagged.
market_position integer Rank by price, one being shortest. Ties share a rank.
position integer Finishing position. Null means the runner did not complete or was not published below the placings.
beaten_distance string Distance behind the horse in front.
casualty string Why a runner did not complete: PulledUp, Fell, UnseatedRider, BroughtDown, RefusedToRace, RanOut.
last_run_days integer Days since this horse last ran. Null on a first run.
placed integer How many places the race paid.
stage string Where the race had got to: scheduled, off, weighed in.
result_available boolean Whether a result has been published.

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.

Race class is a British idea

Class is published in Britain and reliably absent elsewhere. Do not treat a null class as an ungraded race.

Winning times are patchy outside Britain and Ireland

Where a time exists it is as published. /v1/courses/{id}/standard-times reports the median per distance and counts the implausible ones rather than quietly serving them.

Draw exists in flat racing only

A null draw in a hurdle or a chase is correct, not missing. Filter on run_type before drawing conclusions from stall data.

Official ratings are not universal

Britain, Ireland and America carry a rating on roughly three quarters of runners. France and Germany carry one on about three percent. Values outside 0 to 200 are dropped, because the source returns sentinels there rather than ratings.

Price movement is an opening price, not a full series

The source publishes no odds history on a settled race, only an opening price and any prices touched. About one runner in five carries one. price_path.source tells you which kind you have on every runner, so you never have to infer it.

Not every jurisdiction publishes a full finishing order

America publishes the placings and nothing below them, so position is null for most of the field. Britain, Ireland, France and South Africa carry a position for the great majority of runners. /v1/countries returns the current figure for each.

Beaten distances arrive with the pedigree pass

They are published on the horse profile rather than the result page, so they fill in behind the main crawl.

Errors this endpoint returns

CodeStatusWhen
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.
outside_window 403 You asked for a date your plan cannot see. The body names the window and the date you asked for. Search endpoints clamp instead of refusing, and report what they actually searched in meta.
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.
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.

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

What this is for

One race with everything on it: the conditions, the market summary, and every runner with its weight, rating, form, connections, price and finishing position. If you are going to make one call about a race, make this one.

Runners come back ordered by finishing position where a result exists, with non-completers after the placed horses rather than sorted to the top by a null. Before the off they are in cloth order.

The four fields worth knowing about are here: book_percentage on the race, and price_path, casualty and beaten_distance on each runner. What each one contains depends on where the race was run, and the field table below says which.

Common uses

A race page

One request renders the card and the result. There is no second call for runners unless you specifically want them without the conditions.

Storing a race

This is the shape worth persisting. Everything else in this group is a projection of it, so if you keep this you can rebuild the others locally.

Checking whether a race has settled

result_available tells you, and position on the runners confirms it. A race can be run and not yet settled, which is a real state rather than a failure.

Notes

position is null both for a runner that did not complete and for one whose jurisdiction publishes only the placings. casualty distinguishes them: a value there means it did not finish, absent means it was not published.

Related in Races & markets