Company Lines
Company lines are shown at the far right of the Past Performances (PPs) for a horse. The information presented is fairly straight forward. Each race includes the name of the top three finishers of the race; with additional information including weight carried and lengths separating the top three (technically four) horses. Also, if any of the top three finishers won their next race or if any of them are entered in today’s race that is identified as well.
So let’s start with an example using a couple of horses entered in the 6th race at Saratoga on August 14, 2013.
For the sake of readability, I’ve moved the company lines beneath the running lines. However, normally they would appear on the right hand side of the running lines. In this example I have highlighted the weight and lengths information. In his race on July 4th, Java’s War finished 4th. Ahead of him were three horses; Chief Havoc, Tiz a Minister, and Dice Flavor. Notice their names are somewhat abbreviated in order to fit the information in a limited space.
To the immediate right of each horse’s name is the weight they carried in the race. Chief Havoc carried 114 pounds. Tiz a Minister carried 120 pounds. Dice Flavor carried 120 pounds.
Immediately to the right of the weight is the number of lengths that separated each horse. Chief Havoc finished 1st, 21/2 lengths ahead of Tiz a Minister, who was 11/2 lengths ahead of Dice Flavor, who was 11/4 lengths ahead of the 4th place horse … who in this case was Java’s War. If you add those lengths together (2.5 + 1.5 + 1.25) they sum up to 51/4 lengths which agrees with what you see in Java’s War running line 451/4.
Also entered in the same race as Java’s War is the horse below.
This time I’m showing only the basic race information to the left and the company lines to the right. In this example, you can see that Balance the Books finished 3rd in his last race. You can also see that the winner, Notacatbutallama has his name in italics. This means that in his next start (following the July 13 race) he won again.
Now look at the April 13 race, and you will see the winner, Java’s War has his name in a “bold” format, JavasWr. That’s a simple reminder that he is also entered in today’s races. Sometimes you will see a horse’s PPs littered with names in Bold format. If that’s the case, and the horse’s name doesn’t appear in the top three very often, then he/she has consistently been beaten by multiple horses entered in today’s race. Not a good sign!
Another benefit to the company lines is when you see the name of a quality horse, it gives you an indication of the level of competition this horse has run against in the past. For example, you might have noticed the name of the 2nd place horse in the April 13 race at Keeneland is Palice Malice, who went on to win the Belmont Stakes and Jim Dandy Stakes in subsequent races. Good company!
The nice thing about company lines is they appear in the printed form of the Daily Racing Form. But, when compared to information that can be gathered from the full result charts, they are somewhat limited.
To see what a full result chart looks like, click here to view an article on “Result Charts.” Also, you can view a complete list of articles on the topic of class by choosing the Class Category in the right hand panel.