We measure how a yearling walks. The ones we rate highest race longer — and return 28% more prize money per dollar — than horses bought for the same money.
One standard behind every number: mature horses with complete race records, top-rated compared against bottom-rated bought for the same money. Verified against complete career records as at 22 July 2026. Careers are still running, so the cohort refreshes nightly and these numbers are re-calibrated on a fixed cadence — never left to drift silently.
Top-rated yearlings returned 28% more prize money per dollar than bottom-rated bought for the same money. It comes from starts, not speed: +15% more starts per dollar, while earnings per run are statistically flat.
Choosing between two foals of the same sire? Across 130 sires, our top-rated progeny returned 28% more per dollar — pedigree and price held constant. The one number that beats both "you just bought cheap" and "you just bought the right sire."
18.8% vs 15.1%. Top-rated yearlings are ~25% more likely to still be racing deep into their careers — when the real money is paid. Soundness is the edge, and it's our most robust number.
The edge compounds the longer a career runs. Top-rated yearlings are 1.24× more likely to reach 30 starts, 1.67× at 40, and 1.98× at 50+. Soundness is what we measure, and soundness is what shows up when the career goes long.
The value edge holds on both sides of the catalogue — +25% for fillies, +21% for colts. Not a fluke of one population.
The prize-money-per-dollar edge is positive across every yearling vintage with mature careers (2020–22). A repeatable signal, not a single-year fluke.
The signal is rare on purpose. Net +8 = top 1.5% / 1 in 66. Few horses clear it — and that's the point.
Every stallion produces sound ones and fragile ones. Compare their foals side by side and our top-rated picks are 1.57× more likely to still be racing at 40 starts than the bottom-rated from the same sire. Same catalogue page — pedigree and price held constant. Biomech doing the work.
“It can't warn you off a slow horse. It can warn you off a fragile one — bottom-rated yearlings are markedly less likely to reach 40–50 starts.”
PERSIAN SPIRIT — 2022 Premier Yearling Sale, Lot 665. We rated him net +6 on the walk — top 6% of the cohort — before he ever set foot on a racetrack. He has since won 6 of 22 starts, reached stakes company, and returned 82× his purchase price. Below is the actual single-horse report the model produces — the same one you'd get for a lot you're considering.
The data asset behind every claim on this page — measured, then plotted.
Every yearling we've put through the model — Inglis, Magic Millions and NZB, 2019 to 2026. The data asset behind every score.
The claims aren't modelled — they're measured against 5,233 mature Australian racehorses with complete career records, bought as yearlings, identities verified. Real prices in, real prize money out.
Every horse in the cohort, plotted on two of the biomech metrics that drive the score.
“We publish one signal, because one signal survived the testing. Soundness holds under every test we run — so that is what we sell you.”
Briefings for bloodstock managers, syndicators and trainers. Eight Furlong is private and bespoke — we don't publish picks.