WinningPonies Upgrades Its Horstradamus® AI Rating Engine Ahead of the Breeders' Cup

WinningPonies, the handicapping service that has helped horseplayers make smarter wagers since 2005, today shared the results behind the most significant upgrade to Horstradamus®, its proprietary AI rating engine, which went live for members earlier this month.

The upgraded engine rates every surface more sharply. The most noticeable change is on turf, where ratings are now built the same way as the engine's dirt ratings: a single figure that weighs both how a horse has actually performed and the horse's class.

The upgrade was developed through an AI-driven research program in which candidate improvements to the engine were proposed, tested, and refined across hundreds of automated backtests spanning six years of historical race data before reaching customers.

In backtesting across six years of historical races, the upgraded engine put the eventual winner on top more than 10% more often than its predecessor. Those tests also showed the engine making a standalone top selection in over 10% more races, with those picks nearly 30% more accurate. The backtests found it flagging over 20% more of the site's signature Big 'Uns, the big-payoff exotic plays WinningPonies highlights for members, including nearly 30% more scores of $1,000 and up.

The engine then ran side by side with its predecessor on live races this summer, and in that live testing it put the eventual winner on top about 10% more often.

The timing lines up with the Breeders' Cup, coming to Keeneland on October 30 and 31. In backtesting across six years of races at Keeneland, the upgraded engine picked the winner on top nearly 30% more often than before. In the same backtesting, across graded stakes at every track, it picked the winner on top more than 15% more often.

The upgrade arrives on the all-new WinningPonies.com, which launched earlier this year on a modern, mobile-first platform with real-time race updates, a redesigned toteboard, and the company's flagship E-Z Win® Forms covering more than 80 thoroughbred tracks across the United States and Canada. The forms include a built-in exotic wager calculator that fills in the form's picks, so pricing a ticket or building a spread ticket takes a few taps. It comes with Clubhouse and Winner's Circle memberships, and anyone with a free account can try it.

"We've been handicapping for horseplayers since 2005, and this is the biggest step forward we've ever taken. AI let us test far more ideas than any team could try by hand, and we kept only the ones that proved themselves across multiple years of real races," said James Messrie, President of WinningPonies.

Horstradamus himself was characteristically confident: "I read six years of races so you don't have to. The grass ones were the fun part."

The upgraded ratings are live now at WinningPonies.com, where visitors can create a free account, browse the day's toteboard, and see the ratings in action on a free sample E-Z Win® Form at winningponies.com/sample-ezwin-form. Members can read what changed at winningponies.com/help/ratings-update-october-2026.

About WinningPonies

Founded in 2005 by a team of handicapping professionals, WinningPonies provides AI-powered horse racing handicapping through its flagship E-Z Win® Forms, powered by the proprietary Horstradamus® rating engine. WinningPonies covers more than 80 thoroughbred tracks across the United States and Canada. Learn more at WinningPonies.com.

Media contact: Media Relations, media@winningponies.com