• Hi Guest Just in case you were not aware I wanted to highlight that you can now get a free 7 day trial of Horseracebase here.
    We have a lot of members who are existing users of Horseracebase so help is always available if needed, as well as dedicated section of the fourm here.
    Best Wishes
    AR

Eric Bowers narrowing the field

## Recommendation

Compare the median to the **mean**, not the midpoint.

### Why
- **Mean vs median** indicates skew and influence of extreme ORs (very high or low ratings), which matters for competitiveness.
- **Midpoint (min+max)/2** reflects only the two extremes and can be misleading if one outlier OR exists.

### How to use it (practical steps)
1. Compute median of the ORs.
2. Compute mean of the ORs.
3. Compare:
- If mean ≈ median → distribution roughly symmetric → field likely balanced.
- If mean > median → right-skew (a few high-rated horses) → competitiveness tilted toward top horses.
- If mean < median → left-skew (a few low-rated horses) → competitiveness tilted toward weaker entries.
4. Also report spread: compute standard deviation and min/max or interquartile range (IQR). Larger spread → less balanced.

### Quick thresholds (optional)
- Median vs mean difference > 0.5–1 OR point suggests noticeable skew; adjust threshold to your domain knowledge.

If you want, provide a list of ORs and I’ll compute median, mean, midpoint, SD, IQR and give an interpretation.
 
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