paul123
you were correct to clean up the data to "only" include the horse name -- even a space bar input (which you can't see) will marr the output and you will see #N/A
i suggest sheet2 become your data base
copy all horse names in sheet2 column A
copy all ratings in sheet2 column B
in sheet1 paste the horse name in column A (leave a gap between races for clarity)
copy this formula in sheet1 columm B as far down as appropriate
=IF(A1="","",VLOOKUP(A1,Sheet2!A$1:B$1000,2,FALSE))
comment:
the VLOOKUP command as used here isn't case sensitive so don't worry abt that
you need only clean up column A and start again for a new meeting and it keeps your data safe
A$1:B$1000 = the size of you data base (eg 1000 horses) if there are less it doesn't matter it will grow
alphabetical order shouldn't be an issue but probably needed to keep your data base up-to-date
hope this helps
good luck!