In reply to a 2 tier league....
Now things have cooled down a little over the flat issue and some people’s desire to make it a two tier league, I am in favour, but we really need everyone on board to make the league successful & to promote to newbies etc…. obviously I am a low end trainer so I have tried to imagine I am at the top as well, so I do not crucify the elite end of the league & I think I have been neutral.
I have always been good at telling you how bad it is, so finally I will try and offer a solution or two The two league affair maybe too drastic at this stage and I guess we should be looking at an all-encompassing league rather than splitting and just adjust for a better spread, I have listed what I think may help us all to get along and be happy with the future, we can’t always be so realistic with the schedule & conditions as our game & league does not fit it.
A lot of these ideas are from odd forum posts from different trainers over the past 18 months, when this subject has arose before, as well as a few mad Stu ideas, although not so mad imo, of course
1. No changes to league in the first 5 weeks.
2. Gray has already mentioned some tweaks for Ascot which he will implement.
3. From week 6 all G1 races are a minimum of 100 (this will stop what happened last week in the Eclipse & some other races, not sure about fto's allowed in but open for discussion)
4. G2’s Max rating 120.
5. G3’s Max rating 115 (Vote to see if made handicap’s ?)
6. Listed Max rating 110 (Vote to see if made handicap’s ?)
7. All handicaps in current schedule dropped by 5, I’d prefer 10 but maybe pushing it, leave Prestige handicaps at 110 so that top trainers may enter. Ebor etc etc. (a Std current hcap 110 will become a 105, 100 to 95 & so forth etc.)
8. Leave 0-70’s as nothing below 45, so nothing out of handicap.
9.
No horse that has won in the first 5 weeks can be transferred out at the window (Reason: This is needed because the top trainers improve faster so any perceived chance a mid/lower trainer of closing the gap is lost, I think most low/mid trainer would rarely drop a previous winner from their stable, but applies to them as well)10.
All races double entry but strict course maximum field to be followed and lowest rated out first, regardless of who trains it, no more everyone gets 1 entry
11.
Add a few extra races were possible, with conditions, i.e Trainers with no winners or low amounts under 5 eg. can only enter, as well as invitational style races were only top trainers with 15 + eg. winners (high) can enter. Could even do a short style championship with this over 5 races say 12. Consider returning to a 20 flat stable. (to make sure most can get a run week in week out, although this is hard to gauge at this stage)
13. Purse figures are pointless until it has a total overhaul, so saying, make a big money low end handicap doesn’t really give anyone any more incentive than the WIN.
As most of these ideas are really editing the sched rather than a drastic change, I think they are all achievable.
This should keep a better spread of victories and keep more horses within their level and the opportunity to move up and down grades in a realistic manner.Nothing gets downgraded, nothing is cheapened and ideally we can all still play within the one league.I would appreciate that the comments posted are kept civil and if you want to blow bits out of the water, please come back with constructive ideas, not just “that won’t work” let’s try and explain & discuss.
As I said, not all my ideas an accumulation of many, so don’t shoot the messenger hahahah. btw I will just delete, if I feel picked on