Can you tell me why my horse Show Respect got put up 9 pounds for finishing 7th in the Dante if you have time m8?

Winner is rated 102 and yours finished 3.5L down on it.

But I prefer to think the handicapper is a Scottish referee and has it in for you.

the rating system isnt perfect though, i should have just ran him over a duff trip and thats what ill be doing from now on if im going for a handicap, sprinters running over 2 mile n what not.

To The Rescue ran second in the Jockey club with a 4 pound penalty when rated 90.

The horse who won got put up 5 pounds and the 3rd horse got put up a pound to 90 but To The Rescue, who beat the 3rd giving 4 pounds, satys on the same rating as the 3rd

How does that work out? Theres something blatantly wrong there rich. In effect, the rating system says that the 3rd horse is equal to the second even though it beat it well with a 4 pound penalty.

Show Respect is rated 83 now, a horse who was tailed off in a maiden and then 3rd last in a Derby trial and hes only 7 pounds less than a horse who finished second in a group 1 and a group 2 with a penalty.

That shows that the rating system has problems.

And see when the head of the referee's gets caught sending jokes about the pope, that tells u everything you need to know rich.

I'm not saying it's perfect, personally I would have To The Rescue rated at 91. Ultimately though, that horse won't be competing in many handicaps so do I get someone to spend a number of hours each week manually updating something that really doesn't change the gameplay experience?

For the Dante I have run the race as a handicap and the only issue is that Scatters horse is rated too low. However, part of the reason it wins races (this applies for many of John's horses) is that it sets the pace, kicks for home early and has the stamina to hang on. This can sometimes flatter the bare form.

Don't run horses over the wrong distance, it may make itself ineligible for handicaps. If everyone thought like that we'd have a problem, if everyone entered horses in the available races (it does annoy me people not entering in G3s because "their horse is not good enough", tough, there are only 20 odd races a week, give it a try) then the handicapping system would work. It's only people who are trying to be cheeky who have an issue with it, you've absolutely done the right thing and I hope that works out for you.

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New Approach did enter his horse into a group race and look at its rating now. You just don't get it do you Rich. More handicaps, less group races, more maidens.

Not too difficult when you think about it.

And now it has a fair rating? Now we know it's 3.5L worse than Scatters. And this is a bad thing how?

Are you from the Dandy Nicholls school of handicapping? It's not about swindling the game to get an artificially low mark so you can win. It's to enable the actual worst horses to win. If ALL trainers entered the group/listed races it would be far easier for the game to handicap them but people don't seem to realise this!

I can't be held accountable for someone's ignorance, sorry.

If ALL people entered group races nobody would be entering handicap races - PMSL. DOH!
People don't enter group races to get handicap marks they enter maidens. PMSL. DOH!

You crack me up

Thanks Spudley.

Rich i know we have not covered much of this season yet but do you have any planned changes for next season just so we know what to expect.

Schedule changes?
Uk Us intergrated one big flat league?
More races every week?

I agree with rivers that, if your going for a handicap, you run in maidens to get a mark, in real life you wouldnt have to run a horse in the dante to get it elligible for a handicap. I would much rather have been able to run him in a 1m2 maiden where he would have finished down the field and his mark wouldnt have changed much, if at all.

But i sympathize with Rich as its basically a lose lose situation. Its hard to find the right balance between group races and lower level races, ie maidens and handicaps although i have said all along, my only problem with the league is the lack of maidens. The handicap i was aiming for is in week 7 so i had to pick 2 races from 2 weeks and there wasnt even one maiden available at a middle distance trip.

A lot of it will depend on the functionality with the new TOM but there will be a number of schedule changes.

I agree that going down the Dante route is not a real life example of the route to a handicap. But in real life there are 10s of maidens/nurseries a week to aim for, in the league, in order to keep things balanced there needs to be compromise and unfortunately that means going down a slightly unrealistic route.

What I don't get is why someone who has their one 3yo colt at 1m2f in the stable, looks at week 5 and goes "You know what, I'll stick it in the 1m maiden". It's just stupid? It has no chance in that, it may have no chance in the Dante but how are you going to get better if you have no idea how much you need to improve by?

Handicaps are the last resort, it's a case of "ok, so this one isn't good enough i'm going to try it in a handicap against others in similar position". If you are playing the league to target handicaps then it's sad, the whole reason for the league is to improve your stable and give you incentive to play the game more and breed something awesome. Can you get enjoyment from artificially lowering a horses rating then winning a handicap for your sole moment in the spotlight?

ok by that do you mean more races per week or are you still working on the details?

Possibly, I think the number per week is OK at the moment. Quality over quantity.

I take it from that statement you are happy with the ratio of group races to handicaps and maidens?