Due to my unforeseen illness (not AIDS as commonly reported) things have been delayed by 3 days, this places too much of a burden on the handicapping side of things for UKRA.

I am aiming to get NH uploaded asap and UK as well but the Week 5 nomination deadline will be pushed on a week to allow time to catch up. Apologies for the unexpected delay, completely my fault but hopefully we'll get the races to you asap.

If you are lucky the commentators might be able to put something together when the races are uploaded. They may even do requests

Mate great news to hear its nothing too serious, dont stress too much about the races pal lm pretty sure we got a decent bunch of league players who dont mind a week delay.


P.S......The rumours l heard was that you had lost your arms so glad to hear its just an ear infection

I'd heard a rumour rich had signed up for a personal visit from a betfair laying genius, when he got the info pack before the visit, it said " our best advice is to lay the biggest horses you can find", after a visit to his local livery yard rich ended up with an "ear infection" and also barred from the livery yard.

Turns out there are a few gremlins in the system! I think races may have to be pushed to Monday/Tuesday, hopefully that is ok.

Now back to bed!

I too am glad you are ok Rich!! You gave me kenny and Colm a bit of a fright. All is well now

When you have returned mate can we have a league vote for runners in group races. There is a lot of horses been scratched this week and agree that group 1s should be limited. Now l know this is 16 at the moment and that might be right but surely looked at when we see how many trainers we have?

The thing l object to is having same rule for Group 3s and Group 2s, this is my opinion should not be limited runners wise, maybe rating wise but not runners. The number of scratches this week proves that this should be looked at. With the number of trainers we have 16 is very low in my opinion. The fact that if a trainer has a 100 rated horse and for example went for a easier group 3 rather than a group 1 for a victory my lower horse might get balloted out. I think in preparation for next season we should get some kind of rating structure for group races.

Group 1 ~ 120 - 100
Group 2 ~ 110 - 90
Group 3 ~ 100 - 80

In my opinion this would be the way forward and would hopefully restrict the number of runners down in each group rather then have max fields and have dissapointed trainers.

Other thing this week Race 10 has been restricted to 13 runners

I agree with mwesty's point re the Group 2 and Group 3 races. Obviously G1's are very hard to win and although I myslef plan to run a couple of my horses in G1's, they are unlikely to win. So they will also run in G2/3 races. Im sure there are a lot of trainers in the same boat.

But my horse, Catch Up, is now rated 110 and I would still like him to run in G2/3 races as he has a greater chance of winning them and Id consider it unfair if he wasn't allowed to run in a G3. I know your ratings are just an eg. However if it that was deemed fair for everyone then I would go along with that.

Please excuse my poor language, grammar etc. Its been a long day

Yes keith and thats my point mate, you would enter in a G3 as you feel better chance and that's totally fine but then a horse rated say 96 who has no chance in a hcap cus of the weight would be balloted out of a G3 if you entered and this horse then has no-where to go. I feel a horse who is rated 110 is rated that for a reason and there performances must of shown that so in my opinion the best horses should be in the best races? i may be wrong just needs looking at maybe. I must admit l go up against Catch Up again this week with my one and only stayer and hope to reverse the form so good luck pal

I did explain this in an earlier post, 5 unraced horse were scratched, how could I tell 3 trainers there horse could run a tell there other 2 there horse was scratched.

Of the other horses that were scratched there was 1 on 88 and 2 on 87, the others were rated in the low 80's or 70's some were even in the 60's, Steve has said horses running in group races will up get hammered with weight. most of the scratched horses would have had another race which they could have entered unless the trainer had lots of horses that like the same distance, Steve put alot of work into the schedule to make sure all levels of horses had races to run in.

I think a lot of it has to do with trainers want there horses running in every race possible which is just not going to happen,trainers need to be more thoughtfull in where they are placing there horses! If Group races are increased in size then the same problems that we had last season will surface again, To many runners just leads to farce races in my opinion, the idea of ratings band for each group is a good idea but i think the best person to give a view on this would be Steve. As handicapper he would know what sort of ratings he is giving horses and my be able to determine how to go about what ratings bands would work.

not thought on it long but Going by 130 highest rating sort of like WESTY did....

Group 1 130 - 105 Dont think theres many rated up here yet. Could result in 10/12 runners start of season, steve would have to advise as he has got the best knowledge on what ratings horses are roughly on.
Group 2 120 - 100
Group 3 115 - 90.

Ratings are still high enough to keep the best v the best and also dont drop to low that trainers who have no chance entering there horses in them. Ratings inter lap as well so not to harsh on someone who might like to try that improving 105 rated horse in a group 2. Still leaves the problem of max runners which in my opinion should be held at 16 for all group races. Saturday is a day most i would have thought can check to see if there horse is likely to make the cut and adjust accordingly if they feel they may get cut.

Put together very quickly so please point out anything that could be a problem i may not have thought about something that i should have.

Ok, totally alternative view to this, is not the problem with the handicapping marks the fact that we allow 30 runners in a maiden at Lingfield/Southwell etc, where of course some top horses will not get a run, blocked, wide, dirt etc. gain a mark in the 80's but trainers who believe or have run in their trials (CK) to a time of a G1 horse.

I am not a big expert on this, so my two penneth can get shot down in flames... I wont be offended. (just don't be too harsh lol)

My belief is that group racing should be kept to 16 max.

With regard maidens I also believe the ratings could be improved by having these at maximum of 16 and split any divisions above this figure into two for example 17 runner split 8 & 9.

The main problem for me is that trainers are not thinking about placements - I have come accross loads of horses who are running in group races off 70 and 80 - why?
Take advantage of the good mark, win a couple of handicaps. The mark will soon rocket into the 100s and from there go into listed/group racing.

Early season listed/group races are really aimed at horses above 90.

I understand the reason for running a quality horse in a group race, but there are plenty of these races. Go through the handicap route first.

I think this season should be treated as a trial for the next, with the new schedule etc.

See what works what doesn't and move on.

Players have to have a varied stable of runners as suggested when I first put forward the schedule.

At the moment ratings are creeping up to where they should be - all things being equal a good number will return for the next season and already be rated to their true mark - hence maidens will be lower in numbers.

With regard rating bands - it should be the top sixteen highest rated that get in for group races.

I think the boundaries suggested by Hackett look about right.

Horses lower than 90 really shouldn't be running in group races.

Agree with this steve, I know I have a group winner in my stable but it got a bad draw in its maiden and has ended up with a great mark, I'm going to win 2 handicaps on the steel and then smash a group 3 before going into group 1 company.
The horse in question will run 6 times max this season.

That would be the wise thing to do and good luck with it.

To avoid this in future the maximum field maiden has to be introduced.