they will be scratched mate

ah right, by the way you are still my mentor m8. i intend to get some wins under my belt soon so watch out at the top lol:)

(need to do a sight better than i have so far)

Hey,

Back in the olden days I'm almost certain that one or more races each week were restricted to trainers who had not won any races that season.

Not sure how easy it would be to replicate something similar e.g. less than 1,2 or 3 winners, but might be something to consider?

Paul

you will get there mate you have the bug for it now

Not something to address the flat issue as such, but I wonder if lifting the hood on the restriction on handicap entry would help, cannot speak for everyone but when you only have a few good horses and not a team of them, preventing race entry is frustrating, I have a number of my better horses who are my best at 1m to 1.6m on flat and on jumps the range goes wider, 2.5m to 3.3m for one horse I have in the league right now. I know as the season progresses finding races becomes increasingly hard unless I just want to watch them beaten by the top boys. Not much fun in that.

There is no way this will happen. The league had loads of problems before this with people running horses over wrong distances to get good marks. There are no restrictions on group races but think carefully what distance you run your horse over in the first 2 weeks to maximize your chances.

Running a horse over 1m4 will give you a 10f to 14f spread and that is wide enough to stop any abuse

Yes I can see how that may have occurred, don't have the history. Take the point on the group races, but they offer very little appeal to all but a handful of trainers

Ok then, so easy option is more low grade handicaps throughout the schedule, but the early weeks are hard on many as we're all rated the same, and the super horses get a lot of early wins, so how about a pre league sort of trial from which more accurate handicaps can be assigned before it kicks off in anger? Say 3 rounds maidens over all distances and codes?

The first week is about just getting a mark. Once that's done wait for the handicaps week 3 and your horse will be more competitive or drop down the ratings until it is. If you want to win a race and don't think you have a group quality horse just avoid group races. The flat schedule could probably do with more handicaps.

There loads in NH including Graded handicaps which gives all trainers chances. Hard to win with top weight in the wet in NH, I speak from running loads with top weight and have never won with a top weight in NH, this is possible on the flat though. In addition we have had game horses with group 1's including the gold cup in NH so it easier for new trainers to be competitive in NH

I am just bouncing ideas around. Am ok with what I can do get the best out of my horses, I think

The first week of maidens is really full cards of Group races. lol
Week 2 is a little easier but the first two weeks are frustrating as a bottom end trainer.
Things start to get easier from now on

What if every race was a handicap?

Maiden Handicap
Handicap Handicap
Listed Handicap
Group Handicap


Would even the field and generate legitimate hopes for the lesser trainers in the big races.

The problem with this is the lack of races for new trainers who join mid season. But maybe some of them could become graded handicaps this would make things easier. On the code side this may be a bigger job than it looks though

My goal as a handicapper. Adjust the ratings down about 5 points for maiden winners and make the league's "140 top rating" = 125. In other words 125 is the limit.



The important rows in the picture are the Group 1 and the Maiden lines. 125,120 and 115 are the limit for the very best horses for each age. A 3up Maiden winner gets a rating around 105 depending on how impressive the performance is. A 3yo only Maiden a 100. A 2yo Maiden a 95.

With that maiden row set in the middle horses from the maiden races should find equal opportunities north and south of the maiden line. Power trainers may find more handicap spots but most likely they would be weighted highly.

This is my idea which will take a slow integration over this league with a lot of your horses getting the needed ratings drop you've wanted. Already in my first go at ratings I've found a few races filled with ratings that don't gel. Some good performers this week will get drops in ratings.

Given a clean slate to work with was what I really wanted but I have to work with the existing ratings and I'm quite new at this so bear with me if the ratings make no sense early on. If still not making sense at the end of the season you can give me the hook.

Finally for next league - tinker with the schedule taking away some group races and adding listed and handicaps races. Redistribute the handicap races so there is a more balanced amount of races for all distances.

I don't agree with your logic of giving a week 1 or week 2 winner a rating of 105. These races are in effect G1 races and yor table says thar G1 winners get a rating of 125.

I think that it is more realistic to give week 1 winners a handicap of 125, but have a greater range\spread of handicaps, with say 5 points per length. That way lesser horses will still end up with rating of about 65 - 90.

If by some miracle my horse does well in a week 1 maiden and is only rated at 90, I would still run the horse in a 0-100 handicap. The power trainers horses would still have a better than average chance to win if given such low handicaps. I want to see any horse that finishes in say a top 5 place in a week 1 maiden given a handicap that excludes it from running in handicaps.


From the tone of your last post, it sounds as if you have taken on the role of flat handicapper, if so well done for volunteering. My concern is, if you have taken on the handicappers role, why are you implementing a new policy, that as far as far as I know, has not been discussed fully yet and a concensus of opinion been reached.