Taken from the weekly trainers summary. I think this may need a second look, I also have a few horses who ran like absolute donkeys and are carrying a rating of around 100, Daughter of Dante for example ran 13th and is rated 102. I have nothing lower than 95. Whilst this is not an issue where it is consistently applied it maybe an issue since we have a schedule full of handicaps down to 0-60. We may have a bunch of races no one can enter or with tiny fields, next week will not be so bad as there is nothing lower than 0-80 and a couple of 0-90’s but handicapping needs to line up with the schedule in my view. Not having a go, it is a hard and largely thankless task but we need to ensure races are available for those without monsters to have a shot. Take del for example has had a tough opening few days not won a penny and his lowest rated is 92.

I have to agree with Josh. Ratings are high and need adjusting otherwise there is a very real prospect of walkovers and match races in the lower grade handicaps from as early as next week. There are 4 0-80 handicaps in week 2 but so far only around 9-10 horses rated low enough to run in them and most are from the same few stables. There are no horses eligible to run in one of these handicaps, only 3 in another and 2 sprint handicaps that look like having 4-5 runners max.

This has been noted I have sent a e-mail to the Handicapper new to this Schedule anything winning a Maiden should be at least 110 in some cases more it has been Noted the winner of the Winter Derby G3 has only got a 107 rating this is a Group race it had a small field because its a group Race and trainers expect the winner to get a rating of a Group Horse and will run their horses in a Maiden a Maiden winner cant get 110 if a group winner gets 107.

But the handicapper is new I have pointed out about the low Handicaps and have asked him to Adjust Ratings to the Mid and Low level Horses and hopefully he will adjust the top end giving a base that a Maiden winner is a group horse and must at least get 110.

Gray

Appreciate he is new and mean no offence, there would be no league at all if not for the handicapper, just thought it needed calling out.

Will take time to find his feet.

Josh

I’ve just seen the complaints and agree with them, can’t have no runners in the lower class handicaps but I still need to equalise the runners of any race or I’m not doing it correctly. So I will reduce all horses by 10lb to 15lb as the winners and placers will no doubt go for better races anyway and accumulate a higher rating in the next race. The races given a higher rating were specific races where opinions were high ie. Trainers were of the opinion their horses were high quality and would be going for the classics. If I spread the ratings by using more lbs/length and then these horses meet in a handicap next time it would mean the result is basically going to reverse and horses always finishing midfield will be at a disadvantage throughout the season.

This would reduce 29 runners able to enter a 0-80 so maybe around 80+ horses over the 3 days racing. 16 runners will be rated lower than 71, so around 45 in week 1.

With SO6 there were trainers where you expected their horses to be top flight and it was rare that they had a horse that wasn't - so the hcp'er if he chose could rate on stable ability.
With SO7 I think it would be best to keep an open mind for all trainers and let their horses do the talking as I suspect some of those past top trainers will have their fair share of donkeys this time around.

I also did the final wrap up of race ratings for the flat schedule and pretty much from week 3 there are plenty of low rated races for all horses to be competitive regardless if a horse is rated 50 or 80.
The race ratings were finalised over two seasons (the second and last SO6 season for tweaking) so horses rated at 50 all the way up to the best Group 1 horses have plenty of races to choose from.
So don't be worried if you rate horses lowly - it's better for a horse to get a lower rating because they'll quickly move up than what it is for a horse to get over rated because it takes longer to drop down in grades.

Doug.

Please don't think I was having a go in that original thread either mate. I know how tough it is. I was more mentioning it as we usually have a thread where you get to query the horses marks, and I didn't want to forget. More just to start the conversation as I was worried Lipu Plan may as well have been retired after that race

No absolutely not, I didn't consider that you were 'having a go', it`s a fair point. I'm open to constructive criticism. The race the two horses mentioned were in was the 1m race and the first 5 home will undoubtedly be going for the guineas so to finish 5L away is no mean feat and are sure to win some good races. 5L is only 10lb over a mile and a group 1 winner would be rated around 120 so I wrongly rated the race too high - too early, I have reduced that specific race by 10lb along with all the other races apart from race 2 the listed race. If the BHB saw me rating your 110 horses around 92 they would have a fit, only joking. My reasoning for reducing the ratings for many races from the first day is firstly this thread and that the first 8 horses in this particular mentioned race will mainly not be interested in their handicap marks as they will be going for the group races.

Another point is the lack of low rated horses. I'm hoping Gray can continue to help me out here by raising the lower handicap race conditions if needed as has already been done next week. I will be very lenient to horses who still continue to finish down the field, I would like to keep it as real as possible and roughly (by roughly I mean less than) the first 20% of runners home will be raised and the rest will see a reduction in their ratings as the season progresses.