Large fields are an issue especially in SO7 with the wide running horses. I am in discussion with Mark about improving this but it is not easy to do. In the meantime something needs to be done as a temp fix for this season. In the Eclipse Josh's took a tour of the outside fence, and a number of other horses may not even have run. There is a problem race tomorrow as well, but this is a handicap and in the future we can just split this. I'm for all hardluck stories. Endless Night had a lot of hard luck but this is accetable hard luck. What is not accetable is that when a horse jumps out it already has no chance just becuase of its draw ( A number of horses had this happen to them ) You could win from draw 20. It is hard but not impossible. You can't win from draw 30 as the horse just runs in a weird way

For handicaps the races can just be split so no issue there. Gray can highlight the ones that need doing and I can do these before the races are sent to the race runners. All these races will be split randomely by alternative horse id.

On another note there is functionality to automate handicapping and maybe we could explore this in some group /listed races to make it easier for Doug and Gray

Group and Listed are the easy ones.
The lower rated races can be a brain tease.

Handicapping the ratings isn't the problem - it's the quadruple handling of the ratings to enter them into the race kit which is the problem.
If this process can be streamlined then handicapping would be a stroll in the park.

If splitting the hcp races is easy enough - do that.
For the G1s we either just lump it for the rest of the season or do a ballot.

If we lump it then I can work out which horses were unlucky and treat them as non runners.
The last week of the season we have three G1 races over 10f so those races will cater for all those horses so they will all get a fair chance.

There is also a G1 over 9f in the last week as well....although it is a 4yo+ which with the way SO7 is panning out with older horses may well be a good thing.

It is streamlined but requires the race kit to do the handicapping . This will update the horse file and Tom. So in effect you could do nothing. Maybe we could do this and all the handicapper would need to do is manually adjust ratings where you or Gray think mistakes have been made by the kit.

This would cut down the work load by a large amount. For the horses you think are incorect all you would need to do is adjust the horse file and rating in Tom for the horse. The rest of the horse files and ratings in the website could be ignored as teh code and race kit would do it.


This is the only way as the website uses all the info in the game generated text file. And manually editing that to change ratings I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Oceanport 1m 2f Starts on the Bend Dirt took 20 runners well no problem I think we should have a 20 runner Limit.

1M 1F Dirt starts in the Straight no problem will take 30 if above Spilt The race.

Gray

I will run them I have the bigger track version of Oceanport

Bit of both perhaps? Add a couple of new races for distances you know are being oversubscribed and also cap certain races at 20/25?

10f is the weak link most weeks.
5f to 9.5f there are many races for all age groups and the same for 12f+
This wasn't a problem in SO6 from what I can remember. But SO6 was a bit different. I believe (without crunching numbers) that there are more trainers in SO7 with Group rated horses and this is what has cause the flooding of top line horses for 10f races.
My advice is let's not knee jerk a reaction. It appears we have identified the problem. We can finish this season with some minor changes.
This season was always going to be the final ironing of bugs.
I believe we roll with it and make the correct changes in the off season.

Trainers have to understand the schedual is designed to cover "most" they cannot expect to run everyone of thier 25, every week, there will be times when its not possible & they have to accept this.

We should as Doug says not go messing with this half way through the season, we can see what is wrong with it at this stage and look to change for season 2 of S07.

The overload of Polls in the past week can be used as a guide for the future, but not for league opinion, as even this poll only 12 so far have voted which is hardly the opinion of the league who has 41 flat trainers.

Deciding league changes using only a 1/4 of the trainers opinions seems wrong.

Agreed.

Please be aware these polls are open to every forum member who can vote who have never been in the league
or ever plan to be in the league also alot of trainers are not even voting I could have the solution.

there are loads of poll sites I even use a really good one for my websites and links
can be sent by gray to email them to league members only they take 5 mins to set up I'm happy to do anying to help.

and that way you will get proper results not saying these are not proper but there is a chance that they may not be.

I think Gray has mailshots that he sends to all league members.

Just a thought dont want to tread on any toes.

Mark has done a fix for the wide runners issue. So we can probably just leave it as is for now. I have sent the new race kit to Gray as well

great news thanks Leon

Many more non group races would make everyone happy. Top trainers wouldn't have to deal with 20+ runner races and weaker trainers would be able to place their horses in more suitable races. I have had to place loads of low rated horses into group races because its either that or nothing. Perhaps there were fewer weak trainers in previous years so maybe it worked better but we definitely need more low-medium class races.

Most of those 41 trainers are weaker trainers who would love to have more non group races to enter. As it is I would rather enter my 70 rated horse in a group race than have it not race at all. I get that it may have to wait till next season but surely its a necessary change.

We can't sit around and do nothing and allow races like that York race from last week just to happen. There is a Kempton race this week heading into simliar territory, so something will need to be done. And making decisions with no input is no good either. The game and race kit have been improved so we should see some improvement to how the horses run.



Totally agree. There is a serious lack of handicaps at certain distances and this needs to be sorted out for next season. And I have made this clear in my posts


Even with game/racekit changes. There are 3 races that are looking like they might need to be split: Race 9 , 24 and race 30.