Hi Guys after a few discussions over the Field sizes Over the jumps this season. We have decided to extend the NH ONLY Stable size to 35 During the Weeks Break After this week.
This means Leon will increase the Stable size to Allow NH Trainers to add up to 35 Horses for the rest of the season ONLY.

We will put the field size back to 30 for Next season So we will have a weeks break after this week and i will open Window Upload for stables to upload new Flat and NH horses Next Week
And Close the Window 4PM Friday 15th April Hour Before Final Declarations.


Gray

Comments Below if you want to ask pr Disagree with the proposed Increase of NH Stables.

I understand why this is being considered but I don’t think stable size is the problem, only a handful of the NH trainers have full teams now, it will be those few that do that add the extra horses rather than everyone else filling their spots or new people coming to this side of the league which is what is needed. And I myself won’t add anything decent, just some returning horses who missed the cut last time or some more also rans, my best new horses I would rather use for a full season.

Seems harsh on those who have not done any breeding since the start of the season I for one wait til the end of the
season to see who my best league performers are and breed from there this will only mean that the top trainers get to bolster
their armory and those who have no subs to come in just horses from start of the season will fall even further behind I guess
most mine are handicappers so it wont matter just my thought on it. If the majority want it no problem at all. As I say I will keep
plugging away in handicaps.

I will just add some who missed the cut. Haven't played the game since league started and have no intention to play until end of season as I like to concentrate the breeding on those who performed well in the league

I don't have a dog in this fight as my NH program is still in its infancy and my first batch of jumpers are still too young to even race anything but flats, but an open period would be welcome as I can add some horses to my Flat stable who ACTUALLY were tested in CK trials and might at least be competitive for 4th or 5th place instead of running off the back of the field in the final furlongs.

Too many races, nothing to do with the amount of horses, this just allows the top trainers to have another 5 horses that can win more....

No surprise there

Should of been put to a vote.

I’d be a no, since even my returning horses and lower tier types are likely league winners, so the point about making the strong trainers stronger holds water for me.

I was going to fill up my stable to 30 if Trainers who have slots left threw in some Handicappers would Help i will have to alter Hunter Chases to as higher Rating instead of 100 tp 110 and even 115. Perhaps that would sort out the bottom end although that was designed for poor Horses and just enables bigger Trainers to pop in a pinch some easy wins.

Gray

This is where the handicapper should be taking in to account the trainer etc, in the Hunt, if you raise the races so high then your better off dropping the races all together, as you say plenty of horses from better trainers 110 etc. which defeats the object of the hunters, which some are already at 110 since the season started I have noticed.

I am not sure if this is a discussion or has been decided as it says 35 horses in my stable already ?

Not to concerned what happens. Anything I upload will be what I had at the start of the season. Gray asked me to increase the stable size. Very easy to reduce size again. Uploads have not opened yet so no effect yet.

I am quite happy to hold my hand up here and say that this was my suggestion.

Main reason behind it is that as I now do the bulk of the NH coms I am already getting bored of commentating on 2 or 3 runner races or the same 6 horses racing against each other in a novice hurdle every week and there are the best part of 8 weeks left yet.

It takes just as long to com a 3 mile race with 20 runners as it does one with 2 BUT it is far more enjoyable with a bigger field.

I can only have so many fireside chats with Sirius or waffle about nonsense so many times a week. It is getting to the point where I am putting the races on and feeling whats the point as there will only be one or two people watching this. This is almost certainly resulting in the rest of the comms not being as good as they used to be as my enthusiasm wanes.

I am sure it doesnt help the handicapper either as these 2 and 3 runner races must be difficult to assess properly. The lower grade races are suffering because horses arent dropping enough as they keep winning 2 runner races or being placed in 5/6 runner ones. As Gray says when he ups the ratings to get runners in it penalises the very horses/trainers the races were originally designed for.

We need bigger fields and that means more horses . Obviously more trainers would be preferable but that is unlikely to happen mid season. Therefore if we have the opportunity to add horses by increasing stable size then that is the next best course of action.

It is hard to convince people with good stables, that thier offcasts are still 20% better than some trainers, fine if Gray wants to increase the stables then so be it, but it did seem like he has had a discssuion " after a few discussions" with someone about this as noted in his 1st post.

Is it not just better, for RR, Commnetators, handicappers just to cut some races ??? Yes, it would mean losing at both ends but being it is a tight season for volunteers, this surley must be more logical, than increasing workloads ?

We could increase it for all trainers except the top 4. So exclude Dave Hooley, Darren Thompson, Josh and me. That should solve the lower handicap race issue

As I am 5th on wins leave me out too so I don't 'benefit' from my own suggestion.

no Just Darren, Dave, Josh and me although it could possibly just be the top 3 so just Dave Josh and me.

Or possibly even everyone except Josh and me