Without the break the Schedule is ridiculous -

16 x Listed & above (1 listed, 15 G's)
9 x 100+ Handicaps
10 x Maidens (G's, in all but name)

35 of 43 races, leaving just 8 races for the vast majority of the trainers to have a chance to win.

Maybe cap all the maidens to 90 max ?????

I'd say just drop the 9+ 100 hcaps down to 90. Most of josh+vinny have won a race so most maidens will be for the level below say the horses around 100 and then u'd have 15 group races and 17 for the under 90s . That way its around even-ish.

We really must stop this a maiden is a group race mentality.

It totally wrecks the season for some trainers/horses. If you have an above average run in a maiden because its your favoured conditions or track you are basically done for the season because horses only seen to drop a few pounds, especially if they finish top half or a litttle lower.

Personally i think we should have a 24lb maximum raise or drop per race.

Then a good maiden winner week one could only get 99. A horse finishing last could get 51.

Then in week 2 all the maidens could be turned into 0-100 and 0-70 handicaps.

This would mean every new horse got an opportunity to run in at least one handicap and the races should be pretty competitive at both levels.

It should also mean horses find their proper class quicker and horses that over or under performed in week 1 didn't get annihilated for the season.

I would much rather see a good horse win a 0-100 handicap off top weight in week 2 than see lower trainers put off by getting their horses overly rated on one run.

A good example would be a good maiden winner goes to 99 after week 1.

Then he wins a 0-100 in week 2 most he could be on is 123. Which is pretty realistic and still means he is forced into group company at a early stage.

Giving horses marks of over 100 based on one run is what causes the problems. Not necessarily for the horse getting the mark of a 100 but for the ones who finished behind it.

Same could apply to NH but it would obviously be 76 - 124 after week 1.

Every maiden was handicapped based on the merit of trainers in it. They weren't treated as group1s. I'm pretty sure a few maiden winners were rated 95 an below. While others may have gone to 105-110, but they will have been very obviously very good maidens.

If you're finishing bottom half of Handicaps now then your horses are dropping between 2 an 5lb per race. That's not slowly coming back down. 2 races in the bottom half an that inflated mark of say 95-100 is already down to 85-90. I don't see what's wrong with this system?

Week 7 does need changing, there's no need for maidens if we aren't having uploads an surely we can just change these maidens to 8 lower handicaps, up to 90, and add a couple of higher class races. Then the week has a 50-50 split

Most handicaps I've seen so far have been pretty competitive. Seems to be a fair spread of winners too. The odd horse may get trapped in between with marks an be forced to run in group races, so the mark doesn't come down quite as quick, but there's not much I can do about these unless you give me a nudge. A horse finishing down the field off 95 in a group race against horses rated over 110 can't really be dropped based on anything I can see

Please just give me a nudge for these horses, I don't mind taking a look. I don't think I said anything to Jim for the reaction. I'll take a look an definitely change it if it requires changing. There's no perfect schedule to this, an no perfect way to keep the horses well handicapped. We have to get to a place where people are ok just asking me. If I do think the marks ok, I'll tell you why also, but may keep an eye on it in the next weeks. Even if it's in a private message. If I get a private message about checking one, I'll do it an let you know there. The no one else in the forums can see. Except you Josh, keeping yours where they are

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90 feels a little sweeping…… and remember most of the best horses have wins now and won’t be entertaining. I would check field sizes tomorrow, bet they are all low. I think I had only one maiden entry.

Yeah, I meant for next season when I was talking about dropping the maidens. Think we're definitely gonna end up with low fields now. I only had 1 runner in a maiden, Josh only had one, I'd be happy to take her out anyway an leave them as maidens for now

Maybe bin the 4 bonus races due to the fields ???

Wouldn’t do any harm, we are short on RR's as is and just adding to comms work too.

P.s After reading John's post, maybe just leave alone, I dont want more of his wrath!

You can't drop races mid season or change the type of race they are.

i have changed the maidens back to normal. there are no ratings limit
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I am sorry I even posted to begin with, I really did not believe it would cause such an issue.