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In fact this will save you the bother
Feb 08
"Apologies Mike I thought I had mentioned it in one of our PM’s will send today.
If I ws training Katchit this season he would have won ziltch so far. I have read the horse is too small hasn’t trained on not good enough etc.
If Katchit had gone racing 100% fit in his 3 runs this season I would have been amazed……the horse you have seen so far this season is not the horse you will see at Cheltenham. How many times have horses like him ran races like he has but come Champion Hurdle day they are a totally different proposition. I would bet any of you 1 penny to a pound he hasn’t been anywhere near his best this season at any point.
I think there’s a distincy lack of imagination here and you should go back to last years Triumph and watch the race and then have a look at what he did a few weeks later at Aintree. Then come back and tell me you have seen the best of Katchit this season. He is being trained totally differntly this season with one race in mind IMO. Perhaps his trainer thinks another tough season like last, due to his small frame is not what the horse needs?
As most of you know I have bet 2 horses for the race Sizing Europe and Katchit and nothing I have seen this season makes me think I am not on the first two home and nothing will. Katchit loves the course and when he goes for home there won’t be many go with him Osana is over rated, Sublimity as I have said a dozen times won’t get home in this years race, Harchibald just can’t win unless he changes his attitude……..I think SE will win have done for a long time but I would be a very worried man if I hadn’t backed Katchit as he ‘s the one I fear most.
No need to apolgies I’m used to it
This year Colin? I would say Katchit has been handling Alan King and not the other way round.
He is simply letting the horse do his own thing but from here on in he will take charge and it will be heads down. I would say ignore him at your peril as he is after all the best CH we have had since Istabraq….top of the hill he’ll go to the front and what catches him if any wins IMO.Hopefully Binoclular
Publish their weight on arrival at the racecourse.
THAT GRASSHOPPER, would be a fantastic idea, imagine horse X turning
up for his seasonal reappearance weighing 600kg, his last winning weight
being 550kg, imagine what would be said! and yet it happens!King, interviewed on Racing UK this week, said that he had made a mess of training Katchit this season. The horse is now having a complete break and won’t be seen on a track until the Champion Hurdle.
I have no intention of apologizing, you are an after-timer of the highest order but I’m not sure if you are aware of the full meaning of the term.
Colin
I’m with TC and – shock horror!
– FoF here.Publishing horses weights means the square root of nothing unless you have something to compare it to. Now, by all means compare it to last year’s weight of the horse at the same time of year, or its weight the last time it won a race or ran well but, as has been pointed out – horses grow! They grow and they also change shape constantly – horses can still be filling out and strengthening up until the age of 7 or 8, even. So their weight will fluctuate as the years go by and their ideal racing weight in March of their 3yo season won’t be their ideal weight in March of their 4yo season, for example.
It’s all part of this ridiculous quest that some people have for wanting to know everything about a horse – what it weighs, if it’s in season, if it’s in foal, if it ate up this morning, last time it had a dump, consistency of said dump, yada yada…..get the picture? I find it daft and unnecessary – there are so many variables on how a horse may perform it isn’t worth getting into a stew about knowing all of it beforehand! Something as simple as the person who is riding the animal out at home can have a bearing – and often does – on whether or not the horse is going to win.
They’re animals, not machines.
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I don’t think anybody’s suggesting that they want to know how much a horse weighs for the sake of it – obviously such information would only be useful in context – but whether they’re still growing at the age of 5, 6, 7 or even 8, racing weight would be a useful indicator of likely fitness. And, of course, there will be a point when the horse stops growing, in which case weight could prove a suitably informative tool.
I would tend to agree that there is a quest for too much information at times, but this sort of thing is by no means unreasonable. Whilst implementation costs are presumably quite high, recording and relaying the information would hardly be difficult (though it still wouldn’t satisfy those who have to place their bets in the morning). It could also, conceivably, filter out the ‘he needed the run’ excuses which are far too easy to give following a disappointing performance.
"Amazing you have come up with another one liner or was it two?….. "
Fists, who was it who said "Brevity is the soul of wit"?
Colin
Do any trainers not publish the weight of their horses on their website? Just wondered, because this is something that Christian does.
Darren – AngloGerman
________________________________________‘The Hungarian’s going hell for leather’ – Jim McGrath
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As a punting tool I feel it would be of little consequence. Greyhounds are weighed before races but, from the dim and distant days when I used to frequent dogtracks, I can’t ever recall it being a serious aid, or being widely broadcast.
However, it does have its attractions as an integrity check, and a race-by-race record against each horses form might help close the door on a practice many regard as cheating.- Total Posts 17716
Weight has no relevence?. So do scientists not include wieght in any work that they do, weight is one of the most important things on this earth, along with sound oh but I guess horse’s run with no gravity
Weight has no relevence?. So do scientists not include wieght in any work that they do, weight is one of the most important things on this earth, along with sound oh but I guess horse’s run with no gravity
It is my understanding that scientists work within strict controls, which you cannot compare to racing as every horse is different.
Big yards do tend to weigh their horses, for one reason – half the time the trainer isn’t there to look at them. The weight of a horse may give a trainer a reason to have a close look at the animal, but I would put money on the fact that weight has never infuenced running plans alone.
A better indication of fitness is a blood test. Just imagine, every horse tested when they arrive at the track, rush them through a mobile lab and you’d probably have them in time for the first! Apart from the fact that it would cost thousands to do every race/horse, it again would be a waste of time as horses are so variable!
Perhaps weight should be recorded. Along with a condition score, height, build and bone. Then you might just get a true picture of what the weight actually means.Publish their weight on arrival at the racecourse.
.. is the correct answer .. go to the top of the class my son ..
I’m with TC and – shock horror!
– FoF here.Publishing horses weights means the square root of nothing unless you have something to compare it to. Now, by all means compare it to last year’s weight of the horse at the same time of year, or its weight the last time it won a race or ran well but, as has been pointed out – horses grow! They grow and they also change shape constantly – horses can still be filling out and strengthening up until the age of 7 or 8, even. So their weight will fluctuate as the years go by and their ideal racing weight in March of their 3yo season won’t be their ideal weight in March of their 4yo season, for example.
Like I say, Shads, it is not intended to be the Holy Grail – only something that might help better inform an opinion.
Regardless, I still contend that it provides for a more scientific measure of potential fitness, than the equine equivalent of water-divining that is “paddock watching”.
Colin,
You are entitled to your opinion on FoF, but to be fair, he has answered your charge of after timing by showing you the post he made here on this forum before Katchit won the Champion Hurdle.
Looking at horse weight from a handicapping point of view.
If a horse wieghs 1000lbs and it’s body weight can deviate by +/-2% (like all other mammals) then it’s normal weight can be between 1020lbs and 980lbs. It makes going up the weights by 3lb look a little insignificant doesn’t it?
Trainers and insiders are privvy to this information, but it’s not in the public domain, for obvious reasons.
Actual horse weights are the main reason I stopped doing handicapping and speed figures, they are more or less meaningless without this information, IMO.
– FoF here.
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