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Interestingly, the safety factors for several distances at Chester have mysteriously been changed permanently:<br>5f – 16 down to 15<br>7f – 16 down to 14<br>1m5f – 16 down to 15
For the May meeting only the safety factors for 6f, 10f and 12f have also dropped below 16 runners.
Fishy….
Has there been a single change in ‘safety regulations’ that hasn’t happily coincided with punters getting raped?
Stabling regulations, polytack, clowns of the course getting out their hoses, 14 runner maximum fields. …..
A meeting was held at the BHB a couple of years back to discuss ways of bringing an end to four place handicaps by the back door. You will recall they had tried to bring this in through the front door, with Savill’s modernization of British racing document. However, the outrcy, principally from John McCririck, put the scuppers on that.
At the meeting it was decided to use various ‘health and safety’ excuses to get rid of such handicaps. The fruition of this policy is what we are now seeing.
Wallace…surely you joke…but then if we look around the bookies is there much evidence of anyone belonging to a younger generation than me (mid 30’s) interested in racing?
It seems to me they all prefer football and roulette nowdays. If the powers that be seriously believe the ‘Ladies Night’ crowd at Haydock Park is the future as opposed to looking after us ‘mug punters’ then the game is up.
BTW: Portsmouth to beat Liverpool 3/1 Bet365, this Saturday = a steal. Get on (Bodd-M)
I think it’s very important to know when to not bother having a bet .. !
15 runner hcp’s are without a doubt the worst races for punters, it’s quite scary when you see how many of them there are today.
Might be wrong, but surely owners can’t be happy with this.
Restricting field size, raises the probability of not getting a run, which then reduces running opportunities to even less than before
<br>No point in paying training fees, if your horse is going to be stood in his box for the majority of his racing life
<br>Any owners got a view?<br>
(Edited by empty wallet at 1:00 pm on April 25, 2007)
If I may say so EW, you ask a very pertinent question. I can only give you an answer based on my own experience and talking to other owners of my ilk, which is by and large owners of horses below listed/group level.<br>If you own a reasonable horse with some talent, the key to that horse running to the best of his or her ability is to get him or her in a race in which they can compete, to find the right level of race, at at a track which will suit, on the right ground with a jockey who is capable of riding the horse to suit the horse’s ability.
What the BHB did under the PDS regime was to construct a race program to make the maximum profit for bookmakers to fund the Pattern by introducing:
Non overlapping handicaps, eg 10lb ranges rather than 5Lbs
Limitimg the number of runners to 14 per race and 12 during the high summer.
Introducing bandit racing where the H/C mark would not be revealed – even to the owner or trainer.
The reult of this was that – leaving aside bandit racing, -if your horse was in the lower half of the handicap range, you couldn’t get the horse into a race.
This caused a major furore, never reported in the RP, but that’s to be expected. As a result, the BHB returned to 5lb ovelapping H/C bands after serious representations from trainers who managed to get over to the BHB that owners wouldn’t keep their horses in training if they couldn’t get a run. They also relaxed the 14lb handicap range, at least to the point where it was not obligatory.
The other considerstion is that bookies pay tracks according to the number of runners under the old SIS agreement. The most profitable races for off course bookies, ie the tri-opoly, are 8-12 runner handicaps on the A/W. Guess why Arena Leisure ordered the new stalls to 14 places when they could have been manufactured to any number.
Basically the BHB view has been that if you are daft enough to own a horse below Pattern level capability, we”ll construct a race program which means owners have to run their horses in whatever race the horse can be got into, rather than a race in which that horse can compete. Hence more profits for the bookies and funding for the Pattern.
I could go on, but the above situation has got to the point where it is untenable. Hence the review, under the new HRA, of the whole race program – instigated by the trainers, who well know that owners will not pay the very considerable expense of keepiing a horse in just to make money for the off course bookies.
Rather a rambling answer EW and there is much more to be said, but I hope that gives you, at least from my point of view, some kind of aswer to your question.
richard
In Ireland, where the intrest is concentrated mainly on NH racing, many of you may be under the impression that due to the very big fields, particuarly in handicap hurdles, that it’s not too difficult for your horse to get a run. The opposite is actually true.<br>A huge amount of horses are entered for most low to middle standard handicap races.Horses then are subject to the balloting system, making it almost impossible to determine when your horse will get into a race. With our climate as variable as it is, it can turn into a complete lottery as regards trying to get the ground conditions most suitable to your horse. I’ve been involved, through syndication, with two horses and have found this side of it very very frustrating. The last horse I was envolved with has suffered an injury, only this month and the cost of treatment, which would only give a chance that he may race again, far outways his value. He will spend the rest of his days in a riding school, pending some treatment paid for by our syndicate.<br>Now, very disillusioned with ownership, I’ve decided to call it a day with ownership, for the meantime. I know of many people with similar stories, whom most will never own a horse again. Their biggest grieviance, like my own, is not being able to get a run into their horse.<br>So wether it is more horses than available races or reduced field sizes that causes balloting,it can only be a case of the governing bodies of the sport shooting themselves in the foot. <br>With out owners there is no sport!!!!!!!
Don’t start me on race planning.
We found what looked a suitable opportunity for Kahlua Bear at Wolves earlier this week,a 0-55 classified over 7f at Wolves only to realise it was for horses who have won no more than one race (he has won twice).
Quote: from heffo on 1:44 am on April 26, 2007[br]In Ireland, where the intrest is concentrated mainly on NH racing, many of you may be under the impression that due to the very big fields, particuarly in handicap hurdles, that it’s not too difficult for your horse to get a run. The opposite is actually true.<br>
<br>Indeed so – the increasing numbers of low-grade Irish horses coming over to the smaller British jumps tracks (especially during the summer) is testament to that.
How many times do winning connections of any such horse report that there were no opportunities for the beast back home? Plenty. Messrs Lambe, Slevin, Carr, Potts, Elliott, McBratney, etc. aren’t all just coming over for the sticky toffee pudding at Cartmel, you know….
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
(Edited by graysonscolumn at 9:16 am on April 26, 2007)
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Have you opened a book on the spreads yet grays on how many times the commentator mentions ‘sticky toffee pudding’ at the next meet?
empty wallet, I too owned a horse.<br>Placed just over 1 length behind Flint River, who was rated more than 10lb higher, mine was dropped 4lb.<br>Consequently it was months before the next run simply because of the ballot procedure.<br>I had a very long chat with the handicapper which led me to conclude the handicap system was riddled with errors, flawed in design and interpretation, and unfair.<br>Still in contact with the racing industry (not for betting purposes) I can see no reason to want to own again.
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