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Does such a handicap exist? Are all the big heritage handicaps equally competitive or is there one that’s just that little bit more difficult than the rest?
The lincoln for me…..had a winner called Baldric II (I think it was the Lincoln) more years ago than I care to remember and the next one I had was Blythe Knight……..impossible race
Cav,
The hardest thing about winning any of the big handicaps these days is getting a run.
Fifteen years ago, the Lincoln top weight was rated 96 and the bottom weight ran off 73.
On Saturday, the top weight is rated 110 and the last horse in is rated 94.
It’s much the same with all the Heritage Handicaps. It’s a massive change that has made it much harder for the small owner to have a big day unless you’re lucky enough to have a Group class horse.
AP
Thanks for the feedback.
AP, you have given me an idea. I’ll go back over all the class 2 handicaps in RI and get a median OR for the top 5 or 6 in the handicap, should be interesting to see what comes out on top. Good luck on Sunday btw.
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So what do you think has caused the change, AP?
Is it just the sheer weight of numbers of horses in training nowadays, are the races so much more valuable, or are horses simply rated too highly?There ae loads
The Royal Hunt Cup is a really hard one to win as there can quite often be a potential listed or better horse (or horses) in the field, same with the britannia stakes which generally feature the fall out of the guineas and a the up and comings/ the late progressors etc.
I generally find the sprint handicaps are hard to pick out as the sprinters largely don’t seem to hold their form as well, the wokingham, vodafone dash etc.
The one which I usually do OK in but everyone seems to say is a total nightmare is the Newbury supersprint, the trick I use is to go for the progeny of good first season sires and the cheap distance specialist sires on the big priced horses.
Its the sprints that i avoid and i find near impossible. Only thing in favour of Newbury is that it isnt big on the draw factor
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There ae loads
The Royal Hunt Cup is a really hard one to win as there can quite often be a potential listed or better horse (or horses) in the field, .
Bulwark
Tbh, you’d be hard pressed to find a valuable handicap where that isn’t the case, even in the sprint handicaps that Clivex finds so impossible?
I’d say prize money is the main reason why these races now feature such high average ratings. The Lincoln is worth more than a Group 2 race and it’s attracting horses that would normally be runing in Group 3 or Listed contests.
The Lincoln prize fund is £125,000 – the average Listed race is less than £30,000.
Add in the fact that trainers know the weights will be compressed, so they won’t be giving two stone to some improving future Group horse and the big handicaps are an attractive proposition.
On the rare ocasion that such an improver gets into one of these races with a lenient weight now, they find themselves up against fully exposed opposition – Third Set and Purple Moon spring to mind from last season.
AP
I wouldn’t go for the Lincoln due to the lower number of runners although I can’t remember ever backing the winner of it
The Hunt Cup used to have 32 runners but I think that’s been reduced recently and I feel the mile just gives that bit of extra time for the cream to come to the top. It would have to be one of the lottery sprints for me with the most runners, Wokingham, Stewards or Ayr race but then there’s the Cambridgeshire as has been mentioned which has more runners For me it would be the Cambridgeshire, but really it is an impossible question to answer.
I am lucky enough to be involved in two horses running in these races – Pinpoint (rated 109 and winner of two Heritage Handicaps, 3rd Cambridgeshire) and now Something (104) 3rd Bunbury Cup and 4th Wokingham.
The first reason that they keep out of Listed/Group company for as long as possible is, as Alan has said, the much better prize money of the big sponsored handicaps. The second reason is that as soon as they go into Listed/Group company and run close to a high class horse they fly up 10 lbs in the handicap (for no logical reason) and are stuck running in lower value Group, Listed and conditions races. There are also horses, such as Pinpoint, who go best in big field strong pace races and are not so suited to the average Group/Listed race.
In terms of punting the Steward’s Cup is my favourite and most successful race. I swerve the difficult ones.
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Difficult to say this without sounding complacent, but I really do love these big handicaps, and they often aren’t nearly as difficult to sort as legend would have you believe.
Look at the past results of races like the Lincoln and the Grand National, and the winner comes from the first 3 in the betting as often as not, and you’re nearly guaranteed a decent return. Even blind dutching the top 3 in the market in these races would probably yield a better return than many of the more sophisticated approaches,
For all my years in betting, Kuala Lipis’s Lincoln win still remains as my most lucrative ever single bet, and carried a deal more confidence than I could muster for just about any stakes race.
Bring them on.
The Hunt Cup used to have 32 runners but I think that’s been reduced recently and I feel the mile just gives that bit of extra time for the cream to come to the top. It would have to be one of the lottery sprints for me with the most runners, Wokingham, Stewards or Ayr race but then there’s the Cambridgeshire as has been mentioned which has more runners 
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