What does "out of the handicap" mean?

[Ground]

In the Racing Post article about the 2.00 at Cheltenham, Saturday,( the Grade 3 Servo Computer Services Trophy), it stated that Halcon Genelardias keeps four of the 11-runner field out of the handicap. What does that mean? Also the trainer of Beat the Boys said his horse is 6lbs out of the handicap. How does he figure that? Any help would be appreciated.

[Onthesteal]

In short, horses that run from out the handicap are runnig with more weight than they should be (according to their official rating), but have no choice as the bottom weight is a minimum of 10 stone. The more weight the top horse carries, more chance the bottom horse will ‘stay in’ the handicap.

There are sites that will explain this more thoroughly

[Anonymous]

Imagine the following race, a more straight forward version of Saturday’s contest:

Halcon Genelardais (OR of 166)
Simon (OR of 150)
Joe Lively (OR of 143)
Beat the Boys (OR of 134)

As the highest rated in the field, Halcon Genelardais would automatically be allotted 11-12, less any claim due to his rider. The other horses would then, of course, be weighted according to their OR – Simon carrying 10-10 (rated 16lb lower than Halcon Genelardais) and Joe Lively 10-3 (rated 23lb lower). Beat The Boys, by the same method, should carry 9-8, but as the minimum racing weight for any national hunt horse is 10-0 (less any claim due to their rider) he actually carries 6lb too much.

This is known as being ‘out of the handicap’.

If you look at the result recorded on the Racing Post website, Beat The Boys is said to have run from a mark of 140. This doesn’t mean that the horse is rated 140, just that that is the mark he effectively ran from in relation to the top-rated horse in the race. So, were Halcon Genelardais only rated 163, Beat The Boys would have been 3lb out of the handicap (as he should have carried 9-11) and would have run from a mark of 137.

Hopefully that makes some sort of sense.

[Author]

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