Nelli 426 Report post Posted February 24, 2020 He was a good horse in the past but who thinks Bordeaux should be rated 104?. The last time he was in the 1st 3 was April 2018 and most of his 'earnings' this season are just the partial returns of the entry fees for the Cup and FFA. I really believe we want to enable these old fellows to keep racing but how long is it going to take for him to drop to a competive level? JJ Flash 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamour 663 Report post Posted February 24, 2020 This is the type of situation that the ratings system should be able to address but is not doing so. Either the handicapper needs some discretion or the points deducted for horses well out of form need to be greater so the horses can find their correct level. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eljay 1,711 Report post Posted February 25, 2020 what connections need to do is start it week in week out, treat them like workouts, get the horse "all dressed up with nowhere to go" and after a while it may find it's level. Sounds a bit dishonest - but! The present system is particularly harsh on a promising horse who gets injured and is unable to race for a long period and has to come back on same rating. Reminds me of a horse I had who was "above average" who severely injured himself in training. The vet said he could get him back to the races (of course the cost of this was not petty cash) and I asked him yes but back to open class where he would have had to race. Big cough. Needless to say his racing days were over! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyril Rioli 26 Report post Posted February 25, 2020 1 hour ago, eljay said: what connections need to do is start it week in week out, treat them like workouts, get the horse "all dressed up with nowhere to go" and after a while it may find it's level. Sounds a bit dishonest - but! The present system is particularly harsh on a promising horse who gets injured and is unable to race for a long period and has to come back on same rating. Reminds me of a horse I had who was "above average" who severely injured himself in training. The vet said he could get him back to the races (of course the cost of this was not petty cash) and I asked him yes but back to open class where he would have had to race. Big cough. Needless to say his racing days were over! The system only suits the battlers who are happy to race once a week (or more) and trotters that gallop a lot Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelli 426 Report post Posted February 25, 2020 Too true. No good at all for horses that keep running top races for 4ths and 5ths under hcp conditions. And purposely running down the track can teach some horses not to try, as well as confirming some critics views that harness racing is full of cheats. I'm not totally against the rating system - just think race programmers could make better use of conditions, eg horses earning less than $xxx in last 5 starts get let up 10m. 3 hours ago, Cyril Rioli said: The system only suits the battlers who are happy to race once a week (or more) and trotters that gallop a lot Pam Robson 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikie 325 Report post Posted February 25, 2020 1 hour ago, Nelli said: Too true. No good at all for horses that keep running top races for 4ths and 5ths under hcp conditions. And purposely running down the track can teach some horses not to try, as well as confirming some critics views that harness racing is full of cheats. I'm not totally against the rating system - just think race programmers could make better use of conditions, eg horses earning less than $xxx in last 5 starts get let up 10m. Nelli Why did we need a new Ratings system then? The old Class system would have been better As an example "For horses that have either (a) won less than 5 races in their lifetime and have not won a race since April 1st, 2019 or (b) won less than 9 races in their lifetime and have not won a race since December 1st, 2018" The permutations were endless I hear what others are saying about Bordeaux but wait until he drops way down then destroys a field, the other starters will then complain. Reminds me of a good grey trotter called In Shot, used to run down the track in Open Class races, Handicapper lets her up 10m or 20m at Nelson, and she waltzs in. Got so repetitive the conditions had to be rewritten with a maximum Class of C5 or C6 by memory as all the other Trainers were going to refuse to start their horses Mikie Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...