Festival Handicaps (weights out)

SteveM

SteveM

At the Start
Joined
May 2, 2003
Messages
7,130
Location
London
Weights for the 11 Cheltenham handicaps are out. Time to get down to the serious number crunching...
 
If anyone can post them here I'd be grateful. They should be up on the Cheltenham site by now, but I'm blocked from viewing certain pages on my work computer.
 
Last edited:
I can't see them there yet Steve.

RP has them but not in a format that can easily be copied here. PM me if you want me to email them to you.
 
Thanks. But no worries, I can get them when I get home to my home computer and will be leaving shortly.
 
Clearly the British Handicapper spotted Alexander Severus's eye catching run last time as well!! 20lbs higher rating than in Ireland...ouch!
 
Galileo said:
Clearly the British Handicapper spotted Alexander Severus's eye catching run last time as well!! 20lbs higher rating than in Ireland...ouch!
Click to expand...

It's not really comparing like with like. There's a difference between the two scales of about 10-14lbs in any event. Alexander Severus is probably in reality only about 6-10lbs higher and that seems fair.

Psycho's treatment illustrates the difference. His unlucky second off 131 in last year's County Hurdle would have seen his British mark go up to the low 140s but he started this season off 127 in Ireland.
 
Gearoid said:
What ever happened to working a God honest 40 hour week. No wonder there is a recession...
Click to expand...

Ah, but I don't wander into work mid morning... started before 6am... and you should see the size of our bonuses... hardly enough to move the market in the Champion Hurdle!! It's an outrage.:(
 
I was quite keen on Perce Rock for the Grand Annual. Rated 139 in Ireland, he is running off 144 in the Grand Annual. Think he is probably capable of it but not as enticing.
 
gus said:
It's not really comparing like with like. There's a difference between the two scales of about 10-14lbs in any event. Alexander Severus is probably in reality only about 6-10lbs higher and that seems fair.

Psycho's treatment illustrates the difference. His unlucky second off 131 in last year's County Hurdle would have seen his British mark go up to the low 140s but he started this season off 127 in Ireland.
Click to expand...

Don McClean's views...spotted this on TRF.

http://betdiary.ie/donnmcclean/2009/03/20/final-cheltenham-musings/

2. The handicapping of Irish horses
It reared its head again when Ninetieth Minute won the Coral Cup (the cheek). I was asked, quite sternly, by a senior member of staff at the BHA if I was happy now, as if it was my fault that an Irish horse had won a handicap hurdle at Cheltenham. Fair play to Dermot Cox and Tom Taaffe and Paddy Flood. The reality is that Ninetieth Minute is rated 140 in Ireland which meant that – under the tacit agreement between Ireland and the UK that horses rated 140 or higher in either jurisdiction, should (“should”, mind you, not “has to”) race off the same mark in both countries – he was allowed race off 140 in the UK.
Have a look at the other handicaps though, excluding the Cross-Country Chase, which you legitimately can, given that success in that race is much more dependent on a horse’s ability to handle the unique demands of the course than it is on handicap marks or weight carried. Not so good. In all the other handicaps, nine other races in total, the best that Irish-trained horses could manage was two third-place finishes. In the William Hill Chase, the best Irish horse finished 14th, in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ race, the best-placed Irish horse was 10th. Irish horses won seven of the 15 non-handicap races, yet they only won one of the 10 true handicaps. There is something askew there somewhere.
Tony O’Hehir made a good point in his column in the Racing Post today. Two of the handicaps were won by wide margins. Andytown won the Martin Pipe race by nine lengths, while American Trilogy won the County Hurdle by 11 lengths. Can you imagine the fall-out if either of those had been Irish-trained? We are still hearing about Sky’s The Limit.
 
Back
Top