Handicaps

[betsmate]

Quick question...

95% of my betting is on group races and I normally try to avoid handicaps like the plague. This means that I usually pay little attention to what the handicapper does.

Mainly for interest then, can anyone explain why Chocolate Caramel is running in the 2.15 at York off a mark of 82 when it won last time out off 85?

Has the handicapper looked at the overall form of the race, assessed it as an 82 performance and thus adjusted the horse's official rating? And I guess more pertinently, is this normal?

I kind of took it as read that for a horse to slip in the handicap it had to really put in a series of sub par efforts (and that usually these were in defeat) and that if a horse won a race, even if not running to its OR the handicapper would just leave it be?

It is only two weeks since that last run, so time isn't a factor. Or am I missing something blatantly obvious about the conditions of the race?

This is why I stick to Group races...

Thanks

 

[Arkwright]

He only won a claimer last time out and at the weights as you say the handicapper probably feels that he ran below his best winning that race hence the drop in his handicap mark.
It certainly happens on ocassions that horses win claimers and have their handicap mark lowered.

 

[betsmate]

Simple. Thanks Arkwright.

 

[davidjohnson]

In this case I think it is because Chocolate Caramel has seperate turf and AW marks. On the last update in the Racing Calendar for Chocolate Caramel's mark, he is 85 on AW and 82 on turf.

 

[Flame]

wrong thread