Novice handicap marks... HELP

[jjchil]

Hey guys/girls. newbie and first time posting... I like a bet on the horse, in fact i love it. enjoy studying and finding that overpriced winner..... if only that happened everyday! Anyway... I'm not too bad at using the handicapper to my advantage most of the time. Tend to do best on the flat, Aw i find most of the bigger priced winners. I do ok on the jumps also but something is confusing me. I normally go for a 8-10 runner handicap. I stay away from novice handicaps to be honest. Couple of questions regarding this. Say fro example in a standard novice chase a horse has a mark off 100 in would be off say 11st 10lbs. but a horse with a mark of 95 and 92 will both run off the same mark, say 11st 5lb. I mean, how do you take this handicap marks as a rule? surely of the two racing off the same weight the higher handicap mark would be the one to go with of the two? ground, distance dependent etc..? Also, I tend to dismiss novices when stepping up into proper handicap company. In peoples opinions how does a novice mark fair when they step in into proper company? do they run say 5lb below? does the handicapper give them some benefit of the doubt and rate them a few lbs lower than he should do?. I just feel i missing out with some of this races. If say 3 or 4 novices are stepping up into proper handicaps i just dismiss the race. Im far from a mug punter and only bet 1-4 horses a day. what am i missing? Any help or advise or anything you have noticed with regards to this would be very helpful Jason

[BillyHills]

Re: Novice handicap marks... HELP I'm not sure I understand your first question regarding the novice chase? Are you saying two horses with different ratings ran off the same mark? Not sure why his would happen unless there was a sex/age allowance. Anyway the novice hurdler going handicapping problem? i certainly don't think the handicapper gives them any leeway when rating the novices, they are assessed as any horse would. The chasers can in my opinion be largely over rated in the first place and you tend to find they get dropped a few pounds quite quickly. The hurdles on the other hand are difficult to read when going handicapping and this I'd mainly down to how the different races are run. the novice hurdles lack depth and often are run at a slow pace and then quicken from the second last where as handicaps are run at a more even pace and sometimes a strong pace throughout. i think this often catches the novices out, especially the flat bred typs or those who struggle with getting the trip, it's one thing using a turn of foot over the last two hurdles and quite another having to flat out for two miles. So in short I don't think it's the handicap mark that catches people out all the time is whether a novice can adjust to the different running style of a handicap race.