Understanding weights in handicapping.

[jacko17]

Hi all,

 

looking for a bit of help understanding the weights in handicapping. I know that if a horse races off a rating of say 73 and another is racing off 77 one is carrying 4lbs more than the other. 

 

But this is what I don’t understand...so in the 2 o’clock at Worcester Johnny Yuma last two wins have been off 81 and 88 and has been put up 18lbs and today ran on a mark of 97.... but the weight it ran off was 11-1 and 11-9 and is running off today top weight 11-12 that isn’t 18lbs it’s gone up?

 

im just wondering what the official rating and the weight of the horse in the race card mean im a little confused and to some times  it will says has been raised 4lbs and the rating match so it goes form 70 to 74 but when you look at the weight it doesn’t go up 4lbs if that makes sense .

[BillyHills]

The official rating and the weight carried are two totally different things all together.

Johnny Yuma was rated 81, won a race and was allowed to run next time under a 7lb penalty hence he ran off 88.
If you enter a race again before the handicapper reassesses the ratings (each Tuesday) then you just run off the added penalty. This is often better than waiting for the new official rating. This is why you sometimes here people say they are a certain amount of pounds well in.

By the time the horse ran again the handicapper had caught up with him and raised him a further 9lbs making his rating 97. So he had indeed been raised 18lbs for his two victories.

The weight carried is a different thing and is governed by the grade of the race. 

Johnny Yuma ran at Hexham in 0-100 handicap. The top rated horse in that race was Roxyfet who had a rating of 92. The top rated horse always carries the automatic top weight, in this example it was 11st 12lbs. Johnny Yuma was rated 81 so carried 11lbs less = 11st 1lb

Next time out the horse ran at Southwell in another 0-100 race. There wa sonly 6 runners and the top rated horse in the race was Torrent Des Mottes and he was rated 91 and again carried 11st 12lbs. Johnny Yuma was now rated 88 and carried 3lbs less = 11st 9lbs.

Yesterday Johnny Yuma was was now rated 97 and was the highest rated horse in the race so was given automatic top weight of 11st 12lbs. 

If lets say he would have won again and he recieved another 7lbs rise he would then have to look for races at a higher grade to enter, something like a 0-110 race. This is where you here people say the horse has been in upped in class/grade. Sometimes it works the other way when a horse runs a couple of poor races and the handicapper lowers his mark and this allows the horse to run in a weaker race.

So the weight carried is determined by the grade of race and the official rating determines what race they can run in.

Hope that helps, if you search on this form for 'handicaps' you may find some old threads on this subject.