To all stakeholders and interested parties within racing: merit rating system

Merit Ratings




Please follow the link below to obtain a copy of the background and proceedings to the NHA Workshop on the Merit Ratings Handicapping System along with supporting documents marked Annexures (contains Annexures A to E).

The purpose of the Workshop was to commence a review of the Merit Rating Handicapping System and consider its aims, objectives and philosophy and if, in the 16 years since its inception, it is appropriately fulfilling the intended purposes or if the purpose itself requires widening.

The Workshop brought forth a variety of views, but was by no means exhaustive given the breadth and scope of a subject which goes to the heart of the way in which races are framed and the outcomes of races determined by the allocation of weight, thereby affecting the capacity of horses to win and all those involved within the racing and breeding industry to earn. As a consequence, the importance of the system concerns all of us in racing.

The report was presented to the National Board of the NHA on 24 April 2014 who approved its release to the racing community for consideration. Subsequent to the Workshop and Board meeting, the senior handicapper recently compiled a proposal which considers the abolition of the WFA scale in domestic ratings. This document has yet to be discussed but will form part of the deliberations and is included for public comment as a separate Annexure.

In order to be certain of providing an opportunity for further and more complete evaluation before determining findings and recommendations, The National Horseracing Authority INVITES informed comment from all stakeholders who wish to make a submission, either in writing, or by email, or by oral presentation.

Submissions should be sent for the attention of the Racing Control Executive, Mr David
McGillivray, by the 30th June 2014.

Also to be considered are the comments of the Asian Pattern Committee which met at the recent Asian Racing Conference in Hong Kong in regard to the application of domestic ratings to the development of internationally recognised Graded Races.

Once all submissions have been received, a subcommittee will then be convened to review and consider the detail and produce findings and recommendations to the Board for possible implementation in 2015.

To obtain the minutes of the NHA Workshop on the Merit Rating Handicapping System, click here (This document is 25 kb)


To obtain the anextures to the above document, click here (This document is 9Mb)


To obtain a copy of the proposed changes to the weight for age scale, click here.(This document is 1 Mb)



Robin Bruss
Chairman, Graded Races Committee

Does anybody have any idea who the members of the NHRA are at present?

I would like to see how many are qualified to discuss and/or understand the subject
It is a very complicated issue in my opinion

Should have said Stake holders?

ps the Ken Nicol listed is that Dr Who that used to post here?

Well, no surprises when I tell you that I attended and participated in the workshop chaired by Robin Bruss and my first sight of this document is here, on ABC.... brilliant huh?

And yes, I did call Robin Bruss to discuss the wfa issue, some 2 weeks ago. He never answered, so I left a message. I backed that voice message with a sms for him to call me. Still waiting.

I wonder, sometimes, how on earth we are going to take this game forward.....

Even the minutes are incorrect as it show both ST and LG as attending and invited but did not attend

Is there anybody who has read the proposed change to WFA scale who can understand it?
I have read it over and over and maybe I am having a problem with the terminology.

It is headed "abolition of WFA scale" .....surely not abolishing any form of maturity allowance(reinforced by a comment later about 3 yr olds dominating results)
Under "advantages" it describes the allowance as an impediment.............I thought it was a benefit!
It talks about avoiding a gradual aging ie "not having to factor in changing age allowance".................aging IS gradual!......that is a natural phenomena, so I am confused.

If ,what they are talking about is NOT abolishment,but rather a Net rating ,I am not sure I see the point as when young horses run against older horses there will still need to be an allowance factor to convert from a gross to a net figure, surely.

If they are saying the present level of adjustment is outdated and no longer relevant, that could obviously be true due to breeding and feeding development changes.(we discussed this possibility on the forum some time ago)

Please someone help...............am I misreading it completely?

rob faux Wrote:

---

> Is there anybody who has read the proposed change
> to WFA scale who can understand it?

> Please someone help...............am I misreading
> it completely?

Rob, I think you get it. Of course its just nuts BUT....
wearing our punters hats...lets hope the crazies do it!

I'm not saying another word on this, I don't want to discourage the loons.

Jack Dash Wrote:

---

> rob faux Wrote:
>

---

>

---

> > Is there anybody who has read the proposed
> change
> > to WFA scale who can understand it?
>
> > Please someone help...............am I
> misreading
> > it completely?
>
> Rob, I think you get it. Of course its just nuts
> BUT....
> wearing our punters hats...lets hope the crazies
> do it!
>
> I'm not saying another word on this, I don't want
> to discourage the loons.

Thanks for that Jack.................I thought I had lost my marbles entirely.
(I notice that the document is not signed but refers to "I" and I wonder who "I" is !)

Haven't had the time (or maybe the motivation) to go through this yet - sounds like there are some 'interesting' points covered

www.nhra.co.za/common/newsitem.php?url=67

Merit Ratings

Please note that due to an administrative oversight, the report submitted to the National Board in April was omitted from the previous communication on the merit rating review. The website has been updated to include all relevant documentation for your consideration i.e. the NHA workshop report that was submitted to the Board and dated 25/04/2014, the supporting annexures A-E and the proposed changes to the WFA scale. Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.

In view of the above the date for written submissions has been extended to 15 July 2014.

As mentioned previously once all submissions have been received, a subcommittee will be convened to review and consider the detail and produce findings and recommendations to the National Board.


Denzil Pillay
Chief Executive

To go to the NHA website page click here

The cock ups are endless-hard to believe actually!

Wonderful to see new innovations. So many horses don't make wfa improvement, stops them in their tracks!