The sprinters ratings baffle me

You can't tell me that some of the field that ran today is better than last years winner Via Africa?

Yet they are rated higher?

Via Africa 6 time Grade 1 winner rated 112 or 111

Trip Tease 3 time grade 3 winner rated 114

Fly by Night wins a grade 2 of 106 upped to 112 and held since

Tevez won a grade2 once and is rated just 3 points lower than Via on 108

Captain of Al 116?

Copper Parade so much better than Via Africa?

sorry if im not making sense or im talking KAK but something looks wrong with the merit system to me?

One of the things that is needed IMO is that a national panel should sit at least once a quarter to align ratings in various centres-the "creep" in some areas is worse than others.

(Trip Tease is s nice sprinter but to suggest him to be 2 llbs better than Via Africa ,I think,is wrong.
(Remember they were always going to make the sand and turf rating equal to justify the "guessing"debacle.......lol)

Rob i m not keen on talking about stuff i`m not sure about, but surely there must be some common sense used when they up horses?

please tell me if i`m talking shit lol

Bob, it never and still doesnt make any sense to me either. Would one of our resident MR fundies please try and explain it ? According to their ratings I am wasting my time and money taking Via to compete overseas. Maybe it came in with the 6 points change ? I know it doesnt really matter but I would like to know none the less.

neigh wrote: Bob, it never and still doesnt make any sense to me either. Would one of our resident MR fundies please try and explain it ? According to their ratings I am wasting my time and money taking Via to compete overseas. Maybe it came in with the 6 points change ? I know it doesnt really matter but I would like to know none the less.

neigh what races is your champ being aimed at?im pretty sure they will be mostly set weight races

P, yes I believe so, hence it wont make any difference, but it still baffels me how the MR system gets to its ratings. eg
Gauteng "over-achievers"(not being ugly) seem to get lumped with very high MR running against the same old, same old, but stuggle to live up to the rating in the other centres. COTT, Rakes C, Trip T etc etc... these MR never seem to be adjusted down enough when proven wrong.
With the sprinters Copper Parade only beat Via once (fairly convincing) excuses yes ( dead side of the track)(brilliant ride by Pierre :pinch: ) yet for that one great win is rated our top sprinter at the time !? How much improvement did he have to come at his age ? Doesnt make sense to me.
Sorry I dont mean to tread on toes, I would like to understand the logic.

I think the idea of a panel review on a semi regular basis is a reasonable idea.
Sitting down and doing the MR calculations on an individual race,and coming to a conclusion on individuals rating for that race may look absolutely logical at the time. Only when you look at a group of races together can you see the inadequacies.

Just looking at the sales race yesterday. Except for a few anomalies that may be explained by drawer/luck in running/poor performance or improvement, the order of finish was pretty much in line with merit rating. (They actually grouped up well according to rating) . However the distances they finished didn't go with MR. So do the lower rated horses get bumped up or do the higher rated get knocked down.? Either decision could be wrong but where does that get corrected at the moment?

Aren't the MR's for fillies and mares inclusive of sex allowance, else she would have been 117 if she was a colt ie Via Africa.

My view for a long time( posted on ABC) that sprinters are over rated by the handicappers. This goes back to the days of Buddy Marouns ( To many to name) horses and Nhlavini running off 120 + ratings week in week out. So heaven help u your horse were to beat them or run to close to them.

Also what seems to happen the sprinters get the odd classic horse in there races and they bring with high Merit ratings even though they are not over optimal distance the ratings getting thrown out.

U can win a Grade 1 3200 race and be rated low 90s but win a pinnacle or conditions over 1000 or 1200 and get smacked to 107 -12 rating.

Via Entered for her race on Thursday, she would take some stopping if fit, no fillies allowance, take its because shes the only grade1 winner in the race

The danger is her fitness