Zietsman Oosthuizen wrote: Nobody have to be in the know its all there updated daily, in pinnacle races and certain condition races only the winner can get penalised but if connections request the penalty for his 2nd 3rd 4th or 5th placed horse he should do it next day before handicapper sent through new ratings to be updated . you do your own rating and surely compare it with the current MR figures?
In handicaps you can also request a penalty.... i did it with my own horse Jack Friday .... ran 3rd 13L off the winner being way out at tge weights and a rating of 36. Handicapper could not penalised him because of restrictions but on my request he got the 20 points penalty to make him a 56 ... a week later 1 march he was given another 6 points. Im very happy to have him as a 62 rating because from a 42 i cant get him into races.
It's imperative that the system, or the basic structure, rewards ability at the end of the day. I always imagine that whatever else happens, it should be like an automatic car, that the default is to always be moving forward when you take your foot off the brake and not standing still or moving backwards.
So I have no problem with reassessing horses backwards, but then the rewards must diminish sharply. You can't just be rewarded backwards indefinitely. I would vote for a minimum rating, at some point it's better to retire. No one wants to watch a poor horse flogged race after race just because the connections think it's ok.
