Handicapping in SA Horseracing no wonder the Good Horses are sold overseas

I look again at the weights allocated in Summer Cup Day, no wonder all the good horses in this country are sold overseas. It just kills the good horses.

I read them last night, very subjective, a quick decision can kill a good horses chances of winning ever again.

Also contradictions, why accept a horses MR from PE running in Jhb but don't take into account the places its run in PE as a maiden to enable it to get into a maiden race in Jhb?

oscar wrote: I look again at the weights allocated in Summer Cup Day, no wonder all the good horses in this country are sold overseas. It just kills the good horses.

I read them last night, very subjective, a quick decision can kill a good horses chances of winning ever again.

Also contradictions, why accept a horses MR from PE running in Jhb but don't take into account the places its run in PE as a maiden to enable it to get into a maiden race in Jhb?

is it not the trainer's choice to run in the summer cup? unless a trainer understands the ability of his horses better the handicappers he has no chance in this game imo. sometimes the system underrates and at times in overrates horses. why blame the conditions of the SC when there's the Met a month later?

keniza999 wrote:

oscar wrote: I look again at the weights allocated in Summer Cup Day, no wonder all the good horses in this country are sold overseas. It just kills the good horses.

I read them last night, very subjective, a quick decision can kill a good horses chances of winning ever again.

Also contradictions, why accept a horses MR from PE running in Jhb but don't take into account the places its run in PE as a maiden to enable it to get into a maiden race in Jhb?

is it not the trainer's choice to run in the summer cup? unless a trainer understands the ability of his horses better the handicappers he has no chance in this game imo. sometimes the system underrates and at times in overrates horses. why blame the conditions of the SC when there's the Met a month later?

Kenizai,I think Oscar is alluding to the weights allocated to the Summer Cup day fields and not the S C only.

Another top horse being sold this week, it will get worse and worse, SA will be a place for moderate horses.

Kenza you miss the point totally, rather read a post then understand it then respond if you need to.

Your 'will be' should read 'is'. I doubt whether there are any horses here capable of winning a Grade 1 in the UK or USA beyond, perhaps, 1400m.

Correct Garrick the MR are too high here honestly

Nobody taking me on with this subject.. ABC taking a big downwards dive.. sad !

I’ll bite..... I disagree with you on this particular case. I have my doubts about a lot of the handicapping decisions but here I’m in agreement and I think the connections are going for the wrong race although he may prove even better than his rating and therefore weight he has to concede next weekend...time will tell.

Coral Fever has earned his rating and beat them all on handicapping terms last time and better terms before this.. I’d hate to meet him at any other weights if I owned any other horse in the Summer Cup. Coral Fever is top class and should’ve been in the Queens Plate and Met with that rating at Weight For Age conditions.. he doesn’t belong in a handicap again. As for the rest of the field, they all belong there for now and it would’ve been great to have a real handicap but now it’s a bit skewered. There are races for the top horses and handicaps for the well handicapped... if you own a top top horse with a high rating you have to do as Snaith and Bass do/did so well and use it to your advantage and if you have a good horse on the weigh up, the Summer Cup is your race it any handicap.

And so in the Merchants it came to pass.. favorites second last and PP pulled out the race.. Summer Cup favorite also handicap too high.. please review someone or winner of Merchants need to at the very least go to 115+

Pinnacle Peak was beaten 26 lengths so I doubt it was the weight he carried. There must be more to it than that. With his high rating he should also be trying to avoid handicaps and run in conditions races where is he well in. I’m sure the Computerform Sprint will be ideal for him. Coral Fever ran a length back, great run. With his earned rating which he certainly has earned he should never have been in a handicap anyway, he should be in a weight for age race like all the other highly rated horses you’ll see in the Cape over the next few weeks.

I'm not exactly sure what the gripe is here - is it that the SA horses are rated too high ?

Imo it is all relative - let's say we accept that Coral Fever is rated too high (certainly possible, but until he has campaigned internationally with his rating, it is not a fact) - for the sake of argument however , let's accept his rating is too high.

Then it follows that all the horses he has competed against, are also rated too high - as the guys in the know (the handicappers) have calculated these ratings - they have not arrived at these rating willy-nilly (and of course there may be some mistakes - we are all human after all) but in general all these ratings are relative to each other - so the spread of weights would stay the same whether Coral Fever has a rating of 120 or 110 - and the fact that the Summer Cup (and the Merchants) produced fairly close finishes, imo proves the ratings to be quite accurate ?

A 115 in SA certainly does not equate to a 115 in UK unless you know something I don't.