Maiden Handicaps ?

Whoever thought this was a good idea?

Race 4 and 5 won by bottom rated with no form.Race 4 late Blinker strike!

Handicapper got it wrong! so would the punters. Not good for racing.

Only thing it does is save the operator R20k a race.

Anyone agree?

The margin of error when calculating MR’s for maidens must be very wide. Perhaps 15lb?


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the good wrote: Whoever thought this was a good idea?

Race 4 and 5 won by bottom rated with no form.Race 4 late Blinker strike!

Handicapper got it wrong! so would the punters. Not good for racing.

Only thing it does is save the operator R20k a race.

Anyone agree?

It's a great idea for the owner that owns a Maiden that can't compete at level weights with other Maidens rated higher - not great for the punters though, as Maidens competing at set weights in most cases narrows the field

But horse racing is built around the punter and if its not good for them then its not good for racing!

This is awful.
We already have far too great a focus on the bottom end horses with an overwhelming proportion of low MR handicaps. Now we enable a rubbish horse that cannot win a level weights maiden to become a winner. And at the same time deny a much better horse an opportunity to win its maiden by replacing a proper maiden race with this dross.!
These races defy form study, are thus bad news for punters, and are bad for our breeding industry by rewarding mediocrity.

I have seen maiden handicaps in other countries. In the UK there are plenty maidens running in lower handicaps after 3 runs. Prescott is a master in the UK handicaps.

Kings Advice was rated 71 and after winning 8 from 9 starts is near 110 and one of the favorites for the Ebor.

For every loser there is a winner....

And nothing stops a lowly rated maiden from running in a low rated Handicap.....

I guess what I am trying to say is that there is no difference between Handicaps and Maiden Handicaps ito the punter - the very definition of a handicap levels the playing field, so from a punter's point of view it should me no more difficult to find a winner in a Maiden Handicap, than finding a winner in a Handicap.

Imo the problem comes in when you have 3 Maiden Handicaps and 5 Handicaps making up the card - resulting in the punter facing an uphill battle in 8 of 9 races carded - for me I'd say it's fine to have a Maiden Handicap on the card - but make it the first race in order to not further complicate the selections ito PAs, BPs, P6s and JPs - yes it leads to higher dividends, but that only means more losers :huh:

Naresh ive never seen a Maiden handicap in the UK? But you do get Maidens running in handicaps

And it pays to follow the well supported maidens in handicaps

Bob Brogan wrote: Naresh ive never seen a Maiden handicap in the UK? But you do get Maidens running in handicaps

And it pays to follow the well supported maidens in handicaps

Brighton Race 6 today 20 August 2019 was a maiden handicap.

I have seen them in Singapore and maybe in Dubai.

In the USA, they also have all sort of restricted races including maidens. Some races involve horses not winning for over a year, horses more than 5yo etc.

Frodo confirms what I have always been on about. It's all very well having a Handicapping system that seeks to "equalise", to put the field across the line as one. However, this has created a Lotto situation in Racing, more often than not....and also, a PE maiden winner rated higher than a Graded Stakes CT winner, same age....

Yes, this Lotto situation creates bigger Dividends, with fewer winners....and many losers.

About 19 years ago, when I was helping put Canon into Racing as a sponsor, the Jhb Canon team brought a busload of Canon employees to Vaal for the day. There were about 35 people in the bus and they each received a R50 tote voucher from Canon for the day. They were in a private venue upstairs. In race 1, I was lucky enough to find them a good swinger, place bets etc. Through the day, a few bets came off. By end of day, they had enjoyed themselves tremendously and the tote window turnover for the 50 people was about R100k. This was because they were winners, who then continued to bet again, through the day.

Winners create constant turnover, big Dividends alone do not.
It is no coincidence, that turnovers decline when winners are consistently difficult to find.

And Merit Rating makes it difficult for us all, most of the time.

Racing is already complicated for newbies. Why complicate it further...?

duplicated