Coloured Saddle Cloths and Barrier Draws

Coloured Saddle Cloths and Barrier Draws

With an exciting Summer Season on the horizon, Western Cape horseracing will welcome the introduction of barrier draws aligned with distinctive saddle cloths with effect from the Hollywoodbets Durbanville race meeting on 7 September 2022.
In a change from the top-weight-down, or alphabetical order, horses racing in the Cape will now also be carded according to barrier positions, regardless of the allocated weights. In tandem with the implementation of the draw numbering, uniquely assigned saddle cloth colours will be allocated to specific numbers.
The concept, which is used in some international jurisdictions, was introduced in 2019 in KwaZulu-Natal and serves the purpose of making it simple for both new and established racing fans to follow their selections from the saddle cloth number and standardised saddle cloth colour, through to the starting stalls where the number and colour are clearly displayed. This will make it easier to spot your horse from parade ring, to start line to finishing post.
Reserve runners will no longer be allocated a barrier draw, but should there be a scratching, the reserve will automatically take up the barrier gate of the scratched horse that it replaces.

I can up to a point understand the reasoning in 'This will make it easier to spot your horse from parade ring, to start line to finishing post' - however I thought that was why the jocks are wearing different silks (or different caps in case of the same silks) - and what will happen in a big field (like the July) - will no 1 have bright pink, and no 2 light pink and so on - is there enough colors for 18 horses :huh:

Supported ✅


Sent from my Ferrari using Tapatalk

It makes spotting my horse easier for the 1st 5 to 100 meters and the null and void.

But it sure makes studying handicap racer more tricky.

Gallop.co.za does have a sort feature on MR that make life a bit easier but old school still prefer the horses be numbered by rating.

Thinks bigger saddlecloths / number ordering by stall draw is v good initiative.

I wish all tracks would do it - makes it much easier for everyone, not least the newbies.

Not everyone has perfect vision etc.

Picking a winner in KZN has become similar to a lucky numbers draw so why not extend it to the WCape?!

Since they want to copy the USA racing, can they invest in the Trakus system that the USA uses to show the position of every horse on the bottom of the screen, rather than half baked copying of specific components in isolation.

I tested the Total Performance Data for the UK tracks a while back and got involved in understanding the process.

It can be labor intensive - with an individual needing to go to each track and fit equipment to both the weight cloth and external receivers. It wouldn't be cheap etc and maybe the money is better used elsewhere.

The TPD sends data to the Betfair API - and betting software such as Bet Angel can incorporate the data/process pre-designed Bots to submit bets.

It can be v good - but rogue data is not uncommon.