On going through the Handicaps
for the first weekend of the upcoming Pune Season 2016, I see some ratings that
just don’t make sense to me. I have on many occasions over the years had a word
with the handicapper, but there’s always a reason or an excuse that “this is how the system is”. We have
turned a blind eye to the fact that the so called system doesn’t work for fair
and clean racing/owners. And yeah, the Committee or the Stewards are not supposed
to interfere with the handicapper/system. Gentlemen,
the system isn’t working. Or can no one see it?
I have picked my own horses as
examples here as what hits/affects you the most is what gets you ranting.
Staristocrat, albeit a 5yr old,
is rated 93 after winning 4 handicap races and failing miserably in all his
attempts in terms races. On what planet
then, is a winner of a Gr1. Derby
The system,(not the handicapper
as he’s merely stuck with the system) argues that ratings don’t get changed
drastically in terms races/classics. Hence winners of even Classics don’t get
pushed to class I e.g. Bullrun above. An argument that never made sense to me
and one I feel that isn’t fair. However,
how and why then do babies get pushed up in class for winning terms races/baby
races within their own age group? My Greek God won 3 races as a juvenile in
Mumbai and found himself in class II in Pune. It’s always what you beat that counts, not how you win. Though
Greek God won easily in all 3 of his starts, all the three fields were dead
sets. In all three races, there were only two subsequent winners in class IV –
Koala and Fribourg. Both were less than ordinary. No other horse ever won a
race between them. That says a lot for the system that pushed the winner into class
II as a 3yo. The babies aren’t even
given ratings at that stage, so what is argued at times in terms races, that
other ratings of the runners are taken into account doesn’t hold good here.
At the end of that season,
someone told me “you don’t seem excited, you have the fastest 2yo in the
country” to which I said “I don’t think he’s that good. He’s beaten nothing of
consequence”. He was a mere handicapper. He did win 2 more races again beating
dead sets, reached class I, failed in terms races, and that was the end of
that. This is not how a career of a horse should end as a 3yo. Remember Rock
Concert? 1980’s? Won 7 races in a row and then found himself in class I.
So, the system is telling us not
to win in Mumbai if you have an ordinary baby, find yourself in bottom of IV in
Pune, give one run, come down to V and then start with your gambles and win a
few. And then we wonder why the baby races in Mumbai don’t get entries. Whereas
if you have a good horse, you win your
millions and classics and post that you will still be rated lower than the
handicappers when you finally reach class I as a 4yo. Awesome. Awesome for the
lucky few. Awesome for the gambling types who don’t care. The death knell for
the sporting owner who is racing for stakes and wanting to go up in class in a
fair manner.
Gentlemen, the Handicapper is obviously going
by the system. But is the system working ? That’s what is on the table here.
