Weighty matters
Recently Matt Stewart, in his first iPad column, lambasted the time-honoured Admiral Rous weight-for-age scale and also the regular handicapping system.
Matt anachronistically and sophistically equated the weight-for-age scale with top hats and tails at Ascot and the erstwhile white lines in racecourse betting rings. He states the weight-for-age scale remains "not just sexist, but plain bulldust".
He then gets on a roll and lists Black Caviar (he can arrange for her to stand on you at Moody’s stables, by the way), Makybe Diva, Sunline, Empire Rose and Let’s Elope as monster mares. Yes, they were/are. But were their wins unfair under the weight-for-age scale? He certainly thinks Black Caviar versus Hay List was! Should Surround hand back the Cox Plate?
Furthermore, picking a sample of five champion fillies/mares out of tens of thousands of the feminine gender to race over centuries is hardly accurate surveying.
My final comment — reinstate the white lines on a reversed, modified weight-for-age scale and more "racing people" might get back to the races. Anthony Doughty can supply the paint.
Brighton (Vic)