October
MarchWeight up
I’d like to back up recent comments by trainer Peter Moody and Tony Arrold of The Australian regarding the way we handicap our major races today.
It is sad and frustrating that officials have bowed to a few in the industry and changed the weight-for-age scale from its original form.
The scale had stood the test of time until a few with vested interests made enough noise to have it adjusted on more than one occasione over the past 20 years.
Now it has come to a point where we hardly have any three-year-olds running in Group 1 weight-for-age races due to the scale being compressed from its original format.
Yes, I know So You Think won the Cox Plate as a three-year-old in 2009 but before him you have to go back to Savabeel (2004) and before him Octagonal (1995).
The Australian Cup used to have a number of three-year-olds run. Saintly was brilliant in winning as a three-year-old. Today we have a few that are entered but I cannot recall the last three-year-old to run in the race.
This brings me to the Doncaster Mile weights, released recently. If the Australian Turf Club wants the Doncaster Mile to be its signature race then it needs to go back to the way it used to be handicapped or make it a weight-for-age race.
Of the 202 horses weighted, 167 horses are on 52kg, the limit weight. What a disgrace! This is an insult not only to those in the industry but those that follow horse racing.
Can we get handicappers to handicap and not be guided by today’s ratings? It is ruining our major handicaps and if it is not changed, the Doncaster will go the same way as the Epsom, another once-great handicap race, which looks more like a set-weights-with-penalties race and is heading towards being a highweight race if this trend continues.
Officials should have a good, hard look at themselves when they bow to raising minimum weights because jockeys say they’re doing it tough with their weight. That may be true, but not so long ago the minimum was 48kg and now in most races it’s 54kg. Jockeys now know if they make enough noise weights will be raised again.
I, like most, have the utmost respect for all jockeys as the risks are very high. However, I cannot see how a few jockeys who are dedicated to their profession and are naturally light should be disadvantaged by having to add dead weight when others seem able to push the system into changing the weight scale to suit their own needs.
Padstow (NSW)