Howard Hamilton - Horse Sense HORSE RACING is a unique sport and the horse player, a most fascinating individual. The horse player is more than an observer, he is a participant. He goes to the track not only to see something but to do something. Specifically, he goes to the track to exercise his skill as a "handicapper", matching his knowledge and insight against those who put programmes together.
The handicapping of races demands the same mental prowess as chess, poker or bridge The skills of the expert handicapper are, in part, closely comparable to those of the good bridge player.
STERLING WORK
One only has to reflect on the sterling work which Leslie McRae did as a handicapper for races. He was also an excellent bridge player. At 84 today, his mind is still as sharp as ever and I owe much of what I know about handicapping to him.
A good handicapper must be fully familiar with form and class, weight and distance. Speed and pace, track conditions, jockeys ability, trainers form - there are so many variables that handicapping is at times an undaunting task.
The quality of information which is available is paramount for successful analysis. Those familiar with the Daily Race Form in the United States will quickly appreciate the depth of information which this paper provides to the Horse Player.
At times as we sit analyzing and handicapping one is almost confused at the amount of variables which are available - track variants, speed ratings, split times, distance, weight, jockey, age, class - and the list goes on and on.
The local handicapper (horse player) does not have the depth of information as detailed in the overseas Daily Race Form. I recommend serious horse players to the information provided on the internet at the website www.ultraquest.com.
The information provided there is more than adequate and certainly more instructive than that provided in the Racing Observer or the Track & Pools. I suggest that these publications should make some arrangement with Ultraquest and produce a racing paper along the lines of the overseas Daily Race Form. Horse Players would be happy with a newspaper format which should be much cheaper to print.
FEW HANDICAP RACES
Unfortunately, for the local Race fan there are very few handicap races and the few that we have had recently have been very poorly handicapped. A case in point is the L. R. "Bob" Mayall Memorial Trophy Race on Saturday, September 13th.
Let us examine the handicaps of this race. SATISFIER at a handicap of 50 Kgs was under handicapped by 2.5Kgs. Looking at the race of 1800 meters run on July 5th against MILLIMETRE we will see where SATISFIER carrying 48.5 Kgs. beat MILLIMETRE carrying 56.00 kgs. by 4 lengths. The normal adjustment would bring in SATISFIER at 52.5kgs. (1 length being conservatively equivalent to 1 kg) and MILLIMETRE at 56.0 kgs. MILLIMETRE is now handicapped to carry the top weight of 57.0 kgs. SATISFIER should therefore have carried 53.5 kgs.
The handicapper should have ignored the race run by SATISFIER on August 6th - a stable companion was very light at 49.0 kilos, and obviously was the preferred horse in that race.
GROUPING HORSES
Also the race run on August 30 should be ignored since 1300 metres is a distance too short for SATISFIER plus that race had two horses: FORGOTTEN HERO and A KING IS BORN that were grossly under handicapped. This brings me to the vexing question of grouping horses from one stable entered in a race as one bet. When oh when will the promoters move in this direction and stop the nonsense of horse players wondering which one of the trainers' horse is "trying".
Trainers will always tell you and will continue to insist that all their entries are "trying" but horse players know better than this.
Going back to the race of September 13th, what is interesting is that this 4 horse race produced some most competitive wagering with the favourite going off at 8.5.
It is an established fact that handicapping is the only means of producing competitive racing. A handicapper uses weight allotment to equalize the chances of each horse and this leads to a competitive contest. What we now have locally is a minimum of handicap races. The majority of the races are now Condition Races.
These conditions have no regard for the quality of performance when allotting weight. Did the horse win his previous race by 10 lengths or a short lead? How much weight did he carry? What was the time of his performance? Conditions cannot equalize the chances of the horses and hence there is no true competitiveness.
NO COMPETITIVE BETTING
These "Condition" Races produce more odds on favourites than any other group and must be disastrous to the promoter since there is usually no competitive betting.
We have introduced Overnight Allowance Races at the expense of Starter Handicaps with the result that the trainers boycott the few Handicap Races in preference for the Allowance Races.
We need to return to more handicap Races with handicaps provided by a panel of at least three handicappers.
The Racing Secretary should not be burdened with the responsibility of handicapping. His main job is to maximize entries and keep trainers happy. He cannot do this as a handicapper. The introduction of Allowance Races makes his "Handicapping" job that much easier and satisfies his main focus - keeping trainers happy and maximizing entries.
Once again I appeal to the Racing Commission to be much more proactive in the regulating of Racing. Let us appoint an independent panel of handicappers and bring back competitive racing to enrich the enjoyment of our dwindling number of horse players.
Howard Hamilton is the President of The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association of Jamaica and former Chairman of Caymanas Track Limited. He may be contacted at howham@cwjamaica.com.
