Basic HTML Version
31
SportGlobe
December 5-11, 2012
Email: sportglobe2005@yahoo.com
T
HE regal sport of horse
racing is being rocked to
its core locally by the con-
tinued refusal of Caymanas
Track Limited to abandon its
unjust and ridiculous attempts
at handicapping horses blindly.
Yes, blindly, because that is
the only way to describe a
method of allocating weight to
participants in a race, not know-
ing who the entrants are thus
being able to equal ise their
chances by way of past perform-
ances, taking into account
weight carried in previous races
and quality of opponents now
being faced.
Handicapping blindly is exact-
ly what happens in every race
run at Caymanas Park in which
weight is allocated by way of
‘conditions’.
In races which weights are
pre-determined by ‘conditions’,
horses are inequitably assigned
weight based on when they last
won a race, how much they have
earned in the last three or six
months, or if they have won a
race in a particular class within
a certain time frame.
All this is done without taking
into account realities such the
quality of opposition, based on
performance, and other critical
elements such as winning mar-
gins and ease of winning, which
make horse racing the only
sport that requires its followers
to study a form book.
ADJUSTING RUNNERS
Therefore, punters put in the
work to study a form book
whereas those responsible to
offer an equitable product, by
adjusting runners’ ratings after
each performance and after-
wards equalise their chances, by
handicapping after entries are
taken, totally abandon their job
and go on autopilot - handicap-
ping by conditions.
The list of ‘conditions’ get
longer over time as the racing
office scrambles every time “an
anomaly”, so they call it, arises
from its attempts to handicap
blindly.
If only the racing office would
stop to check exactly what an
anomaly is. Constant inequity
in weight allocation cannot be
an anomaly if the list of condi-
tions keeps getting longer in a
bid to correct anomalies.
An anomaly is something that
deviates from what is standard,
normal, or expected. Therefore,
it stands to reason that an
anomaly can’t be a recurring
decimal, which is what tran-
spired in the case of GO GO
YVONNE and REASONABLE
PRESS
on
Wednesday,
November 28.
REASONABLE PRESS car-
ried 52.0 kilos and beat GO GO
YVONNE, 50.0 kilos, by a head
on August 25 in an Open
Al lowance race, a condition
event. That’s a difference of five
pounds.
On November 28, GO GO
YVONNE, due to a myriad of
conditions attached to the race,
is allotted 50.0 kilos and REA-
SONABLE PRESS 57.0, that’s
16lb l ighter, 14, i f her sex
allowance is taken into consid-
eration.
Therefore, GO GO YVONNE
meets REASONABLE PRESS
16lb lighter, according to the
conditions, after losing by only a
head when they last met.
If that’s not madness, nothing
is. Oops, it’s an anomaly.
A recurring anomaly
Jockey Clive Lynch aboard CLASSIC BEAU being led by his groom after scoring a 14-1 upset victory in the Jamaica
Racehorse Owners’ Association Trophy race over 2000 metres at Caymanas Park on Saturday, December 1.