Merit Ratings - HELP!

Can anybody help me understand Merit Rating?

On 05 November :-

Legal Action beat Tiger Tales by 0.75 lengths

On 15 November :-

Merhee beat River Blythe by 9.5 lengths

On 26 November :-

Tiger Tales beat River Blythe by 7.25 lengths

Legal Action gets a Merit Rating of 79
Merhee gets a Merit Rating of 88

In a handicap how many Kgs would Merhee have to give Legal Action?
How did they arrive at the respective merit rating figures?

I am certain I should know all this already but I would really appreciate your help.

By the way I love to tell everyone that on 05 November Legal Action beat Merhee giving him 58 Kgs - LOL !!!

The answer to the first question is easy : 88 -79 = 9 points, which equates to 4.5 kg's.

The answer to the 2nd question is more 'guesswork' - I assume that Tiger Tales had it's first run against Legal Action - so according to the handicapper showed natural improvement in his 2nd start - to me the ratings just 'feel' more or less right?

Thanks Frodo !

Legal Action took 7 runs to win. Merhee romped home first time out, so there is scope for even more improvement. River Blythe has had only two runs and it would be risky to use it as the line.

And River Blythe's 2nd run has me a bit worried about the strength of my horse, Silly Mid On's form, as he finished 4th, a length behind River Blythe in River Blythe's first run, behind Merhee...

Louis, you say ''a bit worried''... does that mean you had Silly Mid On tuned for that particular run?

Yes, Greg, he was well. But, he kicked his hind shoe off in the float, took a chunk out of his hoof wall and the shoe couldnt be put on again at races, so we had to remove the other hind shoe for the race. I dont know how much that effected his run. Also, my horses are fully shod from the word go, as youngsters, so they will find it a bit strange, suddenly racing unshod behind. But, we should still have run 2nd.....Merhee too good....but, River Blythe's next run ...?

its information like louis has posted above and what dean kanemeyer has posted on another thread regarding the reason that kingslayer ran below par that is so vital to give punters...i ask the question because i do not get the jhb papers but has any journalist asked either mike azzie or gary alexander about the below par runs of both pp and pj on summer cup day???our press need to get in line with the rest of the world because bar dave thistleton the rest literally sit on their big fat backsides and do sweet buggerall for the industry

I tried to tell you guys !

Well done Manny

Nice one orange - helped me to collect the PA -D

Thanks Hibs and Frodo, that was a win I really enjoyed. No one even gave us a chance.