Reserve runners in Jackpot

Is it just me or is anyone else a bit pissed off with the amount of reserve runners that come into the Jackpot, then win at any price. I don't know how many times I have lost Jackpots this way. Surely if a horse is not good enough to get into a race, he/she should not be good enough to win? Yet they win with amazing regularity

SG for a man that has been in racing for many moons you are a slow learner....a reserve runner is not nessisary a badly rated runner
.....and when you see like today a trainer with a reserve runner scratch another of his runners then beware....he is trying to get the reserve runner into the race.....:

Muhtiman Wrote:

---

> SG for a man that has been in racing for many
> moons you are a slow learner....a reserve runner
> is not nessisary a badly rated runner
> .....and when you see like today a trainer with a
> reserve runner scratch another of his runners then
> beware....he is trying to get the reserve runner
> into the race.....:


Indeed - the other day we had Star Rating (MR 75) nominated in a divided handicap which they divided into 2 races - set the top at MR 90 - and the lower one's top at MR 72 - turned out he was too low for the MR 90 and too high for the MR 72 :S

But he would have been competitive in either race as it was they were handicaps - in handicaps in general, the argument that 'reserve runners are not good enough' does not hold true - it merely means that there were too many runners that accepted for the specific race handicap

Maybe I going senile in my old age, I thought horses were accepted on the MR system, whereby the reserve runners MR was not high enough to get it straight into the race?

Thank You Frodo for the enlightenment(tu)

Yes horses DO get into races on the MR system - but these are handicaps - maybe an example can illustrate better:

Say we have a race where only 12 horses can run (as on the Turf inside track); but there are 16 horses that accepted to run; if the highest MR is 80, that horse would be set 60 kg's and the others would come into the race as per their MRs (let's keep WFA out of this to make it easier to follow):

1) MR 80 - 60 kg's
2) MR 78 - 59 kg's
3) MR 77 - 58.5 kg's

and so on:

11) MR 73 - 56.5kg's
12) MR 72 - 56 kg's
13) MR 71 - 55,5 kgs
14) MR 71 - 55.5 kg's
15) MR 69 - 54,5 kg's
16) MR 58 - 49 kg's

Only 12 can run, so horses 13,14 become reserve runners and horses 15 and 16 are eliminated; but if there is a scratching among horses 1 to 12, horse 13 will come into the race without being out at the handicap / weight - he/she carries the correct weight as per his/her MR. Not sure how they actually split 13 and 14 if they have the same MR - maybe someone can enlighten me?

But your argument that 'the reserves MR were not high enough', could hold true in some cases: If horse 13 were the only reserve and had an MR of 58 and there is a scratching among horses 1 to 12, horse 13 would come into the race, but he/she would carry 52 kg's (the bottom weight is set to be no less than 52) - so horse 13 would then be 3 kg's 'out at the weights' (as he/she should be carrying only 49 kg's as per his/her MR)

In the case of Greef's jackpot winner on monday there were at least 4 horses with a lower MR than his reserve runner. This horse was with Glen Kotzen and won 1st time out over 1600m and in a fashion that it had plenty scope.

I once saw a reserve runner coming into the race and won,carrying over 60 kgs ridden by Aldo Domeyer. I did win something on it but felt it was wrong having horses rated lower as official runners.
Surely this leaves an opening for ill gains? [exploitation?]
A horse carded as NO17 carried top weight?

the only time ipi tombi got beaten it was a reserve runner and her name was kournikova trained by patrick kruyer...the irony of it all was that mike de kock scratched one of his runners to let kournikova into the race...he should have waited till after 8.30 am on raceday so kournikova would have been scratched as well

Pirates,I remember it well ..........I was at Turfontein that day!

@ Pirates, just bye the bye, unfortunately Ipi Tombe also got beaten in Zim, by The Pick...