11 Time winner off a 56 Merit rating

this system promotes mediocrity and inconsistency and punishes Young and progressive horses.

Thank You Sylvester. Thats it in a nutshell !

Yes, that is true. And it's nice to call a spade a shovel. But the plain honesty must go on.

That system you mention also keeps smaller, poorer yards and people with a chance to stay in the sport. It has been designed to divert money away from the progressive in favour of the older and lingering. Towards the average and away from the better. That's why the word is "handicapped".

You cannot have it every which way. Rather say what you want.

You could take the average ratings of maiden winners, add 5 points, and make that the lowest MR Handicap available. Why do you want winners in handicaps to be inferior to Maiden winners?

The problem is that even Horse Chestnut was a maiden at one time
so to have all races at a higher MR would not work
The fact is that without the lower MR races the operators could close up shop
About 5% of horses are 100 plus and the rest are average

Sorry ,the only reason some are a 100 or more is because they have had
6 points added
An 4yo horse at 80 can run a bit and will keep most owners happy

I wonder if a stakes related cap based om MR would help- s if you have won 200k in stakes your MR cannot drop below 75 - If you have won a Gr 1 race even as a 2yr old you cannot drop below 90 - if you win 400k you cannot go below 80 etc - This could be implemented at the end of a horses' 3yr old season... just a thought

i am gonna put three horses next to each other for comparison
Race 7 Vaal 12 June 2018
all three horses rested more than 4 months. seems to make a difference
LaCollossa
High Seas Beauty
Let it flow

Let it flow was racing off a rating of 100 end october(6 points in march added) now of an 80 two races later.
La Collessa was and 86 now an 82 after a 6 month rest. so the grade two placed runner is now lower rated than the rested horse.
High seas beauty was rated 82(add 6 points after Maiden win as three tear old. no bad races, a win at 84(90 if u add the 6 point) in 11 months now races off a 79.

Lucky' horse must be best bet of the day if well. but where is the consistency

I'm not going to get into an argument about MR as it is a waste of time,but I do think the structure of the stakes for SA racing is completely out of sync.

PE and Gauteng are both run by Phumelela,and yet the MR 90 Hcp on Friday is worth 89k,but a MR 64 Hcp at the Vaal tomorrow is worth 82k.

Gimme The Stars,rated 97,can win R55 625 for 1st if he wins that handicap.

Golden Attitude,rated 37(I know it's a reserve runner),could win R51 250 if it wins the MR 64 hcp.

There is a 60 difference in ability between these two horses.

The MR 90 Hcp should be worth 120k,and the MR 64 Hcp should be worth 40k,no matter that they are Gauteng and PE.

Whilst the exotic pools in Gauteng are much bigger than PE,the race by race pools are very closely matched so that's not even an issue imo.

I know it costs as much to keep a bad as it does to keep it good one,but does that mean they should earn about the same for winning a race divisions apart in terms of the ability of the horses?

I have seen races in Dubai and America where races are restricted to horses that not have won in one year, sometimes two years. These races in Dubai are handicaps, condition type of races.