Emperors Palace Charity Mile Entries

Makes it worse when they do get overseas and end up being rated Mr80 at best

As I said when this raise was introduced - what is wrong with having MR 30 handicaps - and then this morning the penny dropped - some of our nags might drop into the minuses :dry:

Just to put into perspective, in SA we had a mediocre horse which some of you might remember - Variety Club.. VC achieved a rating of 131 after its amazing wins... Soqrat is rated 131... If anyone in their right mind would back Soqrat in a match race against VC (obviously if it were a possibility) carrying level weights they really need to think things through.... It has become an absolute joke and actually an insult to our past champs....

At the risk of re-stating what has already been said so many times over - local ratings (wherever they may be pitched - high; low or somewhere in the middle) have no correlation to International Ratings. This is not only the case in South Africa but in many racing jurisdictions throughout the racing world. The local ratings in countries such as Singapore; New Zealand; Australia etc also bear no correlation to International Ratings. Local ratings are the responsibility of each racing jurisdiction individually whereas International Ratings are arrived at by a panel of Handicappers from various regions who meet on a regular basis to determine these.
It is patently obvious that given the recent 10-point hike in our domestic ratings we cannot compare the current crop of horses with previous crops. Our domestic handicapping system (whether the base is too high or not) simply rates horses competing within the borders of South Africa with each other at given point in time. Any horse that leaves South Africa to compete in another racing jurisdiction is re-assessed and re-rated by either the Handicapper in that region or by the International Handicapping Committee - depending on circumstances. It's really not that difficult to grasp. In my view, though, whatever the scale of domestic ratings, it is imperative that the Programme of Races, which is the direct responsibility of the Racing Operator in each region (and not the responsibility of the NHA) provides opportunities for the connections of all horses to find races to suit their horse on a regular basis - whatever their domestic ratings may be.

the hawk wrote: At the risk of re-stating what has already been said so many times over - local ratings (wherever they may be pitched - high; low or somewhere in the middle) have no correlation to International Ratings. This is not only the case in South Africa but in many racing jurisdictions throughout the racing world. The local ratings in countries such as Singapore; New Zealand; Australia etc also bear no correlation to International Ratings. Local ratings are the responsibility of each racing jurisdiction individually whereas International Ratings are arrived at by a panel of Handicappers from various regions who meet on a regular basis to determine these.
It is patently obvious that given the recent 10-point hike in our domestic ratings we cannot compare the current crop of horses with previous crops. Our domestic handicapping system (whether the base is too high or not) simply rates horses competing within the borders of South Africa with each other at given point in time. Any horse that leaves South Africa to compete in another racing jurisdiction is re-assessed and re-rated by either the Handicapper in that region or by the International Handicapping Committee - depending on circumstances. It's really not that difficult to grasp. In my view, though, whatever the scale of domestic ratings, it is imperative that the Programme of Races, which is the direct responsibility of the Racing Operator in each region (and not the responsibility of the NHA) provides opportunities for the connections of all horses to find races to suit their horse on a regular basis - whatever their domestic ratings may be.

Funny you say that....

So why was the MR of the race card not dropped by 10 points? .... Would of had exactly the same effect for the runners being able to enter..... ("At the risk of re-stating what has already been said so many times over - local ratings ") This question too has been asked, but has been met with silence/diversion in the past....

On that point we are on the same page - I never said I agreed with the hike in ratings - dropping the bench marks would have had the same effect!!

I really cant see the MDK stable running Soqrat carrying 63 here...