This was taken off Gold Circle website which at the moment, for some reason, only allows a certain amount of words per entry. So here is the full article below:
The merit rating system continues to cause nightmares for some trainers but the good news is that the Merit Rating Sub-Committee consisting of Tony Rivalland, Vee Moodley and Robert Bloomberg will be handing over their new handicapping protocols and guideline proposals to the chief handicapper after a final teleconference meeting that was due to be held yesterday.
The trainers’ main gripe is that three-year-olds are being given a high merit rating too early and are then not lowered soon enough when proving unable to win off that mark.
The only horses to benefit from a high merit rating are the Stakes quality horses, who need to qualify for the big races, but this class of horse forms only about 3% of horses born each year.
In the old days of the Race Figure system the above average horses could win about four or five races before the handicapper caught up with them as weight was largely based on number of wins.
However, today the above average three-year-olds are often bumped up close to their potential handicap mark after winning a Maiden, meaning their careers begin to stall much earlier.
The younger the horse the worse the punishment and this is due to the Weight For Age (WFA) scale and the line horse system.
For example three-year-olds running in Maiden Plates over 1 600m in October receive only 2kg from four-year-olds whilst in a normal WFA race they would receive 7,5kg.
That is a 5,5kg difference which equates to eleven merit rated points.
This means that if in this race a three-year-old wins and the line horse is deemed to be a 70-rated four-year-old that finished one length back, the three-year-old would earn a merit rating of 83.
If on the other hand a four-year-old wins this October 1 600m race and a 70-rated three-year-old finishing a length back is deemed to be the line horse, the four-year-old’s merit rating would be set at a mere 61.
Line horse
The net merit rating, arrived at by subtracting the WFA allowance, would bring the winning horse and the line horse together if they happened to meet in a handicap.
In reality, though, the three-year-old will not be facing four-year-old maidens rated 70 in handicaps, but older two or three-time winners rated 70.
A very good example of this can be provided by two horses from the same yard, Kahal Street and Whole Kaboodle, who would in the old days deemed to have been horses with a few wins in them, with Whole Kaboodle a borderline stakes horse.
Kahal Street ran his first race just before he turned five. He won and started off on a 66 merit rating. After three wins he is now on 73.
Whole Kaboodle won just before he turned three and was awarded an 84 merit rating.
As he is an above average horse he has been able to place off this high mark, so remains on 84 seven months down the line.
If he met Kahal Street in a handicap today over 1 200m he would have to give Kahal Street 2,5kg despite the latter having won two more races and being two years older.
Pressure on trainers
Although Whole Kaboodle might potentially be better he has been put straight up to a mark that could prove his optimum without the benefit of having won races to get there.
Trainers sometimes feel pressure from disappointed owners in the above scenario.
On the other hand Vee Moodley, a former handicapper and now the National Horse Racing Authority’s Racing Control Manager, said that in the old days the good horses were protected.
He said that today performance and not money earned was the new measure for handicapping.
“There would never be 6500 horses in training today if it wasn’t for the new system,” he said. “One only has to look at the Conditions Plate races today based on the old number-of-wins system and see what small fields they attract.
“Today trainers have cottoned on to this (ironically with the help of the merit rating system) and stay away. Half of the field usually have no chance of winning these races.
“The new system gives more horses a chance and allows horses an extended career. Big fields are attracted to the handicap races and it is good for racing as a whole.”
However, Moodley intimated that the new proposals would likely bring good news to trainers regarding Maiden winners.
Another trainer gripe is the inconsistencies in raising and lowering horses’ merit ratings and this is almost certainly due to the subjectivity of choosing a line horse.
A recent example was Fort Vogue, who was awarded a 112 merit rating after his J&B Met fourth place, but after an appeal this was changed to 106.
Moodley said that choice of line horse was the single most important factor in handicapping and he used the Fort Vogue issue as an example of just how subjective this can be.
Moodley revealed that the official handicappers rated Fort Vogue 112 after deeming Fabiani to be the line horse due to his recent consistency.
However, rather than use his actual merit rating of 108 they used the shadow 111 merit rating that he ran to in the Queen’s Plate.
The Chairman of the International Handicapping panel, Nigel Gray, who is based in Hong Kong, rated the J&B Met at a figure one point higher than the official handicappers, making Fort Vogue a 113.
Mike Wanklin, a former South African Handicapper and now Vice President of Singapore Racing, used Fabiani’s actual 108 figure and rated Fort Vogue 109, while the Appeal Sub-Committee deemed Mother Russia to have been consistent for two seasons and thus used her as the line horse, making Fort Vogue a 106.
This sort of subjectivity cannot really be contained by the makers of protocols and guidelines.
Nevertheless those changes that the Sub-Committee do propose are likely to have a significant impact on South African racing and are eagerly awaited by the entire fraternity.
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