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Almost 50% of all races in the UK are raced under a handicap system.
A handicap system allows for some horses to be given extra weight to carry in order to engineer an equal race with a close finish.
The handicaps are determined by the horses ranking. The higer the ranking the more weight it must carry. Obviously the reverse is true for inferior horses. Their weight is reduced to make sure the race is close.
It is important that the sport has handicap races because if they didn't then the races would be a bit predictable with the top horses winning most of the time. This would kill the sport. Handicap races therefore represent the best chance for most horses to compete and win.
It is the job of the British Horse Racing Association (BHA) of studying horses and their racing form. From this information the BHA publish a list of the horses ratings; the higher the horse's rating the better the horse is. If Lucky Jim has a rating of 110 and Jackahat a rating of 140 then the BHA are saying that a weight difference of 30 pounds should ensure a reasonably equal race.
Handicap races are restricted to horses with ratings in a specific range. For example horses with ratings between 0 and 70 cannot run in races with ratings between 71 and 140 and vice versa.
Horses ratings are constantly monitored by the BHA and if it is determined by the BHA that the horses are runnin better than their ratings then they are raised and if worse they are lowered. |
