After some thought I have come up withe the following changes I want to implement. As always feel free to comment on these and make any other suggestions. We need to finalize these rules by Thursday night so please post sooner rather than later.

Hunter Chasers

Both the Foxhunters at Cheltenham and Aintree will now only be open to horses which have NOT run in any graded, listed or group races, including G3 handicaps. In effect your horse will need to be a handicapper.

Both races will allow multiple entries for trainers with preference given to trainers at the bottom of the trainer log. i.e If there are 24 entries with a max field of 30. The extra 6 horses will go to the bottom 6 trainers on the log.

This will ensure that the smaller stables have a cheltenham and Aintree race to aim for. Larger stables will be allowed to enter their horses as long as they meet the criteria ( this mirrors reality where stables like Paul Nichols and Nigel Twiston-Davis have runners in hunter chasers )

To implement a full hunter chaser fixture list will have to wait but at least this should give these races some uniqueness


As we all know we never going to have multiple horses returning to run the next season in the league so I propose the following changes

Novice Hurdlers

Proposed Rules
1. Once a horse runs in a senior hurdler it will NO longer be eligible for novice hurdlers
2. Once a horse runs in a novice hurdle it will NOT be eligible for any senior race including handicaps until it has run in 3 novice hurdles
3. A novice hurdler can run in a novice or regular chase at any time

Novice Chasers

Proposed Rules
1.Once a horse runs in a senior chase race it will NO longer be eligible for novice chasers
2. Once a horse runs in a novice chase race it will NOT be eligible for any regular race including handicaps until it has run in 3 novice chasers.
3. Horses who have run only in hurdles can enter chasers at any point but would then need to adhere to the rules above.

In addition a combination of novice hurdles and chasers does not constitute qualification for senior races. E.g 2 novice hurdles and 1 novice chase will mean a horse is still a novice under both codes. The horse will need to run in 3 races of its code to be eligible for regular races.
Case example : If you want your top hurdler to say run in the gold cup. Do not first enter it in a novice chase, unless you plan to run it in 3 novice chasers before the gold cup. Enter it directly into a regular chase.

You will need to think carefully about how you want to structure your stable. As your initial entries will force you to adhere to the rules above

Late Additions to stable ranks or to your stable

I'm considering allowing both with the condition that all horses that join the league after week 2 are automatically novices. Any ideas here will be good.

Hopefully these changes will make the national hunt league more interesting. Let me know your thoughts

I like most of your ideas but it does seem that it could come time consuming for the Race steward to check every runner in every race i.e a trainer forgetting the rule above by putting in a horse that has run in Regular/Senior chase into a Novice Chase.

So I think we will need Race Stewards say 2 just in case race steward 1 misses something and other Trainers could also point out (whistle blow ) on trainers trying a quick one.

P.s I would like to be a race steward

The rules will be coded in. The computer will do the checking

ok great

Is everyone happy with these changes? I want to update the schedule to reflect this and formulate the business rules later on tonight. So if you have any suggestions now is the time to make it.

Leon,

Interested to know the reasoning behind the rule regarding "novices"

Why 3 run's in novice company, before entering a regular or handicap race?

Thanks
Stu

To ensure that the novice race fields don't become too small. And to give some semblance of a novice season.

We could make a horse a novice the whole season but I felt that later in the season trainers would want to enter handicaps or go for really big race at cheltenham with their novices

However I am open to making changes if you have any alternative ideas. I just want there to be a demarcation between novice and regular horses

Thanks, was only curiosity more than anything.... but all good ideas.