When people say they run trials at weight for age, what does that mean? and how do i set the trial to be run this way?

Cheers

Joe

In maidens and Group races older horses will carry more weight. So will colt/stallions compared to fillies/mares. Its automatically set by the race builder.

These are standard trial conditions as suggested by Scatters for SO4.

1. Location is UK
2. Racecourse is Royal Ascot
3. Going is Good (important to note here is that your horse might be better over GF, GS, Soft or even Heavy going so don’t be discouraged!!!)
4. Age is always 3yo+ even if trailing 4yo+ horses because they will eventually meet the 3yo’s somewhere down the line so the weight needs to reflect that.
5. Sex is open company
6. Race type is G1 (because this is what I’m always aiming for)


I always use a pace maker in my time trials so these times reflect that. I trial several times to get an average as the wind factor plays a role in times so I try to get trials with no wind effect if possible. When trailing beyond 1600m the bends come into play so horses out wide are a little disadvantaged hence also why I trial a few times to get a better average. I never use more that 10 horses to try and minimise the effect on horses that are drawn out wide.



A few things to note. Some folk trial at different age groups. This makes it harder to compare between trials so watch out for that when you're reading threads about fastest times. Changing the sex and age will result in different weights that the horses carry for flat. The easiest way for comparing would be to run those conditions above as it standardizes things.

While trialing my horses I had what can only be described as a freak performance and certainly an aberration. During my qualifying heats at 1-4 at Ascot a non-contender horse who is best at a mile and under freaked and ran a time two seconds faster than any time put up in the qualifiers and the finals by any horse. He's an average horse at his best distance so this was completely out of left field. He won by seven lengths. Anyone had this happen to them before?

Yes

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=7368

Good read. I ran MANY trial races and this performance was beyond freak time. Makes me hope it happens with one of my horses in a league race.