My flat horses were predictably all well beaten (7th was the best) but all of them showed some ability and are ready to go for the handicaps now.
The jumps faired a bit better, 2 4th places suggests I may have a few who can compete in graded races and all of the others showed enough to suggest they could make a mark in handicaps.
A huge thanks to everyone who has made this possible, I only wish I had the time to help out.

Is there a handicapper needed? I might like to try it. Looking at last years ratings for a maiden winner the rating given was a 110.

If I were the handicapper I'd lower the numbers some. I was thinking...

Older - 105 -110
3yo - 100 - 105
2yo - 95 - 100

Also I'm unsure of the beaten lengths to ratings ratio. I'm up for this if you need one.

Of course I was hoping for a more forward showing of my horses but they are doing what they should be. I also think that playing on the Australian tracks are a handicap for the English tracks in the league - I think if my horse is a miler in Oz then it is 7f in England. I will experiment with this over the coming weeks.

Well done to all the winners and to all behind the scenes - Good to get this season up and running

Good start 3 winners over ground that is too quick for most of mine. Also one of my best, Purple Patch, fell along with a few others, also had a few seconds and some hard luck stories so a positive start.

Flat when better than expected, again ground was probably not ideal for some.

Good to see so many different winners in the NH league

i think my number is 17 as that's where majority of mine finish lol (not always last) only time i do better than 17th is when there's 16 or less runners
having tremendous fun though - thanks guys, life would be dull without you all

Flat went as expected, my runners tended to finish well down the field.

Jumps was a mixed bag. I had my first winner of the season with Quiet Man just getting up in race 18 and a 3rd place in a 6 horse field in race 16. The rest of my runners were about midfield except for the usual pull-ups in the distance races.

I may have given my horses the wrong instructions this season. I gave them all an even pace instruction and that sees them well placed in a race until 5f to go. At 5f my horses seem to be running in treacle while the rest of the field goes past them.

I'm of the opposite opinion. If you win a maiden in week 1 or 2 it is like winning a G1 race, (all the top trainers have horses in these races), and horses should be handicapped accordingly with the winner of these earlier maidens being given a handicap of at least 125.

I think I read somewhere on british horse racing authority website that in flat races it is 1lb for every length and in jumps it is 2lb for every length, or maybe it was the other way around, can't quite remember.

Later on in the season if a horse wins a G1 race it should be given a handicap of about 140.

Maybe it is a good job I am not the handicapper.

A 125 is way too high for this computer version of horse racing. A lot of horses will be rated in no mans land for the season. My horses were rated too high all league last season. My ratings for the winners of Mondays flat races...

1. 113
2. 108
3. 103
4. 104
5. 98
6. 93
7. 100
8. 101
9. 109
10. 99

Giving a 110 to all 1st week maiden winners doesn't make sense to me. Older horses are faster than 3yo's and 3yo's are faster than 2yo's. Therefore there should be a rating level for each age. I'm just delving into this so I may be totally off base.


Edit - This has come about because there is big disparity in talent as far as trainers and their horses are concerned. The top 5 or so trainer's horses are leagues better than the rest of our horses. Running against them means our ratings are inflated thus killing our handicap chances. Ratings need to be lowered so us loser trainers can get some more wins. We need them.

Good day for me with 4 winners

UKRA
Clever Girl won the 1m7 maiden by 2 lengths I think the strength in my team comes with the stayers
it did last year so nice to see one get off the mark

NHC
3 winners over the jumps which gives me an early lead in the NHC

Wolfetone was impressive in the 3mile novice chase winning by 4 lengths could be a big player in RSA

Bazzaglliho won the 3m1 maiden chase a shade cleverly and cheekily looks a nice prospect

Bombshell put in a very impressive run on debut winning the 2m4 miaden chase by
over 6 lengths and looked as if she could have gone on another couple of furlongs delighted with her.

Really surprised by the performance of the NH team put about 5% of the work in that went into building the flat team


Congratulations to all the winners and placers
Huge thanks to the team
great comms as every lads

Best of luck to everyone tomorrow

I can understand where you are coming from with this idea and I recognise that there is a big disparity between the top trainers and the lesser trainers. I thought that many of my lesser horses were given too much weight last season as well.

What we may need is instead of say a 1lb per length penalty, we have a 5lb per length penalty, so if your horse wins in the first couple of weeks it is heavily penalised (125 handicap), but if your horse is 10 lengths back of the winner it would not be handicapped so severely by say 50 points (75 handicap).

I don't know who would be classed as lesser trainers, but from the few races I studed closely, the lesser horses did tend to finish at least 10 lengths back of the winner so maybe having a bigger points spread is the answer, although in the shorter length races, there was not as big a margin of win as in the longer races.

What I don't want to see is the lesser trainers being discouraged from taking part in the league, but I also don't want horses that finished in the top 8 places being given lenient handicaps and sweeping the handicap races.

It is a very tricky problem to get the handicaps correct for all levels of horses and I am glad to have discussions on the subject.

I would say Maiden winners in Big fields will be group 1 if you have the big stables in so to start at 105 is to low you don't want him entering a Handicap on second run he should be aimed at Dubai or listed group races looking at the Winter Derby Johns Newcomer is looking at 130 because the horse in second was rated 128 last season Pauls Horse Animal Kingdom was Third he will be or might be rated in the mid 120's because the horse back in fourth was Devious Diva who was rated 120 last season now all the horse's behind these will be Handicapped higher than would of been in a Maiden.

This is why I never have a runner in the Winter Derby or Sprint Cup unless I know my horse's will be up to group class so you can't give a maiden winner a rating of 105 that has won in a big field it would be at least a 120 Horse in some cases not all but mostly perhaps a bigger Spread below the front few might make it fairer but giving the winner a lower rating is in my opinion not the way to go.



Gray

While I remember - a flat race on the second day had a runner that was caught outside the running rail after jumping from the gates and was probably trap outside of it for a furlong or so.

Week 1 - Day 2

Flat

Enders Shame - ran well enough for 12th handicapper in his future

Breaking Glass - stayed on well for 8th but no the pace of the winners, another who will look for value in the handicaps

The prisoner - more of the same really, 13th and is not likely to make the st ledger that he was aimed for.

Hugh Jengine - misfiring engine more like, handicaps here we come, floundering for 9th

Prohibition Almighty - silly selection should have entered at 5yo for the handicaps, not up to snuff with this lot at 3yo. 9th with a little bit of a late headway.

Boldy Going - boldly going backwards handicapper maybe but same issue with being 3. Note to self check your spelling

And now the bit that matters........

Jumps

Hope and Glory - very decent sort who was travelling nicely before tumbling down badly 6f out. More to come.

Hush Puppy - chucked in to get a run, 6th in a bumper will be better over hurdles.

Around DBX - have aspirations of a gold cup with her, but not on this evidence, left herself too much to do and faded at little at the end for 6th

Battleship - a heart over head decision this one, for a long time my top 3m hurdler, last trials showed I had better but i stubbornly added regardless, may not survive past week 5 on this showing. 10th

Chess - Love this horse, miler at 2yo, 1.4 at 3yo and by five she was leading my team at 2m hurdles and fences. Have the queen mother champion chase in mind for her. My first winner this season, even if she may have gone a little too soon. 1st.

Enterprise - There is a funny story with this 4yo bumper horse, who 'whiskey mick' the stable assistant, stupidly wanted to get a run into, and whilst well on his way into his 3rd bottle of tullamore dew for the morning happily plumbed for this maiden hurdle. As owner trainer Sutherland held his head in his hands, watching his best bumper horse flounder to 8th, he was heard to say 'she jumps like a cow you daft twat'. Mick has since been seen clutching his p45 at the job centre.

The Estate - or psycho bob in the stables, better over a shorter trip and whilst I am pleased with his 2nd place, the winner had him beaten all day long.

Dominion of Saints - 6f sprinter at 2yo and not a bad one either, likes hurdles though not always the most fluid jumper, won this at a canter and with this 1st i equal my number of winners last season.

Josh

I don't want to disappoint you Josh but I think you'll find that this horse is now ineligible for Bumpers.

Hmm, don't see that mentioned in the rules? Can that be confirmed? She's is pants over hurdles so will make the week 5 cut if this is the case.

Josh