Now that the league seems imminent and we all seem to be getting along, I will consider bringing back the newsletters. This will be for the flat league only and will be a maximum of four pages in length, depending on the time I have available. Reviewing the action from the previous week.
There will not be any previews just reviews.

Rich if you are really struggling to find a Flat handicapper I will do the job.
Better if I could do it directly in TOM rather than on a spreadsheet as I did previously.

There has been a lot of arguing in the past on my part. I intend to concentrate on pushing the league forward from now on.

Steve

I did send email Rich and thanks for replying, with only a few days left now can we confirm or not if the races are not full can we enter 2 horses. I have struggled to get all my horses a run within the first 2 weeks and with it only being maiden races l cant see a real advantage/ disadvantage with doing this?

Just to add to above post, is the 2 rule run really fair with less weeks racing and only 2 weeks of maidens? In total 48 races so by week 3 if you have 30 horses uploaded at least 12 of them will not be eligible for hcaps and then forced to race listed or group races which for some stables is totally un-realistic and would then be rated way to high for the whole season?

My suggestion would be 1 run before a hcap but can only go 1f up or down from maiden? so a 6f maiden race horse could run in a hcap after 1 run but it would have to be at 5f or 7f?

The schedule was designed for a 1 run handicap rating. I think this is the way to go.

Sorry to go on but also I dont like the Nh rule that there is no limit on distance, this means anyone can race there GN horse at 2 mile and get ridiculous rating and then go straight into National with a crazy weight. Surely there must be a 4f rule?? example 2m can run at 2m4f at the most, if anyone is going for the National must have ran at minimum 4 mile. I know that in real life horses run over hurdles to protect there mark but this isnt real life and game just see's rating and gives weight. In my opinion the 4f rule in NH should be brought in

That didn't happen last season Mike. Rich would be straight onto them and so would other trainers.

It's abusing it a little to much tbh. Putting a 4mC in a 2mC.

I've got horses which are competitive from 2m-3m and 3m-4m.

Perfect example been Padriag last season winning a 3mC then winning a 4mC.

Steve: there is a facility do to it in TOM and I think we can work around that. My plan is to look after the horses centrally, send them to Kenny/race secs to run the races, forward the races/horses onto the handicapper to be viewed. Does that sound OK? I would like to have you as the handicapper as the role is complex and a poor handicapper could very easily ruin the whole thing.

If there is a handicapper then a one run rule should be fine. Of course, there will be horses that don't get a clear run, get injured etc. and will be handicap good things but that's pretty realistic.

Handicaps in NHC will be done on a sense check basis. I.e a horse running in 2m chases for the whole season then being entered in the Grand National has as much chance as participating as my dog does in competing in this years National.

And ok for 2 entries if race not full rich?

I think it would be good to have 2 entires in races such as the GN

how many was in last season about 15? alittle disappointing to see for a GN

I was just talking about the maidens tbh, think you would get some cheeky trainers entering high rated horses in hcaps to get there other horse less weight

Don't think the entires would fancy running round the National fences with their meat & veg intact, as they wouldn't be coming back with any if clouting The Chair.

Rich,

I would just be responsible for giving the horses new ratings.

I think I did use the TOM facility to change the ratings at some stage last time, which worked well.

The individual horse files/ratings would need to be changed by someone else in the construction kit.

It would be too much to do it twice, sure someone else could do the second part easy enough.

I agree, if the handicapping is done badly the whole thing collapses, so with everyone having put so much work into making the league work I will do the role.


Steve

Good to hear Steve, welcome back. Will you set up an email address so trainers can query you on any handicaps ratings they find a problem with? Or just fire away with any questions on here?

Hopefully Rich can set up a sticky for handicap rating problems, which I will answer probably within 24 hours.

The newsletter will be a downloadable PDF. Using DTP as before.

Rich,

What are we doing about returning animals.

Especially winners. I presume they won't be eligible for maidens.

Will TOM show it's correct rating when re uploaded a year older for the new season.

Will maidens from previous seasons be allowed to run in maidens, and will they go into the maiden showing last years rating?

Steve