Well we are into week 4 things are going really well in fact the sched is holding up well
i want to start a discussion about the future of the schedule
We (Paul Matt Leon )would like as many opinions as possible
do you have anything you would like to see added or taken away or any new idea's
Post your opinion below and we can get our schedule genius planning for
next season's Schedule

I have posted this as an announcement i will move to sticky list when
i get back from Liverpool.

Il kick her off

i think some of the Major Handicaps could widen their bandwidth

example Pontefract Marathon 2m5f 0 - 80 (3)entrys after we moved it to 0-90
i would like to see it something like this 0 - 120
it would still give trainers with 0-80 rated horses a great chance of winning
it would attract a bigger field size
I don't think group winning class horses would enter but would attract Ascot gold cup horses that may well finish in top 7 or 8 at Ascot
For instance i don't think Matt would enter Feat Ping even if the horse at time was 119 but i might enter Versions of the Truth
who could well finish in top 5 at Ascot
would be a potential entry but would be very high in the weights
i think with the above Criteria The Pontefract Marathon may have had 15-20 entries
I think some of the Major Handicaps could be opened up a bit more and it will make them highly competitive

The NH schedule has some big problems and needs a proper novice schedule that novices can follow to form part of it. So ideas or even better a volunteer to have a look at the schedule and improve it would be appreciated

My personal view would be to have all lower handicaps 0-90 and the bigger handicaps 0-110. With some major handicaps being 0-120.

Also i think a minimum rating for group races to encourage horses into handicaps instead of running badly in group races.

agree with this

A few things I don't like the idea of the rating of the Pontefract Marathon having its band widen the race in real racing terms is aimed at low rated stayer's on the Flat and it's the Schedule,trainers and maybe Stable size the problem of low turn out.
Reason 1 -Should have two weeks of solid Maidens at the beginning so everything else moves back a week in my opinion that would help in the ratings of horse's.
Reason 2 - Trainers seemed to just like putting nags into the big races ( I have not enter any of my nags in any Group races ) I know they are not good enough to take on the Andy's,Paul,Matt and leon horse's on the flat and would only hinder my nags ability to win handicaps a horse should have a certain rating to be Allowed in group or listed races in my opinion this would help with the small fields in Handicaps.
Reason 3 - Stable Size seemed a good idea but I think this is working against the schedule so many trainers picking what horses and races to aimed at. I am sure some stables myself including only have one stayer I think more horse's allowed in stables more horse's for the races. Either that or go down the Elite route which would destroy the flat league in my opinion.

Leon I would like to offer my services to look at the Juvenile,Novice,Hurdles and Chase's for you jumping is my passion and I know how to work with the schedules.

Gray

Brilliant. I will email you the current schedule later in the week with some instructions. And then you can go ahead. Thanks this will be great. There are some issues I'm sure you will be able to correct

Very good points mate well written and put over a strong case
my only concern about what you have put over is if we make it a stable of 30 horses

this would give the dominant forces for example this season AKHC & MATT Thunderspark & Scatters in previous season 10 more slots to fill
and their dominance will be greater and this could happen in the handicaps were a second or third tier trainer begins to aim at handicaps
and dominates them with a yard of 30 horses this becomes more of a possibility.

if you are going to give trainers 10 more slots there could be complete domination and not just at group level at handicap level too
and to some this could become completely boring & they stop bothering entering races
and we will begin to lose trainers and more importantly a really important point put off future newbie trainers.
(this happend to me in so2 my first season in lge well i can't call it that i lasted a week)

I have this years NH and Flat schedules that was posted earlier to download.

I don't think they would Dominate the Handicaps to busy trying to dominate all the group races plus I don't a extra 10 slots for say Andy would mean he will be trying to win the Pontefract Marathon he as bigger fish to fry how many horse's would Andy,Matt,leon and yourself have under the rated 90 band if you had 30 instead of 20 horses.

(this happend to me in so2 my first season in lge well i can't call it that i lasted a week i think it was a fairly elitist lge then my horses trialed in last so i gave up things have moved forward light years since then different levels of races etc)
and actually when i heard of what used to go on eg trainers making G1 races selling or claiming races in sched I never stood a chance
this was done in secrecy i only found out about this recently but my point is i never stood a chance this put me off the lge for years you can look through old posts i claimed years ago the lge was not off a level playing field i never had any evidence but i was right BUT this was not cheating but only a select few knew about it why was it kept undecover?

Thankfully now everybody is open about how they do things
Matts AKHC & Leons breeding advice is invaluable to new trainers even to old ones like me

I think the most important thing is all trainers at all levels are kept interested in the lge and new one yearn to join

I can further extend the point of if trainers dominate and smaller trainers don't get wins or there horses always run poorly you get bored quickly. The last time I entered the league 2-3 years ago my horses were poor and after just a couple of weeks my interest had gone. And it's only untill this year I got that interest back. Now with success I'm hungrier than ever. I was gutted when Armageddon got beat in a low handicap and that was knowing id had guineas winner. There needs to be a way to keep them who's horses aren't so good interested. For example having a race a week where trainers with few horses rated over 110 Can enter on a weekly basis so you get a race with same trainers each week where there's a good chance there going to get the winner. Something similar to the blue square all weather series that gives horses a good chance in real racing over the winter months.

excellent points Mikey

in fact i was going to suggest a handicap series 0-90 or 0-100 (whatever the majority think) at 6f 1m 1m2 1m4
Eg 6 races at each during season and a final for each distance this would also give gamebreds something to aim
for not just gamebred races
similar to the new G1 Handicap finals but at a lower grade
it will give those trainers something big to aim for and keep the fires burning throughout the season
i do think we need to provide more for trainers with 0-90 rated horses with a big finale

We have to keep a balance between the real racing schedule and SO5 being a computer game.

I think the main reasons for the small turnout in some handicaps is trainers still entering maidens wth horses rated under 75. It might be they were trying a new distace but plenty weren't and they were running in a maiden when there was a 0-75 over the same distance.

The ponte marathon was different. That was a fault with the schedule as there was only one qualifying race, the 20f maiden in week 1. It might be we have more staying races for next season. In real life stayers won't run as often as sprinters and this is reflected in the league, but this could be increased? Though there are 3/4 20f+ handicaps over the season. And the Ces which is 18.

Imo we don't want to increase stable size. I would just breed ten horses for G1 hcaps. Its not a good idea. Nor is introducing minimum ratings for G1's.

There are a lot of new or inexperienced trainers this season and I think next season people may have a more balanced stable+place their horses better. I also think we will have even more trainers in the league next season so we need to keep the lower band races.

But we will know more by the end of the season. We need to get an overall view and go from there.

I would suggest starting from a blank sheet and then putting in 5x0-80 5f handicaps, 5x0-110 5f handicaps over the season etc etc. We also need to use lots of different racecourses!

I like some of your ideas Matt but I still reckon a horse Rated under 90 should not be allowed in group races