Handicapper defends discretionary assessments

Press, 16 August 1989, Page 46

Handicapper defends discretionary assessments

By

JEFF SCOTT

The handicapper for the New Zealand Harness Racing Conference, Jeff Lenz, has placed Yankee Loch and Highwood 15m behind in the open-class 2000 m discretionary handicap trot at Addington Raceway on Saturday evening — 5m worse off than the pair would have been handicapped under the now defunct invitation conditions.

“Yes they are disadvantaged by 5m or the others are advantaged by 5m compared to the old system, whichever way you wunt to look at it,” said Mr Lenz yesterday. “I think Highwood and Yankee Loch stand out well above the others and I don’t think 15m is too

severe,” he said. “There are a lot of inexperienced OC horf'-s in off the fror?” '

Tyro,. Sc.ot+’e was also given a 15m nr ;>ap by Mr Lenz but wt’ withdrawn before acce?t?'.ce time by his trainer, °at O’Reilly jun., who openly admits to being against discretionary handicapping. “It is hard enough for horses in this grade to win off the front line let alone win off a handicap,” he said last week. Kahuna Pele is the only other open-class trotter to

be given a handicap (10m) for Saturday’s race. Sundon, the former champion two and three-year-old which has won 17 of his 18 starts, begins his four-year-old campaign on a C 6 assessment and is one of nine squaregaiters to start from the front.

“Sundon is only four and apart from racing against Rua Kenana one night at Addington last

season he has only really competed against Cl horses. He is unproven in this company,” said Mr Lenz. "I have assessed the two open-class races at Addington purely on previous records and nothing else,” he said. “These handicaps are a benchmark and a starting point for the season. "If their form tapers away they will get relief and conversely if they

continue to keep winning they will get further penalties,” he said. Mr Lenz had little difficulty framing his discretionary handicap for the open-class pace, stating there was “a good clear split.” The C 8 and C 9 horses will start from the front

with the open-class horses all starting from 10m. “Nothing really stood out to the same extent as

the trotters,” he said. “People will see that the likes of Machismo and Application did not finish that far away from Dillon Dean in the Kurow Cup and with that runner going back 10m here it should provide an even balance for the betting public,” he said. Although Dillon Dean has won almost $500,000, his Kurow Cup success was only his first win in open company.