Editorial. HANDICAPPING PROBLEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1929, Page 5

Editorial. HANDICAPPING PROBLEMS.

The value of a thoroughbred as a racehorse is measured by its ability to win stake-money. Weight-for-age races offer sufficient safeguards for the really “top-notch” few, but good and secondclass handicap horses are entirely at the mercy of an all too fallible collection of weight-adjusters. . _ Anomalies in handicapping are common, even in this small Dominion, where the number of horses which come within the handicappers’ range are comparatively few, but it is in Australia, particularly when New Zealand horses come to have their merits assessed by handicappers on the other side of the Tasman that the strangest freaks of handicapping are seen, and one wonders if those responsible for this haphazard style of handicapping really know their business.

To say the least of'it, their knowledge of New Zealand “form” appears to be a minus quantity. • A few years ago Eden Hall, after winning good middle-distance races in the north, was shipped to New South Wales and, on being entered for a small cup race, was thrown in at the minimum. There was a howl, and the handicapper naively admitted that he did not know the horse! Eden Hall won comfortably, and his since scored with greater weights in better class handicaps over there. But it was at the Canterbury Park meeting on September 7 that the handicapper excelled himself, and a list of the weights allocated to New Zealanders proves sheer ignorance, not only of horses, but of the various classes of races run in the Dominion. The weights are for the Flying Welter Handicap, six furlongs; Bst. minimum. They read: Arikinui (top-weight) 10.6, Ceremony (9.12), Helotis (9.12), Gesto (9.10), First Acre (9.5), Oral (9.0), Tea Queen (8.13), High Disdain (8.9), Tasty (8.7), True Shaft (8.5). By what manner of reasoning any handicapper can come to the conclusion that Arikinui, who has just run out of hack company, can concede 81bs to a weight-for-age class of horse like Ceremony is beyond the merest tyro in the racing world. And what the Lucullus mare, Helotis, has ever done to be placed equal with Mr. G. M. Currie’s speedy son of Absurd over six furlongs is another poser. Oral, winner of one small handicap, gets 141bs above the minimum and is called upon to give weight (51bs) to High Disdain, who would probably have been made to concede about a stone to the daughter of Chief Ruler if they came together in New Zealand. First Acre, winner of many good sprint handicaps in the Dominion and in Australia, gets in with 9.5, and though Ceremony' might beat him .at a difference of 71bs, it cannot be said that Arikinui, Helotis or Oral would, on form, have any chance with him at the poundage. The others have done nothing to earn more than the minimum.

And it is not only in a minor event like the above that Australian handicappers are hard to follow. In the Caulfield Cup Bright Glow was assessed as the equal of the N.Z. Cup winner, Oratrix, over a mile and a-half; and Paganelli, Paquito and Catkin were made out to be 12, 9 and 5 lbs respectively better than Seatown over that distance. And so on through most of the big Spring handicaps. The leniency shown to Ceremony has already had its reward, but what hope has Arikinui of winning a'race over there as long as the handicappers treat him unreasonably ? And what is his valueunder the conditions? A few weeks ago Mr. J. B. Gaisford could have secured 1500 guineas for the son of Chief Ruler, but now it is possible that the would-be purchaser will think twice before paying such a price for an ex-hack who is classed as superior to one of our speediest classic performers. Arikinui may be equal to weight-for-age company, but he has not proved it yet, and his owner, though hopeful of winning small handicap events, has not considered entering him for classics or important handicaps in Australia. Can it be-that the handicappers have been influenced by the fact that the horse is a member of F. D. D. Jones’ team? Or have his gallops in private impressed too much? One advances these theories with much diffidence, but the fact remains that Arikinui is being outrageously treated, and his value ruthlessly deteriorated thereby. .... “Moturoa.”