you ain't seen nothing yet.
The beginning of the end for Racing,have you noticed the Stats breakup
of where the betting dollar is going these days.
No wonder mind you, take a look at the races, 99% are either Maidens or Classes 1 through 6 and now we won't be asking what will win R6, or the
3 o'clock at Flemington, but the 0-62 or the 0-86.
That's me out after 50 plus years.

Since 2004 the Powers that be introduced RBH (Ratings based handicapping)
and from now, Dec. 2006, they are adding this little charmer called
RBP ( Ratings based Programming).
Apparently it's to help trainers run their horses via a Rating rather than Class.

I CAN HARDLY WAIT to see how it's going to help the poor old Punters.

Regards.

A tough spring racer but when did 'helping the poor old punter' ever get a look in by the managing Moguls in Horse Racing ?

As for class, forget the [ever changing] ******'s breakfast class rating floor-show and watch the race prices [what the horse is racing for and what price races it has won]. That will tell you more about 'class' than any class system the powers that be whip up.

Racer

I've not really noticed any difference since the introduction of RBP earlier in the month. How do you think things will change?

I'm more a technical analyst than a form fundamentalist, so for me it's the market movements that matter. I don't see alot of point doing the form these days when everybody else does it for you.

Good Luck

Pixie

im with you racer, the wall to wall rubbish racing is suposed to be an attraction for the new breed of punters? me thinks not

im mainly a carnival punter these days, always an opportunity or 2 when the big races roll around, & lo & behold i can actualy enjoy myself! something i came to realise i wasnt doing trying to chase down the next winner at kyneton

poker, now there another story...

Gday All

I am not sure the restricted by rating races are intended to help the punter.. They are there to help owners and trainers run horses who may have peaked in performance and can no longer win in their designated class.. and I think it is a good idea for the owners and trainers

As an example, say you have a very average horse running around in the country somewhere, and along the way it fluked a CL5 win, maybe it was a race with 5 or 6 duds in it? Who knows? But the thing is you are now stuck running your horse in class 5 or higher, and it has no chance of winning again.. Because your horse really only has the ability of a class 4 runner.. I would think that is a dissincentive to keep the horse racing.. These restricted rating races allow you to run with horses that have achieved a rating much the same as yours in their career. AND it gives you a real chance of winning some prize money... something that hasn't been the case b4.. I can't see that as a bad thing... As for punting, it makes it hard, but that is the challenge isn't it... or alternatively, leave the race alone if you don't like em...

I must declare an interest here, I am talking from a slightly biassed point of view as my partner is a trainer..

__________________
Good luck and good punting

xptdriver@hotmail.com

Well Crash it will be very interesting to see what happens but I just can't see it helping anyone. As you mention, to look at the bullion side of racing - but even that might well be a farce because as you know, the MAJOR thing that matters in racing's final analysis is one horse's goods, RELATIVE to each of the rest of the runners in the race, and that's where the fun is going to begin.
So we shall see how good the odds
makers and the bettors are, as they try to wade through that to which xptdriver refers in his #5 post - I'm thinking it will be hilarious for a trainer
(or anyone else)trying to
ascertain his chances of pulling off a betting coup when he looks at another
runner in his horse's race and sees one is going up from o-62 to 0-74, the next one is going down from 0-86 to 0-68 and so on throughout the field,THEN, he moves to the relative weights of each runner.
I mean it's going to be real easy to whack a Gorilla on his runner,(and I don't think) and maybe all this is just what the powers that be are intending.
Can you just remind me Crash how long racing has been in existence and how ************ marvelous it's been ?
and then wonder why in hell are they determined to fiddle about in this manner now 2000 years later, I'm sure you and all the other lads have noticed the dreadful slide in quality runners.

Stugots mentions being a carnival punter and it's no wonder because that's the only time any decent horses are going around and fortunately\apparently
they are not intending to fiddle about with OPENS or GROUP races - YET !!!

Angry Pixie deals with the odds and %'s by the sound of it, and I will hope
that he can report in 12 months to there being no change in his hopefully winning ways.To your question Pix., I refer you to the above from hilarious on down.
We all know that approx. 30-33% favs. win each year regardless of which track in the WORLD, upto now, - it will be interesting to note if that approx. continues.( mind you I've always been slightly astounded that those fav. approxs' vary so little across the world).
Pixie, is there any chance,with you being a tech. analyst, of taking a stab at why the latter matter might be so please ?

Regards.

The whole class system is a ballsup in Australia, and every year it get's more confusing. Even some trainers are now confused and get fined for nominating ineligible horses, so that speaks volumes.

Each State has it's own way of doing things, and even some raceclubs.

Then you have various grades of the same bloomin' class, so you can have a $5,000 Class 6 or a $20,000 Class 6.

Prizemoney cannot give an accurate guide to class of race anymore apart from Country/Metro.

And then they give more of a penalty to a horse that won first up, than a horse that won second up in Perth - which makes no logical sense at all.

They need to have an industry standard criteria, like any other industry.

Then handicap the horses based on performance +/-. If a horse fails to run well in it's current class, so that the ratings go below a certain point, then it should be eligible to go back to the lower grade.

So there should be a race class figure and a horse class figure, but it should be consistent across the board.

Fairly straightforward I would have thought, but the powers that be decide "let's do something different". And they successfully confuse the trainers and punters which detracts interest, quality, and turnover.

WAKE UP!

__________________
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When you consider who finances the races [yes we do, but we don't make the rules], why would it be in the TAB's interest to allow those it [indirectly] employs, to make things easier for the punter to pick winners with a simple and logical class system?
Sure they get their guaranteed % of all pools but if it was easier for the punter to pick winners there would be more of us doing so and that would lower average winning odds [a lot] .....which will turn punters away from the game and lower TAB share prices!

At the same time bamboozling us so we pick less winners, will drive more punters away and lower the share price too

The more we lose, the less we have to invest and turnover / takeout profits suffer.

Already there are so many other ways to lift the average dividend.

Basically, they think it helps the industry, the trainers and owners, but it detracts investment.

__________________
RaceCensus - powerful system testing software.
Now with over 399,000 Metropolitan, Provincial and Country races!
http://www.propun.com.au/horse_raci...ng_systems.html
*RaceCensus now updated to 31/03/2024
Video overview of RaceCensus here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W821YP_b0Pg

& all this when there are a 1000 & 1 other gambling options available to those so inclined, & betfair almost certainly to eventually corner a fair share of current tab markets.

i mean why bang your head against a wall trying to snag(fluke) that elusive 4/5 figure trifecta when for the same outlay you can enter multiple online poker tournaments & win(fluke) a motza?