2nd June 2015

Some great examples of ‘sliderule handicapping’ with my horses this week. Sliderule handicapping, as I have explained before, is the term Jim McGrath gives to the policy of moving horses up and down by small amounts while leaving them in the same grade and, effectively making no difference whatsoever to their chances of winning a race.

Bizzario dropped 1lb to 76; Casila dropped 1lb to 64, after a 56 length defeat at Brighton; Cassandane dropped 1lb to 56 after finishing 6th of 9 beaten 14 lengths; Maid in Rio dropped 2lbs to 95 for finishing 10th of 10 beaten a whopping 97 lengths; Regal Ways dropped 1lb to 71 after finishing last beaten 26 lengths; and Yorkindred Spirit dropped 2lbs to 57 after yet another unplaced run. What is the point?

Coversely, Leaderene went up 10lbs for winning a very weak Newmarket handicap in which she started at 11/10 favourite, presumably due to only one of the other six runners having been placed this year and that was back in February on the all-weather.