'A Reply to "Ching"
To the Eéilor of the "Normu-Cumwa Dany News"
Sin—Reading of Cuive's criticism] of Handicaps for the races to be held fon Saturday, 23rd inst. nter-Club Race "Meeting) one would gather that he infers that either the Handicappers. are incompetent for some reason or other, they favour certain owners oF ponies, but! if he and other critics consider the conditions of these Handicaps, they will realize that they are confined to ponies that have been placed twice ud they must not overlook candi-dotes' past, performances.
the Yangtzepoo Handicap, out of "21 Subs entered, 20 are winners Of one race or more.
In the Broadway Handicap, out of! 59 qualified griffins of 1993," 44 are winners of one race or more.
In the Wayside Handicap, out of 51 qualified ponies, 42 are winners of One race or more.
Of -all the qualified entries, the! pony with the lowest record is one having two thirds to Its credit: all the others have a second and a third or better. This gives 106 winners out of 124 and very much curtails the range of penalties to be imposed and this is further influenced by the fact that there are A and B classes for the Broadway and Wayside Handicaps, which naturally tends to Dung ponies together in their res-active' classes and obviates the neces sity of heavy penalties in each class.
Tu this respect the Stewards are to be congratulated on the conditions governing the Handicaps. Many: Ponies cannot carry weight and when penalty is imposed, it puts them Out of a race altogether, but the same. pony with weight off can give the best of them a run. Thig was recently borne out when Lovat Scout with 140 Tbs. (wath, 155 Ibs) and with a novice jockey beat a good field after having previously run unplaced with higher weight, also when The Lazy Bird with 142 ibs. up beat a good Held of ponies of its own class.
Many more instances could be qualed of ponies that do well with weight off but that are rarely seen at weight-for-inches or over.
The highest penalty given is in the case of Stop Loss, viz., 10 Ibs. extra, making its weight 159 Ibs. in the Broadway Handicap, A Class. As the Jowest weight 1s 140 ths. this gives the Handicappers 19 Ibs. margin or the equivalent of say 7 or 8 lengths and this should be enough in a field of practically winners divided into two Classes.
ordinary handicap, the! Handicappers have to deal" with ponies that have never and are likely never to be placed and it is then necessary to heavily penalize known performers in order to attempt, to Dung entries together and even then the muck and truck are rarely placed seen, but in a field of known ger-formers as in the case of next Saturday's Handicaps, such heavy penalties do not appear to be necessary and no doubt the Handicap Weights were given on these: lines.
In the case of Eptom, your critic only takes one race into account en-Uirely overlooking Race No. 405 (28th September, 1995) when Epsom with with Mr. Holgate up, ran second to Fairy Whip-poor-wilt which Mr. Cue considers one of the best grifof the year. Epsom carried 160 bs. while the other carried 152 Ibs.
As Epsom was beaten 2 lengths at 8 ibs. difference, this makes him equal to the Fairy pony. Further, Epsom only started twice at the last Autumn Race Meeting in races 547 and 554 being 5th in the latter with the own cer up; this pony has a record of 2 Wins, 2 seconds, and a third.
The Club's" lowest weight for Handicaps is 140 Ths: owners are supposed to know this when entering their ponies and the question has still to be decided whether or not it fs the duty of a Handicapper to im-}pose a penalty that will prevent a any starting or having no chance at all if started or allowing weights at which the better class ponies can Start with a fair chance of chowing themselves. This, of course, "is not the case when conditions of Handicaps stipulate a maximum weight and it isa pity that not more handicaps contain. such, Shangtial, Nov. 20.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.