Horse Racing Term?

Question

What does it mean when the Racing Post says 'won off a mark of 56 last time, now running off a mark of 77, going to find it hard' etc. ? Because sometimes, I have noticed they are carrying the same weight as their last race, sometimes less, so why does their mark affect how they will run?

Answer 1

simply put,it means the animal has theoretically improved for the last performance .when the animal carries the same/similar weight as before it usually means the trainer has entered a slightly higher class race than the last one ,but not allways.Handicapping is a difficult business and a constant fight between the official handicapper and the trainers.When the r.post says-in the grip of the handicapper- it means that the horse has been evaluated correctly and the trainer has lost the fight(for the moment)!.

Answer 2

Off (Is it off?)

Is the animal in question going to run to the best of its ability?

Answer 3

Forget about ACTUAL weight. It is all to do with relative ratings. Think of a big graph running from one to a hundred. Over a given distance a horse is said to be rated say 56. So if another horse is rated 58 then no matter  what the handicap top weight (which tends to set weights for other horses in the race) the horse rated 56 will be always allotted 2 pounds less than the one rated 58. (weights carried can vary if apprentices are down to ride it, or if it has won and not been reassessed in which case you may see it is carrying say 5 pounds more (extra) than the original allotted weights. So if a horse runs, is reassessed from 56 to 58 it may well carry the same weight as last time if it is running in a different grade or against different horses.

Hope that explains it to your satisfaction.!!!!

Answer 4

This refers to handicaps.Each horse has official h'cap rating also known as Open Rating.

Horse with pretty low OR of 56 would be entered in E or F handicap.Say it carried 8st 7lb.Topweight in that race would carry 9st 7lb and therefore have a rating of 70......

If it were to win and given a  new mark/rating of 62.Would be entered in slightly better race,say a D h'cap.

Topweight in that race may have a rating of 80 and carry 9st 7lb.Therefore our mark/rating of 62 means we would recieve 18 lb from topweight and carry 8st 3lbs.

So we are not carrying as much weight as in previous race ,but have crept up the Handicap.

Probably as clear as mud!