What are race horse burdened with when handicapped in a race?

Question

information on handicapped race horses.

Answer 1

The handicap given is added weight.  

FWIW, in the USA, for all intents and purposes the handicap race is dead and gone.  Because the top horses in the handicap division are such a draw, racing secretaries at tracks that have handicap races are loath to assign high weights, because the chances are good that if the owner/trainer think the weight is too high, they'll take their horse somewhere else.

It used to be that some racing secretaries made the assignment of weights almost a science.  The "conventional wisdom" on weight is that once horses are at scale weights, a pound of weight = 1 length at 1 mile or longer.   So if horse A beat horse B by 5 lengths at scale weights in their last race, to even things up, the Racing Secretary will assign Horse A 5 pounds more weight than Horse B.  The steward could do this by adding 5 pounds to the weight Horse A has to carry, or by subtracting 5 pounds from the weight Horse B has to carry, or some combination of shifts that equals 5 pounds in favor of Horse B.  

Most horse trainers/owners start getting upset about weights assigned to their horse as the weight approaches 130 pounds.  Nowadays it's very rare for a horse to be assigned 130 pounds or over in a handicap race, but it used to be done for the best handicap horses.  Forego, three-time Horse of the Year, carried 137 pounds in the 1976 Marlboro Cup and won with that.  Man O' War carried 138 pounds as a 3-year-old, and when owner Sam Riddle was told that if the horse raced as a 4-year-old, he would be assigned more weight than any horse in modern history had ever carried, Riddle elected to retire him.  

Nowadays owners and trainers aren't going to stand for weight assignments that high, and racing secretaries try to lure star horses to their tracks with promises of bonuses and appearance money, and not assigning more than a pound or two over scale weight in a handicap.  Kinda sad in a way, because the heroic weight-carrying epics of the stars of yesterday made racing more interesting, IMO.

Answer 2

the best horse will carry the most weight.....