The handicap is one of the fundamentals in horse racing. If you want to be able to bet on a horse for any reason other than that you like the name of the horse, like the jockey or like the color of his outfit, you might be better off learning a little about handicapping!
All horse racing falls into one of two categories: a handicap race or a conditions race, with handicap races far exceeding conditions races in most events.
A handicap is a race in which each horse is assigned a different weight based on its ability, so in theory each horse has an equal chance of winning. The British Horseracing Council (BHB) has handicappers who produce an official grade (the ‘mark’ of the horse) for every horse in the UK that qualifies to run in a handicap race. This grade that the handicappers give the horse will be on a sliding scale between 0 and 120. The zero score would basically be a crippled 9 while the three-year-olds at the top of the scale would be horses participating in races such as the derby.
Sometimes horses run ‘unhandicapped’, meaning the horse will run in the race at a handicap; the trainer will be aware of this, but will still believe that his horse has a chance of winning.
The evaluations are made weekly and their results are stored in the computer by Weatherbys, which is the main administrative body for horse racing, and each time a horse participates in a race, the handicapper must decide whether to adjust his grade depending on a good or bad performance.
While this all sounds confusing, and to be fair it must be a lot of hard work for handicappers and Weatherbys, it basically means: the higher the horses rating, the better it is. However, this could also mean that if you are betting on the horse with the highest (best) handicap, you could be betting on the heaviest horse in the race, as each point on the scale equals one pound (lb) of weight. weight. This means that, for example, a horse rated 45 will carry 10 pounds less than a horse in the same race rated 55, and a horse rated 119 on the scale will weigh 4 pounds better than a horse rated 115 by the handicap. A perfectly handicap race would be one where all the horses crossed the finish line at exactly the same time, which as we all know doesn’t happen, but it makes things as fair as possible.
There is also a ‘weight-for-age’ adjustment when horses of different ages compete against each other in a race, as the horses grow to the ages of 3, 4 and 5 years.
Handicaps have different levels, races are classified as A, B, C, D, E, F or G, with A being the highest handicap class and G being the lowest, and the official brand of the horse will determine which class race can participate. in.