Handicapping changes welcomed by trainers

CHANGES to thoroughbred handicapping have been welcomed by Otago trainers, but there is still room for the system to improve.

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing last week announced adjustments to the ratings bands it uses to programme races and the penalties applied to winners among changes prompted by its annual handicapping review.

Rating 75 and 85 races will be replaced with rating 72 and 82 grades from next season. Most races will have a maximum rerating penalty of 12 points for the winner, which can make racing in a higher grade more attractive.

Horses racing in higher grades than those they are eligible for will not carry a weight disadvantage as they did under the previous rules.

Limiting the rerating horses was a positive move, North Taieri trainer Steven Prince said.

The trainer had been forced to line up promising horses who had been handed huge rises in ratings after their wins out of their grade in the past.

Eliminating that would not stymie the careers of promising horses, Prince said.

‘‘They are not going to hammer horses like they used to.’’

Prince welcomed most of the new changes, but said more could be done to eliminate the traffic jam of horses in the rating 65 grade.

‘‘I think they are going the right way with it, but I still think there are troubles in the 65 grade.’’

Fellow trainer Brian Anderton also believes more needs to be done with the rating 65 grade.

The grade is particularly unfair on horses that have won one race, as they are forced to race multiple race winners who have lowered their ratings with poor performances.

Anderton is an advocate for the creation of a grade for onewin horses.

The grade would provide more reward to the owners of emerging horses, rather than them having to compete with hardened veterans after they have won their maiden race.

‘‘They should have onewin races and that would make it a lot better for those horses that have just won their first race,’’ Anderton said.

‘‘That would be a heck of an advantage. They would not have to go and race all of those dropback horses that have won a lot of races.’’

Prince agreed with the idea of creating a onewin grade.

‘‘I’d definitely agree with that, because you are not getting a crack at the moment.’’