Handicapping now doesn't mean things always go right

Whatever happened to the summer re-handicaps? Gone the way of boater hats and faxes it would seem.

There was a time when the post-season re-handicap was a major curiosity, a guide to trainers as to which of the stable would get plenty of attention before the early meetings to take advantage of a 10-pound drop into the next grade. Never mind that their horse might be meeting a whole field of horses dropping 10 points, they would have them revved-up.

Part of the reason for the big drops was the sheer justification of it when the handicapper looked at the entirety of that horse's contribution and part of it was the necessity to drop horses across the system to fill up the bottom classes. Compulsory retirements would claim the bottom half of Class Five, meaning new cellar dwellers were needed. That then had a flow-on effect up the ladder and even the top horses would often be trimmed.

Former handicapper Ciaran Kennelly also once characterised the process as a new imposition of reality on a ratings picture which got twisted out of shape through racing, with the natural inclination of ratings being to drift upwards over a season. But the sweep out in the cellar - which formed part of a system that did help improve the overall quality of horses a decade ago - doesn't seem to have the same significance, if it still exists at all.

Not so long ago, there was no case to be made for the likes of Goldmen YY or Able Dragon - elderly horses rated low 20s or worse. They were out. These days all it needs is a note to say, 'We want one more season' and on they march. (We have no issue with this and would like to see the return of Class Six, even Class Seven, but it does seem at odds with the Jockey Club's pathway.)

A flow-on from that is negation of any necessity to significantly drop others across the system which might have expected help as they got older - the likes of rising a 10-year-old - and those horses are just marooned, going sideways until the day when they get every lucky break to fluke a third or fourth and the handicapper decides he has them right.