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Fake Handicapping System
Harness & Greyhounds
JayJay
7,679 posts
It is now four years since the HWOE based system was introduced. Amongst great angst (changes is always confronting), there was great promise of reform and progress in providing exciting, high turnover, like against like competitive racing with far fewer short priced favorites, I think you would have been hard pressed to find anyone opposed to the suggestion that the old M/C/R system with its proliferation of penalty free races had done it's time and that change was needed. HWOE was the solution we were told (although I don't think anyone foresaw the progression to the $L5 Conditioned racing that is fundamentally what we have today).
The much celebrated story of previous year's Derby winners rocking up, and beating up, a field of very moderate open aged maiden horses in a CO at Pinjarra or wherever perhaps more than anything crystalised everyone's view that the magical realignment of a successful juveniles handicap, to that of a battle weary outer country maiden 1 second after midnight on August 30 of each year, was unacceptable. Many 3 year olds, and their owners, got a huge free kick with the realignment to classification C0 the second they turned 4, effectively handing them retrospective penalty free racing as a 2 and 3 year old that had our counterparts in the thoroughbred world rolling on the floor in laughter every time anyone from harness even mentioned the word "handicapping". Successful owners and breeders of quality juveniles were in "handicap clover', a position that 4 years later with HWOE handicapping has changed very little, and may in fact have been enhanced.
With mounting complaints from some that horses were moving through their levels too quickly (and hastening their departure to North America), and we are talking about successful, talented, winning horses here, not loyal old country scrubbers, win penalties have been adjusted so that instead of incurring your full winning stake against your HWOE (Harness WIN only earnings), there is now only a part penalty to pay. There was always a concessions applicable for 2 year olds (25% win penalty) and 3 year olds (75% win penalty) from the get go but the recent changes have handed out even bigger free kicks left right and centre. The applicable penalties across all stakes levels for 3 year olds (incorporating the 75% discount) are now as such:
Community/Country/Mid Week races
$6000 stake race Win Stake $3167 , HWOE penalty $2249.25. Penalty percentage is 71%
$9,000 stake race Win stake $4993 , HWOE penalty $3375 Penalty Percentage 67.5%
Metro Races:
$20250 stake race Win Stake $11,745 , HWOE penalty $6750 Penalty Percentage 57%
$50,000 stake race Win Stake $29,000 HWOE Penalty $10,125 Penalty Percentage 35%
$100000 stake race Win Stake $58,000 HWOE Penalty $10125 Penalty Percentage 17.5%
$150,000 stake race Win Stake $87,000 HWOE Penalty $13,500 Penalty Percentage 15.5%
$200,000 stake race Win Stake $116,000 HWOE Penalty $13,500 penalty Percentage 11.6%
So, the higher the quality of your horse, the better the concessions with battling horses and their owners copping win penalties at Busselton or Collie that are, for assessment purposes, seven times higher than the Derby winner. Hugely encouraging for the big end of town but devastating for most horses and owners. Just how absurd has this system become that a horse that has won potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars emerges as a 4 year old with an artificially low HWOE. Great work if you can get it, and a benefit that I don't foresee the current beneficiaries giving up without exercising every bit of influence they can muster. It would take another 3 posts to divulge the nonsense going on in the $L5 races where plodders at all levels keep getting dive bombed by quality horses (granted out of form) such that good types with $350k in life time earnings can over time drop back into a $L5 $4k race and beat up $20k life time plodders at Narrogin, and in many cases, have the chance of drawing gate 1 in a RBD.. So much for "like against like" competitive racing. Michael Radley and friends can rave on all they like about Gloucester Park and it's brand being "turnover central" in WA but the reality is that it is turnover central for five eights of bugger all as harness turnover shrinks into oblivion as a percentage of overall betting. The decline in the last 10 years is far more than alarming, it is way beyond that, and the snorefest leader biased racing at this out out of date, undersized metro track is a major contributing factor.
And the solution doing the rounds this week, unconfirmed of course but it has been on the grapevine for a while now, is that there is a proposition floating around the Halls Of Power to further "rationalise" Harness Racing by reducing racing to just 5 tracks.....with the outer clubs (Busso, Collie, Williams etc) being granted a single boutique meeting each season. Racing only at GP, Pinjarra, Bunbury, Northam and one of Narrogin, Wagin and Albany will please some but others will signify the move as time to call in the Harness racing undertakers. "RWAA...Growing The Industry". Bah humbug.
Comments
Other than the conversations that you have in your own head how do you know that none of what you suggested and a whole lot more wasn't done to try and get keep the club going???
Cant_Refuse, LightningJake likes this post.
Having the $ added at a discounted rate adds some incentive to winning those races
getthechange likes this post.
I think there needs to be more heat/final races where the HWOE is heavily discounted, have a nights of thunder type event every 6 weeks or so.
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Gilgamesh, LightningJake likes this post.
My theory behind it is you draw the better horses to those races so the other horses should be able to find weaker races during that time.
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