???

A handicapper can refuse to give a mark if they feel they don't have enough info on the horse or if they feel the horse has been prevented from giving their best for one reason or another, hope this helps.

Thank you very much Senor. The horse in question is a 2yo and I suspected that there was something going on in line with your comments so I am very grateful for your confirmation of the handicapper's options!

Yeah I'd agree - you can of course always ring up the handicapper in question and ask him!  They are usually pretty happy to tell you why they have given a horse such a mark - or not in this case.

Thanks Lairy, not part of my remit this sort of area - much more at home shovelling sh1t!

I don't really need to know the nitty gritty so won't bother the handicapper as I'm happy to accept your and the good Senor's wisdom

I think you're giving me too much credit there, I was fortunate/unfortunate enough depending on you're thinking to do the Trainers course at the BRS which included a talk from one of the handicappers (in fact probably the handicapper who is involved here)and he explained this situation using an example from a certain Newmarket based handicap specialist trainer.

Sometimes horses won't be eligible for a handicap mark if they've gotten a wind op I believe

Clearly each case is unique but to NOT give a mark to a winner or one that has finished 3 races (not tailed off) is pretty unusual.  It would probably require a written explanation from the handicapper.  The handicapper is NOT allowed to take a pejorative view on the running of a horse unless it was investigated by the stewards. That is not to say they wont give you a high mark.

Thanks for your reply yer ma. I am not going to name names as the horse in question has a slight paper trail back to me!!
It really can't have been much more of case of a peeved handicapper from a trainer trying to be a bit clever. It was certainly nothing really dirty so I think that it must be a reasonably common occurence unlesss there is a bit of needle between the trainer and handicapper!

The handicapper used to allot automatic top weight to a horse that they didn't have enough info on but with the rating system that is probably not an option now.

the handicapper has the power to refuse a rating to any horse regardless of how many times it has run if in his opinion there is not enough evidence to give it a rating, happens quite a lot for various reasons, he has to obviously be able to justify not giving a rating, if you disagree there is an appeals process but most just run again, one of smp's a few years ago ran 6 times before a rating was given it got 46 and proceed to win its next 6 races