The Sawyer's handicap mark

I should know the answer to this.

My current British rating was dropped to 146 after Chelt so I am guessing that the kind Irish handicapper is allowing me to run off my old rating - very generous. Apparently him and Buckler are good mates!

love this horse

over reaction to aintree run behind Monet's Garden?

You mean his Ascot run. Given the subsequent runs of Monet's Garden and, more especially, Albertas Run, he looks weighted to run a big 'un again today with an uncontested lead highly likely.

Ascot was race not a handicap, think the ground will be too firm for him.

has to be the latter surely?

I know the Ascot race wasn't a handicap, if it had been he'd've been receiving weight from the first two. Which makes his run all the more meritorious.

sorry Ascot, not aintree.

either way, ran 3.25l and 1.5l to horses rated 165 & 163 and was 14l ahead of horse rated 155 - at level weights. handicapper had to give a higher OR as he only got an extra 5lbs for winning at cheltenham in january. after cheltenham festival run i presume handicapped decided he had over reacted?

They don't drop them by 9lb in one lump, unless the animal's showing serious signs of regression.

Surely Phil Smith has nothing to do with it considering the Irish handicapper rates their horses at least 7lb below the British handicap so The Sawyer is hardly any better off.

i missed the 2nd post on this thread but found on BHA website that the sawyer is rated 146 now so dropped 2lbs by uk handicapper.

apologies for previous posts, i had not realised that. i was looking at rpost and presumed that had the uk rating.

i can only assume so that english horses get dropped 7lbs??

Jmdc, British horses running here have traditionally ran of their British rating, scandalously. If this is a change of practise by the Irish handicapper, it's long overdue.

*ran OFF

I don't think he knows what he's doing anyway - just comes across as an inflexible old man who hasn't got a clue!

It WAS an over-reaction to the ASCOT race.

In that race Monet's Garden 165 beat Albertas Run 163 by a comfortable length and a half - so the handicapper could, or rather did, assume that they had BOTH run exactly to their marks -

The Sawyer was 3rd - a further length and three-quarters behind - meaning he had, theoretically run to a rating of 161.

4th placed Oh Crick went into the race on 155 - and finished a further 14 lengths behind, meaning he, theoretically, ran to a rating of 147.

In the weekly adjustments that followed - both Monet's Garden and Albertas Run were left UNCHANGED -

However, The Sawyer was raised 9lb to 148 - and Oh Crick dropped 4lbs to 151.

This comes about through a form of 'averaging' that the official handicappers appear to apply when faced with such a quandary...... The Sawyer being 139 pre-race, then theoretically running a 161 - and they take/took a roughly 'mid-way' point between those two figures, and awarded the 'average' of 148.

Similarly - Oh Crick was on 155, but theoretically ran to 147 - and they dropped him to a 'mid-way' point between those two figures of 151.

After being beaten at the Cheltenham festival - The Sawyer has now been dropped BACK to his mark of 139 - which was awarded to him for winning at Cheltenham in January, before his run at Ascot - the horse never having been rated in the 140's before, and attaining it's highest ever previous rating when put up to 139 for the Cheltenham January success.

Are you sure it's the British handicapper that has dropped him Onlooker? Seems a bizarre drop after just one race...

The Sawyer's current BHA rating is 146.

Cheers ABD. So Noel O'Brien's changed tack then...

In ireland it has a sx pound lower mark when going Right-Handed.