Irish Sports
There is currently 1 person viewing this thread.
I've been musing over this topic afresh after the Arc .
First off ,one can understand the point put forward in favour. Pacemakers can ( mostly) help avoid a false pace and therefore contribute to a valid result where the best horse wins.
However many side problems and issues arise.
In no particular order -here goes
* There can be more than one pacemaker , sometimes two from one stable and maybe multiple pacemakers from many stables ...no way of limiting them really.
* Pacemakers add to the size of fields causing clutter -maybe pushing genuine contenders wider in the draw and can cause obstruction when they weaken.
* On the face of it a pacemaker is almost certainly not running on its merits .
Frequently they finish tailed off and so never had a chance of gaining their best possible position ---which is contrary to the rules of racing n'est-ce pas ?
* Pacemakers, singly or plurally, can be used / abused to create openings for a stablemate or block off an opening for a rival ...there have been accusations of such 'team tactics' before and they don't sit well with the spirit of fair competition whatever about the letter of the law.
*It frequently doesn't work. They can go too fast and not last long enough-or can be so slow they can't get the lead.
Could there be a ratings limit on runners in Gr. races -i.e. a horse more than ,say, 7lbs below a certain cut-off would not be eligible to run .
That might eliminate clear no-hopers but could lead to 'camouflaged' pacemakers instead.
I guess we're probably stuck with it -but I do feel uneasy about the whole thing.
First off ,one can understand the point put forward in favour. Pacemakers can ( mostly) help avoid a false pace and therefore contribute to a valid result where the best horse wins.
However many side problems and issues arise.
In no particular order -here goes
* There can be more than one pacemaker , sometimes two from one stable and maybe multiple pacemakers from many stables ...no way of limiting them really.
* Pacemakers add to the size of fields causing clutter -maybe pushing genuine contenders wider in the draw and can cause obstruction when they weaken.
* On the face of it a pacemaker is almost certainly not running on its merits .
Frequently they finish tailed off and so never had a chance of gaining their best possible position ---which is contrary to the rules of racing n'est-ce pas ?
* Pacemakers, singly or plurally, can be used / abused to create openings for a stablemate or block off an opening for a rival ...there have been accusations of such 'team tactics' before and they don't sit well with the spirit of fair competition whatever about the letter of the law.
*It frequently doesn't work. They can go too fast and not last long enough-or can be so slow they can't get the lead.
Could there be a ratings limit on runners in Gr. races -i.e. a horse more than ,say, 7lbs below a certain cut-off would not be eligible to run .
That might eliminate clear no-hopers but could lead to 'camouflaged' pacemakers instead.
I guess we're probably stuck with it -but I do feel uneasy about the whole thing.
sort by:
Show
per page
Replies: 1
|
By:
I agree about the ratings limit up to a point. Think Peter Savill bought a qualified horse pre-race in order to use him as a pacemaker. Wouldn't like to see this happening or a horse who's had a long season being abused just coz it could be used as a pacemaker.
It's such a minefield, probably best to leave the big boys get on with it. Surely if a race has a limit on numbers then the better runners get a chance to run if they want to. It seems to be very few horses go from the front in top flat races these days. Or jumps for that matter. The days of a Carvills Hill, Barton Bank or Run for Free tearing off to make all, or Make a Stand or Valfinet. Even Pipe's runners in ordinary races were variety. |