HELPING MARK JOHNSTONE BREAK THE 300 BARRIER.

​The 5.00 at York on Friday last was not a handicap. The 5.35 on the same day was a handicap. The weight range in the 5.00 was 10lbs. In the 5.35 it was only 4lbs.  Does a range of 4lbs truly constitute a handicap? In my day a handicap had a broad and sweeping range of weights of perhaps over 2-stone. Great days when due to widespread malnutrition an apprentice would claim 7lb off a horse allotted 7st. In 1943, to take a race at random, at Salisbury, in a five-furlong handicap, two horses were allotted 6st 2lbs and to their disgrace their respective jockeys had to put up 2lb and 4lb overweight. The top weight, ridden by Cliff Richards, brother of Sir Gordon, not the Peter Pan of pop, won the race carrying 8st 13lbs. Burger King, chocolate bars at supermarket checkouts and weak lager have a lot to answer for in our society; big boned jockeys for one.
I am aware that banded races were introduced to encourage more competitive racing, with horses of near-equal merit running against one another, and the 5.35 at York did have a narrow banding, 71-85. It’s just that I would suggest a weight range of 4lbs is more akin to a conditions race than a handicap. One day soon there will be a handicap where all the runners carry the same weight and that, I hope, will be a wake-up call to the powers-that-be to do something about it. A handicap is defined as ‘a contest in which an allowance of time, distance or weight is made to inferior competitors’ and I would argue that a handicap where all the runners carry more or less the same weight is not truly a handicap. In fact, such a race may have to be voided for breaking the definition of what a handicap should be. I would also suggest that a weight range of only 4lbs cannot truly include any runner that can be deemed ‘inferior’.
There was a time when it was a performance of great merit for the top-weight to win a handicap. Yet with banded races it is quite common for the top weight to give away the few pounds difference. In fact, in some cases if a 7lb claimer is employed the top weight can end up the bottom weight.
Mark Johnstone has a valid point about handicaps. It is his view that there are too many of them, with not enough variation in the race programme, though God only knows how many races he would win a season if he could organise the programme to suit his own purposes? So, in order to assist the Master of Middleham break the 300-barrier here are four suggestions to help vary the race programming fare.
How about banded conditions races? For example, and please feel free to apply your own weight range, in a 71-85 band, those rated 81-85 would carry 9st 2lbs, those rated 76-80 would carry 8st 10lbs and those 71-75 8st 4lbs. No penalties, no claiming jockeys.
Maiden handicaps, for horses eligible for a rating.
 Once upon a time in Ireland, due, I believe, to the amount of horses balloted out of races, there were ‘Upside Down Handicaps’ where eliminations would start from the top, allowing those at the bottom of the handicap to get a run. I can hear the howls of protest, the cries of we shouldn’t be prioritising the slowest horses at the expense of Mark Johnstone who doesn’t have slow horses. And I would respond by arguing that this type of horse has an owner who needs to be encouraged to stay in the game, a trainer who can only put bread on the table because of such horses, a groom whose job relies on the aforementioned staying in the game and a jockey with a mortgage to pay. It is the horse and human at the bottom of the racing pyramid that bears the load.
Handicaps without restrictions on ratings but on how many races each horse has won. For example, a handicap for horses who have not won more than three races or a handicap for horses who have won more than three races. Handicaps for horses who have accumulated prize money of over £50,000 or less than £50,000.
Banded races make life so much easier for the poor old handicapper and competitive racing stirs the soul and must excite the newbie to greater effect than a ten-length winner. Though when a Derby is won by ten lengths the excitement goes off the Ed Chamberlain scale for over-egging puddings. I wouldn’t wish to see banded races kicked into touch, I would just like to see more imagination given to the daily race programme.