The news that the Cape flagship, the Sun Met, will be run at weight-for–age in January 2018 has been greeted with mixed feelings. That response is not unusual. Horseracing is, after all, a sport that breeds naysayers and devil’s advocates.
Are the gods scratching where it’s not itching – and what’s the aim of the exercise?
The debate should really hinge around what the ultimate aim is. What’s the crunch? Satisfying the purists and making the Sun Met a pure weight-for-age contest? Or optimising the betting turnover aspect, accepting that a middle-of-the road galloper could get lucky on handicap terms and going the handicap big field route?
Whisky Baron Sun Met lead in (photo: Wayne Marks)
Simply, what does a change in conditions accomplish? Do we want what it achieves and does that affect betting, field sizes, status, international recognition – and do those even matter?
The idea of attracting the best in the land to compete at weight-for-age for a R5 million purse on the greatest social day on the South African horseracing calendar is not rocket science. But is it that simple – and where does the consideration of the need to balance the mathematics of the betting turnover factor come into the equation? And does the South African horseracing population really justify another weight-for-age contest?
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