General Chat

[Yosser]

I think it's bollocks myself.
It's a handicap, so the weight for age and mares allowance bit seems nonsense.
Just looked in the Jumps and pattern book and that race is fucking missing.

Amateurs.

I have been looking for it. It isn't in the list that Sax got from the BHA. Unless the BHA are trying to be 'edgy' and creating the first Graded Novice handicap with weight limits and an allowance to encourage mares in Wouldn't be like them to make a balls of it though

[Saxon Warrior]

National Hunt Chase

Some snippets re NHC, that have been revealed on Sporting Life.

Looks like its a 0-145 Novice Hcap Chase.

5yo+ (5yo get a 2lb age allowance on 6yo+)

There shouldnt be a 7lb Mares Allowance at all, if its a handicap, that quote must be a red herring.

You cant give a Mare a Hcap rating then take 7lb off it.

Also should be 3 chase runs to qualify for a rating/run.

Finally re the BHA's Book published last month

There are always Festival races missing

They never have the M.Pipe in it.
They never have the Kim.Muir in it

So it looks like they don't include these ratings restricted 0-145 Handicaps, including the revised NHC.

The conditions will appear in the Weatherbys Calendar a couple of weeks before Early Entries Day for all of the Festival HANDICAPS.

I think those Hcap Early Entries are going to be on 18th Feb

With Weights a week later

So Weatherbys will have the race conditions in their fortnightly calendar updates around the end of this month.

---------
Sporting Life

The National Hunt Chase will become a limited handicap open to professional jockeys as one of six changes made to the Cheltenham Festival.

The contest will will have a ratings band of 0-145 and was one of the modifications announced on Thursday afternoon following a Jockey Club review into the four-day meeting, and following a period of consultation with participants, racegoers, racing fans, members of the media, sponsors and a wide range of industry stakeholders.

For the non-novice handicaps at the meeting, horses must run four times (chases) and five times (hurdles) to be eligible, up from three and four respectively, while winners of the Pertemps Qualifiers throughout the season will be guaranteed a run in the Final if they are in the weights proper at final declaration stage.

[riccirich]

Weather update for tomorrow's naas card if anyone's interested, I'm about 20 minutes away and there was frost this morning and pretty cold but nothing terrible, it's cleared away now and there hasn't been any rain all day. Kildare only had a yellow alert overnight, whereas Cork had an orange alert.

There is supposedly meant to be rain and sleet tonight into tomorrow which would obviously threaten the card but as of right now there hasn't been anything.

[Benjy23]

Assume frost would be biggest concern?

[Lobos]

Weather update for tomorrow's naas card if anyone's interested, I'm about 20 minutes away and there was frost this morning and pretty cold but nothing terrible, it's cleared away now and there hasn't been any rain all day. Kildare only had a yellow alert overnight, whereas Cork had an orange alert.

There is supposedly meant to be rain and sleet tonight into tomorrow which would obviously threaten the card but as of right now there hasn't been anything.

Cheers RR. Very promising then. Looks like being ok.

[riccirich]

Assume frost would be biggest concern?

I'm not sure, there's a good amount of rain and sleet forecast overnight and tomorrow, and if that all arrived then I'd say it would definitely be a concern, but there was rain forecast for today too but we haven't had any, which hopefully means whatever we get tonight isn't as bad as forecast either. If frost is the main worry then that doesn't look like being too bad either as of right now, it's cold but not bitterly cold.

[archie]

We'll have to wait for the official race conditions but, if the NH Chase is a standard novice handicap, I'd expect the 3 chase runs qualification to not apply. The handicapper is entitled to give any chaser a mark based on its hurdle rating if he thinks it's accurate and there are many examples of a low grade novice having its first chase run in an open handicap. Any chase runs would add to that baseline information but I'd have thought that they would have to specifically include a number of runs qualification if they want that restriction.

[Quevega]

We'll have to wait for the official race conditions but, if the NH Chase is a standard novice handicap, I'd expect the 3 chase runs qualification to not apply. The handicapper is entitled to give any chaser a mark based on its hurdle rating if he thinks it's accurate and there are many examples of a low grade novice having its first chase run in an open handicap. Any chase runs would add to that baseline information but I'd have thought that they would have to specifically include a number of runs qualification if they want that restriction.

It's been a minimum of three for cheltenham for a while for a novice or open handicap (so not the same as for other novice handicaps throughout the season).

It would be mental for this race in particular for what you're saying to be the case. If you really think about it.

[Kautostar]

Do they still need to finish in the first four of a race over 3 miles to qualify or has that gone now?

[Saxon Warrior]

We'll have to wait for the official race conditions but, if the NH Chase is a standard novice handicap, I'd expect the 3 chase runs qualification to not apply. The handicapper is entitled to give any chaser a mark based on its hurdle rating if he thinks it's accurate and there are many examples of a low grade novice having its first chase run in an open handicap. Any chase runs would add to that baseline information but I'd have thought that they would have to specifically include a number of runs qualification if they want that restriction.

The last time the midtrip Novice Hcap Chase was Run at Cheltenham in 2019, it was

* a closed 0-145 Hcap

* to run in the race, a novice was required to have run a minimum of 3 times in Chases, in GB, IRE and/or France, to be permitted to enter the race.

I would suggest that the NHC will be framed similarly.

With little chance of letting trainers enter/declare horses that have never ran in chases, and be allowed to run off their hurdles mark, in a 3M6F Novice Hcap Chase at the biggest NH meeting on the planet.

Far too important a meeting and race to take any risks with a 3M6F Novice Hcap Chase format.

[Killiney]

We'll have to wait for the official race conditions but, if the NH Chase is a standard novice handicap, I'd expect the 3 chase runs qualification to not apply. The handicapper is entitled to give any chaser a mark based on its hurdle rating if he thinks it's accurate and there are many examples of a low grade novice having its first chase run in an open handicap. Any chase runs would add to that baseline information but I'd have thought that they would have to specifically include a number of runs qualification if they want that restriction.

What about the special conditions they introduced a few years ago for this race after fatalities eg a run over 3m plus etc Have these all gone ?

[Imperial Commander]

Naas is on! https://x.com/IHRBRaceday/status/1875807389242585124

[That Horse]

Eggs

What's the weather like near you? Seen there's a council meeting to decide if the Liverpool Man U game is on or not.

[Bollinger]

After all of yesterday’s racing being cancelled due to frost, I’m really looking forward to next weekend’s racing going ahead when the temperatures rise and the lovely sun comes out……..

….only for each racecourse to omit the last four fences/hurdlles on the home straights when that sun and lovely good to soft ground does actually prevail.

[Eggs]

Eggs

What's the weather like near you? Seen there's a council meeting to decide if the Liverpool Man U game is on or not.

…..quite a thick covering of snow (2 inches or so), just been out and it’s not too bad to walk in. Sleet in the air so slushy in place. Council had a meeting 30mins ago and currently the game is on. The airport is back open apparently.