True weights trial underway

By Darren Cartwright

A trial permitting trainers to use a horse’s ‘true weight’ will allow those on the minimum to carry as little as 49kg.

The six-month trial, which commenced on April 1, is restricted to Saturday metropolitan Handicap and Benchmark races, but excludes black-type events.

A horse’s ‘true weight’ is based on its rating and is separate from the handicap weight.  Both are published when weights are declared.

A ‘true weight’ can reduce the amount carried by a horse from the minimum (54kg) to 52kg, providing a jockey can ride that light.

A trainer can also engage a claiming apprentice to further reduce the impost, providing they can claim part, or all, of their allowance to get down to as little as 49kg.

As an example of how a horse on the minimum can carry as little as 49kg under the ‘true weight’ system, three-year-old Three Wise Men could have been 5kg lighter when it stormed to victory at Eagle Farm on April 30.

The gelding had a handicap rating of 63 in the $75,000 Benchmark 75 event, which apprentices could claim. Its ‘true weight’ was 52kg, the lowest allowed under the trial.

The handicap weight, and the amount Three Wise Men carried to an impressive two-and-quarter-length victory with experienced hoop Ben Thompson on board, was 54kg.

Racing Queensland’s Senior Thoroughbred Manager Ross Gove said that had a full claiming three-kilogram apprentice been engaged, Three Wise Men could have carried just 49kg..

In the same race, third placegetter Go Darcy, which carried 54kg, could have raced half-a-kilogram lighter (53.5kg), had the trainer also opted for a ‘true weight’ scale with a senior rider or 50.5kg with a 3kg claiming apprentice.

It all depends, though, if jockeys are able and available to ride that light, Mr Gove said.

“When we release the weights, every horse will have the weight it has been allocated and a ‘true weight’,” he said.

“The only horses that the trial rule is applicable for are those with a ‘true weight’ of less than 54kg.

“Then a trainer can decide which weight they will carry depending on the rider they engage.”

Potentially, there could be up to a dozen kilograms difference between the bottom and the top weight if a trainer applies the ‘true weight’ and uses a claiming apprentice.

Gove said serious form students can find ‘true weights’ under published weights online and there was the potential for the trial to be extended beyond six months and broadened to include more races.

“It is just a wider spread of the handicap, and if you have a top weight of 61kg and a claiming apprentice on a 52kg true weighted horse, you could conceivably have a 12kg differential,” he said.

“The rule will be reviewed after six months in consultation with the Australian Trainer’s Association and various sector groups.

“We have designs of it being extended to mid-week metros, but that will be dependent on the feedback.

“It’s a better spread of weights and better for punters because there is a better spread of weights.”