MY CALL: THE ADVANTAGES OF WEIGHING HORSES ON RACEDAY WOULD MAKE IT A WORTHWHILE EXERCISE

By David Fowler | Tuesday, April 21, 2020

David Fowler is the principal thoroughbred caller for Radio TAB. David, who is a keen form student and punter, has enjoyed a lifetime involvement in the racing media. His personal blog, ‘My Call’, appears exclusively on HRO.

Too often we say why we can’t do something rather than why we can.

The racing industry is not foreign to this school of thought.

Try and think of how many significant innovations or improvements have been made in recent times.

Let’s face it, it’s been primarily the continued advancement of technology that has merely enhanced or modernised what we already have.
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The raceday weighing of horses seems a sensible innovation to Australian racing on a number of fronts.

It’s not a lightbulb moment. It’s been part and parcel of successful south-east Asian racing jurisdictions for many years.

A raceday weight of the horse is recorded and becomes an extra line on its’s form CV.

There are two comparisons worth noting here to appreciate the significance of this suggestion rather than just being considered a thought bubble.

Firstly, a human’s weight is a key plank to their health. Rises and falls can explain so many things as we know. Secondly, and from a racing point of view, raceday weighing of greyhounds has been part of their integrity model since I can remember.

Let’s present an example of a horse who weighs 500kg at their first start or first-up.

At its next start it weighs in at 480kg. This can understandably suggest it is fitter having taken the weight off.

But imagine these figures are deeper into its campaign it could be reasonably interpreted that the horse had “lightened off”.

The key to success in raceday by raceday weighing from a punting point of view is to establish a pattern, the most important being the horse’s average weight.

The more starts a horse has the more data becomes available and the more trends that can be established that we take for granted. Take a present example such as first-up and second-up records.

Weighing data could establish a horse’s best racing weight, a horse’s best first-up racing weight and interpretations of weights from start to start.
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Another advantage for punters is to actually appreciate how big or small a horse actually is through its weight. Many will argue that smaller horses struggle with bigger jockeys’ weights despite all our form talk that A meets B three kilos better from the last time they met etc etc. Surely, a regular weighing of a horse under raceday conditions would also be a boon for an owner or trainer’s appraisal of their animal.

Administratively it would require a set of scales and one or two staff to execute the process.

There’s all upside to my way of thinking. Why can’t it happen?

Sorry to say it but wait for the rush!

David Fowler