June Dog tops weights for first nursery under new conditions

The nursery season kicks off at Haydock on Thursday afternoon with a wide open affair following an overdue simplification to the rules for eligibility.

Under the new rule, in order to qualify to run in a nursery – a handicap restricted to two-year-olds – a horse must have raced at least three times or have won its first two races.

The three runs aspect is no different, but in the past a first-time-out winner was eligible to run so long as the BHA handicapper was set to give it a mark of 80 or lower, while a horse who won within two starts could run provided it was going to get a mark of 85 or lower.

The situation was complicated by the fact that two-year-old ratings used not to be formally published until the end of July – the marks published in the Racing Post were therefore simply estimates – and races in Ireland did not count towards qualification. Both of those aspects have changed this year, and around 250 juveniles had their opening marks published last week.

Graeme Smith, who has taken over the handicapping of two-year-olds from Matthew Tester, said: "Going hand-in-hand with the new rules for nursery qualification and following consultation with the Racing Group, we at the BHA decided at the start of the year to publish the full list of two-year-old ratings before entries are made for the first nursery.

"It may seem strange to think the first month of nurseries in the past went by without official ratings being made public."

Smith added: "The reasons for that are that none of the early nurseries have rating bands attached to their conditions [e.g. 0-75, 0-90, etc] in the hope of drawing the most competitive field possible, and that ratings for two-year-olds at that time of year are particularly fluid."

"In the spirit of transparency and openness we feel it's appropriate to put our data in the public domain and simply ask for owners and trainers to be understanding while normal processes are run to bed the file down. Having official handicap ratings in the public domain should benefit owners, trainers, punters and media alike."

June Dog and Alaska finished down the field behind Sound And Silence in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot last timeCredit: Edward Whitaker

The Haydock race, in which all of the runners would have qualified under the old rules, is an open affair featuring previous winners June Dog, Magnus and Alaska. The first two named were last seen finishing down the field in Royal Ascot's Windsor Castle Stakes.

Richard Hannon saddles topweight June Dog and the less exposed Bodybuilder. He said: "June Dog wasn't quite good enough in the Windsor Castle. He's got a lot of weight but is an honest horse and can hopefully run well.

"Bodybuilder looks tailor-made for nurseries. The extra furlong will be a massive help to him."

3.00 Haydock card and form