No obvious downside to having a ratings cap in novice chases

In a recent column Colin Russell suggested one way of increasing the size of fields in novice or beginners' chases would be to cap the rise in the ratings for horses who appear to show improved form when running prominently against horses which have a much higher BHA mark. In his latest blog Phil Smith, the BHA's head of handicapping, wrote that such a cap wouldn't be necessary for in the 49 novice chases run this season on only a couple of occasions has he raised a horse more than Russell's suggested cap of 10lb for a winner, 5lb for a second and 3lb for third, so the fear of a big rise is perception, not reality. Smith also said that placing a restriction on the handicapper would 'contaminate' the ratings file and would favour a small number of horses at the expense of the majority. This what our man had to say in response...

The BHA head of handicapping Phil Smith has devoted his latest blog to shooting down my idea that ratings rises for horses running in novice chases should be capped in order to encourage more horses to take part.

His argument appears to be that there is no need for a cap because big rises don't happen, that from the evidence of the 49 novice or beginners' chases that have been run this season very few, if any, horses have been raised by more than my suggested limits of 7lb for a win, 5lb for second and 3lb for third.