General Horse Racing Questions

[Kitan]

Originally Posted by richard burch

I still see some crazy weights in Australia. Tonight there are some that go from 134 -119 but I've seen worse. Honestly weight is my least concern out of all the handicap angles. The horse weighs 1200 lbs+. I don't think an animal that strong and powerful will feel any difference under 15 lbs on a rider. IOW; I never think "Wow! He lost because he weighed 5 more lbs than the winner.

If we use data from Race 8 at HK this past weekend (I chose this race because it was the feature of the card), the average horse weight was approximately 1100lbs.

The top end of the weight spectrum in HK is 133lbs and the lowest 113lbs (discounting any possible apprentice weight). This works out to the carried weight being 12.1% and 10.3% of body weight (1100lbs), respectively.

If we translate this to a human weighing 180lbs, this is essentially the same as one carrying a 21.8lbs backpack and the other running carrying an 18.4lbs backpack. I know which one would be easier for me to run with!

But, let's look a bit more at that 8th race. The high weight at 130lbs had a body weight of 1008lbs, while the low weight at 116lbs had a body weight of 1305lbs. This works out to a carried weight of 12.9% and 8.9% of body weight.

Back to the 180lbs human example, one carries a 23.2lbs backpack and the other a 16.0lbs backpack. Or, if we consider that the second human weighs 30% more than the first (1300lbs vs 1000lbs horse), they still only carry 20.8lbs for 8.9% of body weight.

I'm not saying weight is the first thing you should circle on a page, but it definitely has enough of a factor that jockeys in Hong Kong are allowed a maximum of 2lbs overweight. If they (a) don't declare their overweight when the entries are finalized, and/or (b) go more than 2lbs overweight, and/or (c) don't weigh out after the race, a fine and/or suspension comes their way.