this is a g2 c pulled from the ring 1/03. Its tts are way below average & i had no intention of ever racing it. I only kept it because it was close to the a/c but due to the recent furore surrounding misgraded/unraceable horses & the response from rc; namely that horses are not graded on tts but on 'innate abilities', the implication being that horses with substandard tts can still be competitive due to innate abilities/acs etc, i have decided to race this horse in order to test this theory. I am not saying the horse is a misgrade as if it were graded d it would be top of the class but as a c it is way below average. It's not even the worst horse i have had, in fact it is on a par with the other 2 g2 c i have pulled from the ring & as such seems pretty much standard issue, i just don't believe this horse could have any sort of competitive career. If i am right then there is clearly no hope for horses as bad or worse & the genuine candidates for misgrade whilst if i am wrong then rc are right & i like many others have shot horses for nothing. I intend to race the properly tacked, fully fit & over best trip & going & time no doubt will tell. He is entered in a maiden today & i will update this post on his progress.

Yeah do let us know how you get on.....
Will you be taking it through the ac's too as a 3yo and 4yo ? That way any ac will be covered too.....

I think it's great people are doing this, but I feel sorry for those participating that the answer you'll get will be the one you probably expect to see, and you'll lose money in the process doing it.
Sure hope I'm wrong though......
I would do the same too but unfortunately I haven't got much money to burn, though I am very tempted to do the same just to prove a point.

Hey why don't we call it the "misgrade challenge" ?
Anyone who can manage to be placed in a full field at any stage of their career whilst being say more than 2L(is that fair ?) off the pace as a 2YO scoops the jackpot ?

Hey we could even make it a sweepstake !
One that is never won maybe.....

I too have kept one of four imo misgrades, shot three last week, the one I kept is a G1 B 128 I would say the correct grade would be 107, I would love to prove the horses innate abilties £3.66 x 8 = £29.28 to reduce the rating to 113 and still be 6 out, way to expensive, heres hoping for a miracle in a few weeks

Yes I suppose rated racing would be the ultimate test but as you say it is expensive to do....

I'm wondering, is a one off claiming race a possible alternative ?
I'm not really sure, suppose it all depends how one defines "raceable" or "unraceable" ?

How about a challenge to RC - reimburse all owners for their horses if they have been "unraceable"(would need to agree with RC on the specific criteria for that term think blood&stone) up until the end of their 4 year old career..... ?

i to have a couple of horse which dont seem to be graded properely . i have raced them a couple of times on the correct going and distances and at full fitness and guess what there useless dont stand a chance in grade 2 probably wouldnt win a grade 3 . think the only thing to do is wait for the age change and see if any improvement then if not there for the gun. seems a waste really but tried claimers but dont want to rip of others when you no they cant compete. surely you should be able to sell them back to RC at a reduced rate at least then you can get something for them instead of trying to rip others off buy putting them in claimers

Yeah i will take it through the a/cs just to make sure & maybe i'll give it a shot at r/r but yeah the cost of that would be off-putting. probably right the only way these horses could ever be competitive is if they had special races just for them.

Well he's had his first race. Drew 13th random & finished 14th. Perhaps it takes a few runs for those 'innate abilities' to warm up & kick in.
Looking on the bright side at least it's one step closer to that ever distant 5oo run bonus. Mind you as they say every silver lining has a cloud & at £1.22 a pop with little to no chance of ever recouping my investment it's an expensive step. I'll give him a week now to recover from his exertions (i.e. avoid burning a hole in my pocket) then i'll trot him out & try again.

Good point though Westie - if you ARE going to do it then make sure you've got ALL the bases covered as I guess failure to do so ultimately will be the answer back from RC.

Thanks guys i'll take this week to do some extensive training.

Found some improvement for the step up to 3200, if only blinkers were positive instead of negative there might have been a glimmer of hope. I have decided to try him in the next available allowance race on 25/03 seeing as he is 15lb well in after his first run. If no joy there then i will just wait to see what the a/c brings.

Ran in allowance race 20/03 (15lb well in). Pulled off a shock in managing to beat one other horse home (13th of 14) with the worse random. Seems to suggest that the randoms may not be so random; the worst horses get the worse randoms.

Bear in mind though Lloyd that some horses may be running at 50% fitness ? Was yours at over 90% ?

It's certainly been known for a horse to try to sandbag in an allowance race before trying to win in a race of the same type.....
Though I guess checking the form might tell you whether that was true or not......

If not I guess you horse must be "raceable" ?
Just kidding.....

Yeah mine was at 100% & everyone in the race was wearing shoes so no sandbagging! The thing is this not even close to being the worst horse i've had cos with the adds it's tts are pretty much halfway between a top g3 & an avreage g2 & in 2 races it's managed to beat one horse home & with 15lb allowance still got beat over 6l. Nothing left to do but check it again after a/c. I think my policy of not racing anything that can't get within 1l of average tts is one i'll be sticking with & i hope at least this will illustrate to people not to bother wasting time & money on theses rubbish horses.

I think there's enough support for the concept now to let RC know they need to do something about it - at least in the long term.

In the meantime I respect you for using your own money to achieve this, though I'm sure others(including myself) will think you shouldn't need to.

To be honest, & i hope i am proven wrong, i really don't think any changes will be made whilst this sales ring policy is producing short-term profits. At least, Assuming the horse doesn't receive fantastic a/cs and becomes raceable at some point, they will have to provide some response to this other than 'the horse was never tacked & never raced so we can't assess it'.

Yes presuming you can't achieve anything with the horse it will be interesting to see what happens.

Just a thought though - I wouldn't be suprised to see your horse have a blistering age change for the better

HMMMM. That would be one way to put an end to my experiment proving rc right in the process!

Had a poor ac and is now even worse as a 3yo!!

My donkey horses had a decent AC but still off the pace for their grade