Harness Racing SA (HRSA) advises the following amendment to the division of races policy for South Australia.
Effective immediately, any programmed race where the Racing Office elect to conduct more than one division, the race will be divided by lifetime wins, unless otherwise indicated.
This policy is to be used regardless of whether field selection for the race is in descending or ascending prize money order.
Should two or more horses be tied on the number of lifetime wins, then monies earned in the last 5 starts will be used to determine which division the affected horses will be drawn into. Being that the horse(s) with the least earnings in the last 5 starts drawn into the lower lifetime win division.
In the situation where a trainer has multiple runners in the lower lifetime win division, they can elect to transfer the horse(s) with the most lifetime wins into a higher lifetime win division.
An example being; Trainer A has 2 horses entered for a Ratings 48-52 race, one with 1 lifetime win and one with 3 lifetime wins. The cut-off for the lower division is 4 lifetime wins, with the higher division being for horses with 5 or more lifetime wins. If Trainer A wishes to separate his/her 2 runners, the horse with 3 lifetime wins would be the horse the trainer could elect to move to the higher lifetime win division if they wanted to separate their two horses.
A trainer with multiple horses in a higher lifetime win division cannot elect to transfer one of their horses to a lower lifetime win division.
This amendment is aimed to provide for more equitable racing.
For more information please contact David Thuen, Operations Manager Harness Racing SA at dthuen@saharness.org.au or on (08) 8285 0734.
