Plus Factors

Plus Factors

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Equipments 

The universal equipment change familiar to all handicappers is ' blinkers on.' The blinkers are intended to help horses focus on the task at hand, as opposed to looking around aimlessly, at the opposition or the environs. The desired effects will be most noticeable with young, lightly raced horses getting acquainted with the sport and typically result in a greater display of early speed. 

Handicappers like to see blinkers added to maidens, very lightly raced juveniles, and three year olds that have suffered gate problems, breaking slowly in particular. 

At the opposite extreme, blinkers added to older horses that have completed in 20 races or thereabouts makes little sense. Perhaps the latest jockey recommended the change, and in the usual circumstances it amounts to trial-and-error that might help matters, but probably not. 

At times the removal of blinkers on experienced horses 4Y&O results in a conspicuously awful performance; the horses detested the change. 

If blinkers are restored next time in combination with other changes that should enhance the horses' chances to win, that might be an attractive situation. The odds should crawl upwards following the ugly effort and now the horses will not only be more comfortable but will also have a stronger chance to win. 

Probably the most familiar negative equipment change involves the addition of front wraps. The presence of back wraps has a neutral connotation, intended as they usually are to protect the horses from discomforts of 'running down,' or brushing their ankles in the topsoil of the track's surface. 

But front wraps are intended as support for tendons, bones, and ligaments that might be sore or strained. Front wraps will be most problematic on maidens. 

In these limited circumstances, the sudden appearance of the wraps can be cause for elimination. Obviously, whenever horses have won with front wraps, handicappers can relax. A number of aged geldings that have been hard-knockers in handicap races win while adorned with front wraps again and again; drops in class do not matter. 

Regards