Top o’ the Handicap to you!

With the infrequency of racing on an artificial surface, coupled with the unknown quantities of the horse population that plough their trade there, it is not surprising that many choose to give racing on Ireland's All Weather surface at Dundalk a wide birth.

With only a smattering of fixtures during the summer, we now have the pleasure of regular Friday fixtures during the winter months with the occasional meeting popping up on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Adding to the caution of those more risk adverse, are the large fields of hotly contested Handicaps which have the added feature of ‘reserve horses’ to fill the field in the event of non-runners.

With two meetings under the belt of Dundalk’s winter fixtures, results would suggest that siding with those horses topping the Handicap, or horses with the highest OR (Official Rating) in non-Handicaps have been particularly rewarding to date.

Below are the horses from the two meetings that have the accolade of being the top OR bestowed upon them with the race type, OR, finishing position and starting price:

From 15 races, the horses with the highest OR's have produced no fewer than 8 winners (53.33%) with a further 5 from the 15 finishing second (33.0%). Only 2 horses have finished outside of the first three. In ‘Win and Place’ terms that equates to a massive 86.67%. 

It may well be worth paying particular attention to those at the top of the race card when proceedings get under-way at 5:30 this evening while being mindful of the connotations of such results prevailing in the longer term.