The IHRA Board believes that the sport now needs to move away from the current situation of stakeholders framing races and move to a position where this function is conducted by an independent party. The Integrity & Welfare Sub Committee of the IHRA feel that such a move is in line with other governing bodies within our sport in other jurisdictions and complies with the UET Trotting Agreement of which the IHRA are affiliates and must adhere to during all meetings.
The role of the handicapping is central to our sport and ensures all horses entered to race, are framed in their correct grades in our handicapping system and race in competitive form each week. Once horses have been entered the IHRA office will confirm their official handicap grade, this information will then be sent to the handicapper who will frame the races for the race meeting, with horses racing in their correct handicap position.
The appointment of the position of handicapper comes at a time when the IHRA are shortly launching their new racing database which includes a random draw selection process for races. Once race framing has been completed, the balloting for gate and trailing position will be selected using the random draw selection from the IHRA database.
The IHRA will run races in the same manner and format as 2016 at the start of this season. As the season matures the IHRA will introduce different types of conditional races. This move will keep the competitive edge in all races ran during the year.
