the weights issued for the royal corporate cup at rosehill on saturday raise an interesting scenario.....northerly, as expected gets 61kg and compresses the weights to such an extent stoway, the next on the weights gets 54kg, 1 kg above the minimum, 7kg less than northerly....

now, say stoway is a 6kg better horse than a few horses on the 53 kg minimum and northerly is scratched from the race on saturday morning...it means stoway gets a distinct weight advantage over some of the minimum weighted horses, yet if northerly was never nominated for the race then stoway would have got his "proper" weight of say 60kg, giving plenty of room for the horses on the minumium weights to compensate for the class deficit...

so, if i had an outstanding horse like northerly and another very good one like stoway, i could nominate both horses for these types of races, get the outstanding one to compress the weights and scratch him on race morning, giving my good one a distinct advantage....

imagine what manipulation you could do with the weights in even lesser races, like country cups etc!!

cheers, noel