A week in the life of a BHA Handicapper

Sunday 9th Jan
Breathe a sigh of relief when I see that the 15-20cm of snow that was forecast for Saturday night failed to materialise. Its the World Thoroughbred Rankings Press Conference on Tuesday and we are also due to have a BHA Handicappers meeting on Wednesday - both due to be held at BHA headquarters in London- but I have started to become slightly concerned that both may be affected by the weather.

The situation is not helped by the fact that two of the major players for the Press Conference are due to fly into England on Monday afternoon and the airports have been in chaos. Garry O'Gorman, Senior Flat Handicapper of the Turf Club in Ireland and Co Chairman of the WTR committee is due in from Dublin, whilst BHA Head of Handicapping Phil Smith is due back from his holiday in Australia.

Head into the office at lunchtime to check emails and find a somewhat aggressive communication from aggrieved connections of a horse I have been dealing with - decide against answering there and then and go outside to work off my frustration with two hours of snow clearing from my drive.

I always do four to five hours work in the office every Sunday afternoon/evening and today is no exception. Finish off my domestic handicapping duties by doing five AW races, sorting out a couple of rotas for the boys working on the flat and swap a couple of texts with Smithy who is sitting on the runway ready for take off!! So far, so good.

Monday 10th January
Wake up expecting to find a text from Smithy saying he's missed his connection in Hong Kong and won't be back until goodness knows when, but it doesn't happen and, along with a slight thaw, provides an upbeat start to the day.

First hour is spent phoning all the BHA handicappers to get their views on whether they are likely to make it London on Wednesday - I am keen for the meeting to proceed as we have very few opportunities to get together and we always have a bit of fun as well as thrashing out relevant handicapping matters. All the guys say they will give it a go, although I'm not entirely sure what Senior Handicapper Martin Greenwood says as he's into about his fifth week with the 'lurgy' and sounds as though he's got a snowball down his throat and a peg on his nose!

Phone BHA Media Relations Manager Paul Struthers about the Press Conference and put contingency plan into place should handicappers and journos not be able to make it tomorrow.

I seem to spend most of the rest of the day answering and sending emails to Nigel Gray (the other WTR committee Co Chairman) in Hong Kong, putting the finishing touches to the World Rankings lists. It's unbelievable how many minor changes are made right up until the last moment and life is not made any easier by the time differences between the 14 countries involved!

Receive texts from Garry and Smithy saying that they have both arrived in the country safely, although Smithy concerns me slightly by saying he's going to drive home to Worcestershire and come back the next morning rather than staying in London overnight.

Answer aforementioned aggressive email!

Tuesday 12th
Early start as I leave home for London at 6.15am and drive my nice new, recently delivered company car for the second time in eight days!! Have agreed to meet Phil Smith in town for breakfast to go through final preparations for the Press Conference - a plan that only just about works out as Smithy gets stuck at Didcot for half an hour.

The weather doesn't put the country's finest racing journalist off attending the Press Conference and it's a good turn out. McCririck sits himself at the end of the table and declares that he's feeling under the weather, doesn't understand ratings and will have very little to offer in the way of questions!! Some hope!!

As predicted the early questions are very much centred around Sea The Stars rating of 136 and why that leaves him behind some of the greats of yesteryear - whilst some won't believe the detailed answer given by Garry most seem to accept his explanation.

Poor old Rip Van Winkle (129) then gets some unwarranted McCririck led stick (cue myself leading the case for the defence) before we move on to extolling the virtues of the the three brilliant fillies Goldikova (130), Zenyatta (128) and Rachel Alexandra (127). Garry rightly makes the point that last year we felt spoilt to have the top three fillies in the Rankings at 128 (Zarkava) and 125 (Zenyatta and Goldikova) and yet this year has surpassed even that achievement.

McCririck eventually runs out of steam and the Press Conference comes to a close with all concerned feeling it went well - now we just have the anxious wait for the websites and tomorrow morning's papers to see how our words of wisdom have been interpreted!

Quick sandwich lunch and then it's upstairs to grab a desk in the Racing Department where myself, Phil and Senior Handicapper Matthew Tester (BHA 2yo guru and the fourth handicapper on the morning's panel) start to work our way through the agenda for tomorrow's Handicappers meeting. I get the feeling there should be the usual lively debate!

Quick trip up to the Human Resources Department to check a couple of things and make a (feeble) effort to get a new company mobile as mine is falling apart - will have to wait until September apparently!

Head out for a quick drink with Head of Stewarding William Nunnelly, Smithy and Camilla Tabor from the Racing Department. Nunnelly appears in a mischievous mood and Smith tells tales of eating bugs in Australia that had a detrimental effect on his digestive system - poor Camilla must have wondered how she ever fell into such disreputable company! Couple of pints and we go our separate ways.

Wednesday 13th
Woken up in my hotel room at 6.52 by text from colleague Mark Olley telling me he's standing on the platform at Worthing station and that there are major problems with the trains because of the overnight fall of snow. This wasn't supposed to happen! The forecast had said there might be snow in the West but it wasn't going to get this far East!! Look out of my window and it's true...... there's an inch of snow on the ground and somebody's emptying a feather pillow from above. Meet Smithy for breakfast and discuss how many handicappers won't make it to our meeting!

As it turns out the boys make a valiant effort to get to London. The 'Northern contingent' of Martin Greenwood (with the help of a milk float!!), Stewart Copeland and Stephen Hindle all arrive around 10.45, whilst 'Iceman' Olley finally appears to a generous round of applause sometime after midday.

The handicappers usually only get together as a group twice a year so there is always plenty to discuss - items on today's agenda include the current Weight for Age scale, the use of our ratings in racecards, the manner in which we deal with complaints from trainers, the conversion of French jump ratings onto our scale and a paper from staying handicapper Neil Young on the performance of hurdlers returning to race on the flat and whether or not we should consider the possibility of taking into account their jumps form when allotting them a flat rating. We decide to continue with the current policy of keeping the two codes separate.

BHA Chief Executive Nic Coward joins us for the last half hour or so and the boys appreciate the opportunity to listen to his views on certain topics and firing a few questions at him.

Weather plays havoc with my planned journey home as my car is stranded in Milford station car park and finish up heading across London to Racing Post headquarters at Canary Wharf to meet up with best mate Ian Heaney who kindly gives me a lift home. That'll cost me a pint or three!!

Thursday 14th
Day in the office - only interrupted by the need to dig my car out of Milford station car park and the dogs needing a couple of walks!

Start the day by amending the Duty Entries Handicapper rota on the flat as discussed by the team at yesterdays meeting. Under the entry system used by the BHA there are closings six days a week and the DEH is the system by which one handicapper in the team looks after all the closings in any given week and then hands the baton to somebody else for the next week - this means that, at the current time, each handicapper working on the flat spends one week on entries and four weeks off. It is an attempt make the work/life balance a little more bearable for the guys.

Also start the week's handicapping by looking at three races on the All Weather. We work on a racing week which runs from Sunday through to Saturday and all rating amendments from that period have to be with Weatherbys by 7am the following Tuesday morning. This means we can be pretty flexible as far as our working practices are concerned as long as everything is in by that deadline.

A couple of handicaps at Kempton are pretty run of the mill, but a maiden at Southwell is a real brain teaser - as the majority of the field is made up of three year olds I will have to consult with Matthew Tester before finalising my figures for the race - probably just as well me thinks!!

End the day by looking at a number of American Graded races, taking my eleven year old son Adam to play with a mate of his and getting stuck in the snow again. Why won't it go away!!

Friday 15th
Given everything that has been going on earlier in the week I'm a bit behind with one or two things so get into the office just before 8am - knock off a couple of races, answer a couple of emails and make and take a number of phone calls. I'm on duty as part of the raceday team of officials at Lingfield later so time in the office is limited.

Leave the office around 9.30, grab a slice of toast, give the dogs a quick walk, shower and shave and I start the 40 minute drive to Lingfield at around 10.30.

The handicappers race around twice a week on average at the height of the two seasons, but at this time of year the guys working on the flat will be in attendance once a week. Once at the racecourse we are based in the Steward's Room along with the Steward's and the BHA's Stipendiary Stewards. Our primary function on raceday is to advise the Stewards and the Stipes on all form matters, i.e. possible running and riding offences, improvement in form etc.

Another of our functions is to pass on relevant information from the day to other members of the team that may impact on the re-handicapping of any individual horses or races. Paddock inspection sometimes throws up horses that are blatantly unfit or getting themselves in a pre-race lather, whilst the camera coverage on course is obviously a lot more extensive than that we get in the office so incidents such as interference are more easily spotted.

A further advantage of being on course is to liaise with trainers. I have had plenty of the training fraternity lose their temper with me over the phone but have yet to experience a similar situation when talking face to face (tempting fate, I know!). Barely a trainer present at Lingfield, however, so little liaising takes place today!!

Spend evening in the pub paying off my transport debts to Ian!

Saturday 16th
Try to get up early to do some work but fail miserably so eventually get into the office around 9.30 and do an hour just fiddling about answering a few emails and tidying a few things up. I'm not racing today and want to try and 'switch off' as much as possible.

With racing taking place 7 days a week for virtually the entire year you do have some sympathy for the mouse on his wheel at various points and, other than when I'm on holiday, I don't think a days goes by when I don't work in some way shape or form - there's always something going on.

Carry out various 'domestic duties' such as transporting Adam to a mate's house, going to the bottle bank, picking up the papers and trying to take the dogs for a long walk. Thwarted in the latter activity as snow is melting quickly and normal routes are flooded to the point where the dogs won't walk through it.

Have a brief look at the afternoon's racing action and then end the day by heading into Guildford to watch the Guildford Flames ice hockey team take on the Manchester Phoenix - thumping 9-2 victory for the Flames and a couple of decent scraps thrown in for good measure. Great entertainment and thankfully, for a couple of brief hours, racing couldn't be further from my mind!!