If you think it is hard for a 3 year old to win the 3 year old Triple Crown, (Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont), there is another Tripe Crown that is even harder, the Handicap Triple Crown. Only four horses have accomplished this feat, Whisk Broom (1913), Tom Fool (1953), Kelso (1961) and Fit To Fight (1984). All three races are run in New York. The races are the Metropolitan Handicap, Brooklyn Handicap and the Suburban Handicap. Although the Metropolitan Handicap is commonly known as “The Met Mile”, take notice that all three races are “HANDICAP” races. What does this mean?
Before I go on, I understand that “weight” plays no part in the methodology, neither does weight play any part in my own day to day handicapping, however, weight does play a part in handicap races at any level.
Let’s start with the 3 year old triple crown races. They are all run on the basis of “weight for age”, which means three year olds all carry 126 pounds. By contrast, in the handicap triple crown races, the racing secretary assigns the weight to be carried by each horse. The best horses in the racing secretary’s opinion carry the most weight. Those horses that the racing secretary considers lesser horses carry less weight. It is possible to see one horse carrying 140 pounds and another horse carrying 110 pounds, in the same race. So what does all this mean?
The winner of a handicap race, at any level, generally comes from one of the top three high weighted horses. As with everything else in horse racing, nothing is 100%, however this little piece of information is a good starting point in handicap races.
Just so you don’t have to go look it up, there were two horses in today’s Metropolitan Handicap that were tie for the high weight. They ran first and third. Here are the entries.
Now I mentioned this applies to handicap races at any level. As it so happens, there were two nondescript handicap races at PARX today. Here are the entries for those races. The winner is circled in red.
