Actually, handicapping for parity does exist in professional and collegiate sports through the mechanism of salary caps and scholarship limitations.
But let's just talk about the even playing field here. If you think what is best for the sport of horseracing is that the best horse gets every chance to win every race, then in addition to equal weights I think you better start advocating staggered starts and racing lanes.
But then, maybe not.
Because horse racing is not track and field or ice skating. And it is not football or basketball.
It's horse racing. With a traditon hundreds of years old. And the wisdom underlying that traditon is a horse race is not about who is the best horse, but who is the best horse under the conditions.
And therefore greatness in horse racing is not determined by setting track records under ideal situations (in fact, Julie Krone once apologized to Woody Stephens for setting a track record at Monmouth on one of his mounts) but by exhibiting the courage to overcome when faced with challenging, and perhaps unfair, conditions.
That's the essence of the Sport to me.



Post Edited (02-10-04 15:32)