Wayne Bailey / 16 December 2009 Free Bet View Market

“Britain’s chief handicapper Phil Smith usually announces the weights to be carried for the Grand National in mid-February and you can expect lost of moaning from us Irish about how unfairly our horses have been treated!”

If last year's worldwide TV viewing
figures are to be believed, some 500 million people tuned in to the Aintree Grand National which surely makes it the most watched race of the year. It's the race where everyone and their granny has a bet and we all have our ways and means of trying to pick the winner.

Indeed, most people who watch the race are probably not really punters per se, and may only have a passing interest in the sport. This article is aimed at those people - as the race becomes much more enjoyable if you understand some of the basics. It's by no means a comprehensive guide but hopefully it will give a better understanding of how the race is structured.

First things first; handicaps!

There are numerous types of horse race in the UK, some of which are known as handicaps. To a novice punter, handicaps can seem quite daunting but in short , they are simply races where the best horses have to carry more physical weight than their rivals (to make the race fairer and give everyone a chance at winning).

So the best horse in a handicap carries the most weight, while the worst horse will carry the least. Therefore, each horse in a handicap should have just as much chance at winning than any of its rivals. That's the theory anyway.

The amount of weight a horse will carry in a handicap is determined by its official rating (OR), sometimes referred to as the horse's 'mark'. After a horse has raced a number of times, it can be given an OR - which is basically a numerical value on how good the horse is. This figure is constantly reviewed and may go up or down depending on how well or otherwise the horse is performing.

The OR is purely a speculative figure and the team of handicappers can often get it wrong - so that's where the punters play their part by backing the horses they feel have been treated too leniently in the weights. But in fairness, the handicappers usually do an excellent job so that's why these type of races are difficult to decipher. The upside is that prices in handicap races are often quite high, even for the favourites.

So we've established that the best horse in the race carries the most weight. This horse is known as the 'topweight' and will always be listed as number one on the racecard. The rest of the horses' weights are determined by how well they compare to the topweight.

I hope you're still following as I've another slightly confusing concept for the newbies: The official rating is actually expressed in pounds (lbs):

So let's say Horse A is rated 150 and Horse B is rated 145. Officially, Horse A is five points better than Horse B so if they raced against each other in a handicap, Horse A would have to carry 5lbs more physical weight than Horse B to give both and equal chance of winning.

OK, I'll admit that it's a bit more complicated than the above - but that's the basis on which the handicappers work.

As mentioned, the Grand National is a handicap race so the weight principles apply. The best horse will be given topweight to carry, usually a maximum of 11st 12lbs and all the other horses will be given their weight in relation to how they compare to this horse. But punters should note that along with a maximum weight restriction, there is also a minimum weight of 10 stone that must be carried - even if the horse has a low official rating.

Because of the minimum weight requirement, some horses can find themselves in a situation where they are 'out of the handicap'. For example, if it's determined that a horse should carry 9st to give him have an equal chance as the best horse in the race, he will actually end up carrying a stone more than he should (as he must meet the 10st minimum weight).

This horse will be referred to as being a stone 'out of the handicap' and such horses should find themselves at a disadvantage carrying extra weight around the four mile course (by the way, there are 14lbs in a stone).

Last year, connections of Denman considered running their outstanding chaser in the Grand National but decided against it in the end. Had he actually raced, most of the field would have been 'out of the handicap' as even though Denman was far superior to the other contenders on official ratings, the other horses would still have had to meet the minimum 10st weight requirement. So while each horse will have a different weight burden depending on how good it is, there are both minimum and maximum restrictions on the actual amount of weight allowed to be carried.

A lot of punters will scratch horses from their list if they are out of the handicap, but it's not impossible for them to win. Indeed, the year that the Tommy Carberry trained Bobbyjo won the National (1999) no less than four out of the first six home were racing out of the handicap, including the winner. On the other side of the coin, in the past two decades only one Grand National winner has carried more than 11st (Hedgehunter in 2005).

Britain's chief handicapper Phil Smith usually announces the weights to be carried for the Grand National in mid-February and you can expect lots of moaning from us Irish about how unfairly our horses have been treated! In Ireland, we have a separate official rating system and the animal's Irish mark is not used when it is sent to the UK - therefore, Smith has the unenviable job of coming up with a rating for each of these horses, most of which mainly race in Ireland.

In recent years, Irish horses were performing better than they should have (in relation to their number of entries) and the handicapper has started to get tough on the raiders, much to the annoyance of some prominent trainers like Willie Mullins. Another old Irish trick was to race the horses in hurdles for most of the season to 'preserve' their low chase rating. Even though the horses had been performing excellently in hurdles, their official rating for chases would remain the same, thus ensuring they would race off a low weight in the Grand National - despite the fact that the horse clearly had ability. It's not as easy to pull the wool over the handicapper's eyes these days however, and he's been given extra powers in recent times to deal with horses he feels are keeping their ability hidden.

There are a couple of forfeit stages in late February and early March where some horses will be withdrawn and the likely line-up will become clearer. There will also be a five day declaration closer to the race and lastly, the final declarations will be made on Thursday April 8.

Then, it's over to us to try to find the winner - which of course, is an article for another day...

* The 2010 Aintree Grand National takes place on Saturday April 10.