‘‘ The Turf Club Handicapping Team wish to give notice that , in exercising their discretion under Rule 66 (ii) of the Rules of Racing on whether they can reasonably assess a horse before handicapping it , they may preclude a horse with a current handicap rating from running in a handicap where the distance of some or all of it’s qualifying runs for a handicap mark is considerably different from the distance of the proposed handicap. In exercising this discretion , they will have regard to all relev ant
circumstances including whether or not it was practically possible for a horse to run at or near the distance of the handicap race , the time of the year and the availability of races to run in to meet this requirement , the age and profile of the horse and whether the horse has already competed in handicaps at a different distance or is entering handicap company for the first time and also the distance of its most recent start or starts ’’
The Protocol will not be adopted as a Rule of Racing and its implementation will be reviewed and discussed in future annual meetings between the IRTA and Turf Club Handicappers.
Any situation where the Protocol is invoked by the Handicappers will be notified to the Chief Executive of the IRTA for his information and as a matter of courtesy.