The Races
There are 4 handicap races in the club fixtures calendar each year
Summer Handicap – 5 miles in May
Winter Handicap – 5 miles in October
7.5 mile Handicap – a home Mob Match
10 mile Handicap – the Mercury (Jan/Feb)
How It Works
The summer and winter 5 mile handicaps are usually the first race of the summer and winter fixture “seasons”. They are both “yacht handicaps” where the slowest start first, and are followed at intervals by faster and fastest runners. If the handicapper gets it right (and everyone runs to form) lots of runners finish very close together.
Because they are not separate races you may may be unaware that there are handicap awards for 7.5 miles (a home mob match) and 10 miles (the Mercury) each year. The handicap times will be subtracted from runners race times. Faster runner = smaller handicap time subtracted.
Handicaps are updated to take account of current form a week or two before the race.
The current club handicapper is Steve Bennett