UK handicapper to conduct workshops

PERSONS desirous of becoming handicappers, or those wishing to gain the knowledge of weight assessment to beat the bookies, have been given a chance to do so by the Arima Race Club. The ARC have solicited the services of Nigel Gray, senior handicapper of the British Horse Racing Board (BHRB) to conduct workshops for their employees, and have extended the invitation to anyone wishing to learn the finer points of handicapping horses. Those interested in tapping into Gray’s knowledge are asked to contact Joanne Boodoosingh or Jerome Charles at 646-2450/1 or e-mail raceclub@cablenett.net by Tuesday.

Gray who is also co-chairman of the International Classified Committee of the International Federation of Horseracing Authority (IFHA) will be visiting Trinidad and Tobago from Tuesday for one week as a guest of the ARC, during which he will conduct his workshops. Gray’s rise to the top did not come by chance. He served from 1978-1979 as Editorial Assistant at Raceform, compilers of the official form book for UK racing, before moving up to the administrator post in the Race Planning Department and later the Disciplinary Department of the Jockey Club over the next two years. From 1981-1984 he worked as Rating Compiler and Private Handicapper for Raceform, followed by a sub-editor position at the Press Association, Fleet Street. Gray became a licensed handicapper for the Jockey Club in 1987, and has been employed by the BHRB since its inception in 1993, when responsibility for handicapping and race planning, among other things, were transferred to the BHB from the Jockey Club. He became senior handicapper of the BHRB in 1997 and was elevated to co-chairman of the International Classification Committee of the IFHA in June last year.