Weight For Age Scale Explained

As a pair of two-year-old colts prepare to tackle the older horses in Saturday’s Group 1 Black Caviar Lightning (1000m) at Flemington with a featherweight impost of 46 kilograms (kg), Racing Victoria explains Australia’s Weight Fore Age (WFA) scale.

First devised by Admiral Henry James Rous, an English racing administrator, the WFA scale was originally published in 1850 before being updated and republished in 1866. While the scale has changed considerably since then, the principle remains consistent.

The basic aim of the WFA scale is to provide an allowance to younger horses given their physical immaturity so that they can compete ‘equally’ with fully mature horses over various distances and at different times of the year.

As a horse gets older the weight allowance afforded to it in WFA races reduces. Similarly, the further the distance of the race, the greater the weight allowance given to younger horses.

Using Saturday’s Black Caviar Lightning as an example, juvenile gallopers Boomwaa and Bugatty are receiving an allowance of 12.5 kilograms from the fully mature horses, who will carry 58.5kg, over 1000m.

Three-year-old male horses, such as John O’Shea’s talented gelding Bernabeu, receive a 3kg allowance on the older horses in Saturday’s race while three-year-old fillies like Brilliant Bisc, with the aid of an additional 2kg allowance, carry 53.5kg.

In Australian racing, fillies and mares are afforded an additional 2kg allowance on their male counterparts throughout their career. This varies from 3 pounds to 3kg in different racing jurisdictions around the world.

As the season progresses, the weight allowance afforded to younger horses reduces. For instance, if the Lightning was run in July, the allowance for a two-year-old would reduce to 7.5 kilograms.

The WFA scale varies in many racing jurisdictions and Australia is one of the few countries where the scale actually stipulates the weights to be carried.

The original scale and the WFA scale currently used in Europe only provides the allowance to be given to younger horses; not the actual weight they are to carry.

The full WFA scale is available here.

– Racing Victoria

 

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