Quote Originally Posted by Mitch View Post
Dot,

I just had a quick look at the field sizes for Tuesday meetings dating back to mid April. Apart from trotters races and some 2yo/3yo races the majority of races had 8-10 runners at acceptance time. I'm sure if I had the time to research this even more thoroughly it would further confirm that in general field size is not an issue at Menangle.

I believe the biggest opportunity to increase field sizes would come from centralized programming and some more effective handicapping procedures.

Mitch.
Theres your problem Mitch, you had to say the majority of races had 8-10 runners at acceptance time, not 10 runners at acceptance time, and obviously less again in some instances at post time. Eight runners is not a full field and full fields count for turnover. Melton frequently have 12 horse fields and on some occasions more. Some of us will recall that the field size was increased at Harold Park from 10 to 11 runners except for 2yo to improve turnover. Some even older will recall 12 horse fields as the norm at Harold Park.

Improved programming and handicapping certainly is of benefit to field size and turnover and should constantly be reviewed for improvement but perhaps in this economic climate that isn't enough