OscarTangoEcho wrote:
Good Lord, this sport can't help but getting in its own way
What a complete and utter fuck job! A kid I was sitting with was live in the PK-5 two times each to four horses- 1, 2, 11, and 14. The 2 scratches and now he has it twice to the 11 and 14 and four times to the 1.
Now the confusion begins. What I think happened is that someone on the gate crew inadvertently told the judges that the 1 was also scratched. One of the tote companies removed the 1's money from the pools. But now, they realize it's a mistake. But there is no way to put the bets back into the pool, so they scratch the 1 in the wagering, allow him to race for the championship/purse money, and remove the money on him that was bet through all other outlets.
I get that the rules state that in the result of a scratch you will be assigned the favorite. But it's another thing entirely when you have to watch the horse you bet win and then tear up your tickets anyway. This game is tough enough without these motherfuckers doing this shit to us.
This was an extraordinary circumstance and on the sport's biggest day. Track officials made the mistake that caused it. What they should have done is frozen the pools, run the race, and had a long discussion on how to best protect the bettors.
One thing they could have done that would have been better than what they did would have been to eliminate all the bets from the tote company that scratched the horse by mistake. Of course, that would have cost them more handle than what they did.
Another thing they could have done would have been to hold the payoffs and figure a formula where the people who had the 1 got a consolation. Or they could have paid to all.
I get the argument that the rules say scratches result in the assignment of the favorite. That's fine for a scratch like the 2. I don't like that rule, but I know what it is before I play. This is different. It's a track/industry fuckup. It's not addressed in the rules because no one expects it to happen.
I guess technically such a situation is addressed in CHRB Rule 1974 (b):
“If a horse is removed from the wagering pool due to a totalizator error, or due to any other error, and neither the trainer nor the owner is at fault, the horse shall start in the race as a non-wagering interest for the purse only and shall be disregarded for pari-mutuel purposes.”But that doesn't really address the circumstances of the modern multi-race/horizontal wager paradigm. I had a $50 1-4 exacta going and I'm not very upset about it. It is what it is. But you'd better believe that if I were alive to the 1 horse in the payoff leg of a long multi sequence, I'd be apoplectic.
I was sitting with eight seasoned horseplayers including a track executive and none of us knew what was happening.
Fuck the bettor. #IAmHorseRacing
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