Hong Kong Place Pool / Barrier Trails

[BreadandButter]

Does anyone know how the Hong Kong place pool odds work? On their website they show both the win and place (typically top 3) odds. The payoffs in the place pool are in line with the odds. The announcer will often even state the payoff based upon these odds before the race goes official.

Obviously that's something that can't be predetermined in North American pari-mutuel pools because it is dependent upon what the two or three horses finish in the money.

Additionally, is anyone aware of the specific criteria which would determine if a horse is required to run in a barrier trail?

Also is anyone aware of any message boards/forums that discuss the Hong Kong racing?

[nearco]

I don't know all the requirements for barrier trials, but here are some

All newly imported horses are required to run in a barrier trials before being entered in a real race.
Horses that were put on the vet's list are generally required to run in a barrier trial before they can entered to race again.
Horses that perform "unsatisfactory" or below par, as deemed by the stewards, will often be asked to run in a barrier trial before they can be entered again, unless the trainer can supply an acceptable reason as to why they horse threw a clunker.
Any horse that runs green, or dangerous (lugs, acts up, tries to bite other horses etc), the stewards will dictate a barrier trial before racing again.
I think that trainers can also request that a horse run in a barrier if they feel they need the experience, sharpening up. They are "practice" races after all. Which is good, as we'd rather they did their practicing/training when there is no betting on the line.

[Wan Chai]

Nearco is quite correct across the board with barrier trials. And esp his summary point: they are practice races, training aids.
Trainers use them to get new horses ready to race both in terms of fitness and their mental state, and both trials and trackwork are used to practice with new gear - blinkers etc - before using it in a race.

As for the place pools - until 6 or 7 years ago the place div was calculated dependent on the relative investments on all placings but I like to think I had a hand in getting it changed to mirror the Australian model.
It is certainly simple enough: after the takeout, place pool is divided into 3 equal parts, one for each placing, and each slice is then divided by the number of successful tickets on one of the placed horses.

[BreadandButter]

Thank you to both Nearco and Wan Chai for your replies. I've just recently started to look at HK racing this month with the co-mingling into North American pools.

Both the concept of the barrier trails and the way the place pool is calculated are just two of many positive differences I'm seeing vs. North American racing.

So from my short exposure to HK racing here's what I like/dislike.

Dislike
HK PPs with most recent races at the bottom and oldest at the top
No coloured saddle clothes - have to rely upon jockey silks

Like
Barrier Trails with video replays
Place Pool Odds - so you have a very good idea what a show ticket will pay before even placing a wager
Access to Vet Records of Each Horse
Actual reason for a scratch not just "vet scr" or "stewards scr"
Gallop Out replays showing all of the horses
Replays of all the workouts and being able to id the workmate(s)
Detailed reports of the jockeys for each distance and surface
Detailed reports of the barrier biases for each track/distance
Not having to wait for photos after the race is over
Detailed track conditions - I don't remember the last time I saw an AWT listed as anything other than "fast"
The video display of the meters with the stop watching running during the race - no need to look for poles or for the quarter times to appear on the screen
The large pools - I'm seeing show (place in HK) pools in the $2 million USD range.

I could go on and on about the likes - I'm very impressed up to this point.