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Originally Posted by horses4courses
Every bettor's biggest fear when it comes to odds fluctuations while a race is in progress is past posting. Totalisator systems can never be 100% safe when humans control them.
We all know this feeling.
For example, you play a horse at a track with a smallish pool, and see it enter the gate at 2-1 odds. Horse pops the gate and leads by 4.
Things are looking good in this sprint race on a speed-favoring track.
Until this happens.....
After they have gone the first quarter mile, the running order numbers appear on the screen. To your horror, your horse (now leading by 6 and coasting) has dropped from 2-1 to 6-5. There are few more frustrating situations for a bettor when cashing a winner. It's great to win, but you feel that you got screwed.
The vast majority of late odds fluctuations are legitimate.
History tells us, though, that past posting can, and does, happen.
Debates have gone on for years on how to combat the problem.
Tracks don't want to lockout races earlier - anything that might decrease handle is frowned upon.
Seems to me, though, that bettors would get used to races locking out as the first horse enters the gate. It seems the only way to stop the ADW/Satellite late-money vacuum that now exists.
While the earlier shutdown may help to some degree, the threat of past posting cannot be eliminated.
Any thoughts out there?
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I agree. Unless something is done to solve this problem, the bettors will always suspect the worst.
I recently wagered on a horse at Fort Erie...which entered the starting gate at 10-1 odds.
As my horse was taking his picture at the winner's circle...I discovered that his odds now stood at 9-2.
When I complained to the fellow next to me at the OTB...he - predictably - told me to stop complaining that I was hungry...with a loaf of bread under each arm.
