Morning lines go way back. And I am not referring to the bookies.
In the parimutuel era, racetracks first used "hand" or "rack" tickets that were printed unevenly in quantity, with horses expected to have the most volume assigned a code number ending in "zero," the second favorite ending in "1" etc, etc up to "9."
Track officials assigned those numbers in their programs, and the public generally bet them as the officials estimated.
It was an efficient way to keep ticket-printing prices down. And the guys were pretty adept.
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