Quote:
Originally Posted by the little guy
So your lawyerly opinion is that if a horse is scratched incorrectly, those that benefit because they have the horses that remain, should not lose this benefit if it is deemed correct that the incorrectly scratched horse be allowed to return to the field for wagering purposes.
I tried to help you earlier today with some advice. I offer it again. Stop burying yourself.
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First of all, stop with the ad hominem attacks. Seriously. Stop. They just make you look like a jerk- and by the way, I've heard from several people in the industry who think very poorly of you for precisely those reasons.
Learn to say what you think without personally attacking people. It's a skill. It's a skill that shows intelligence, and tact, and a positive personality. You need to learn it, and frankly, I am surprised you haven't, because most people with prominent, public facing jobs understand this.
On the merits, my opinion is this:
"Unscratching" would create massive new problems. It would create incredible confusion as bettors don't know if the horse is in or out of the race. The announcement might not be heard in the bowels of the racetrack, at simulcast outlets, or online by players who are getting limited information. And unlike a scratch, where everyone (except players of certain horizontal wagers, which I will talk about in a second) gets their money back, in the case of an unscratch, you can have the situation of people betting horse X not knowing horse Y is still in the race. That's just a disgustingly bad situation.
It could also lead to shenanigans. If someone has the power to scratch, and unscratch, a savvy insider who paid off the right people could use that to increase the odds of his horse, by causing people to get refunds of their tickets.
Indeed, on Friday, had the
been unscratched, there were almost certainly people in the Del Mar grandstand and in other locations who would have already received refunds on their bet and had either passed the race or bet other horses. Had the horse been unscratched, those people would have been on Twitter and on this forum and everywhere else telling us THEY got screwed. And they would have received the same sympathy the horizontal bettors are now getting.
You know what, Andy? There's no perfect rule here. There's no rule that you or me or anyone else can come up with that can perfectly deal with every unforeseen situation. There's no rule that won't leave some group of gamblers unhappy. That doesn't mean the CHRB rule is anti-horseplayer. At worse, it protects some horseplayers in some situations while leaving the people who bet horizontal bets on Friday out in the cold.
And that's why the "ALL" race (which I believe your jurisdiction can declare when a race is moved off the turf) is such an elegant solution. It protects the horizontal bettors while NOT getting into a situation that can lead to all sorts of shenanigans as horses get pulled out of the race and then get put back in. It's a good solution. California should implement it, at least when a favorite gets removed from a race late.
But the last thing we want to do is allow "unscratches". You won't be hurt- you have the ability to go on nyrabets or whatever platform you use and you have perfect, up to the minute information due to your job. But for the stiff in line in the grandstand, it could result in a terrible injustice.
