According to officials who are conducting the probe, $9,298 in show wagers on Seismic Belle were placed through the parimutuel system in Brazil about a minute before the race began. The total show pool of $12,024 was higher than the win pool of $10,331, and four times larger than the place pool of $3,087.
The circumstances surrounding the bet has all the hallmarks of a bettor or group of bettors attempting to drive up parimutuel payouts in order to cash show bets on other horses in the race at bookmakers that pay track prices. If that was the case, the bettor or bettors would have needed to place slightly more than $4,000 in show bets on the favorite to make a profit on the race, under a simplistic calculation that assumes the plan targeted the favorite.
The scheme is slightly more difficult to pull off than it sounds. Most bookmakers place limits on the amount a customer can bet on a race, especially at small tracks like Portland Meadows, and so the bettor or bettors behind the scheme would likely have had to spread the show bets among a sizable number of accounts. In addition, many bookmakers will refuse to pay off on bets in which there is an obvious manipulation of a parimutuel pool.
i'm surprised there are any bookmakers that would take enough action to even conceivably think about trying this.
