why does Irish racing even bother with stewards and starters?

Time and time again in Ireland, horses are allowed to start after breaking the gates and running a lap of the course (and then being so worked up that they have zero chance of winning the race). Their other massive blunder is starting the race when a horse is playing up in the gates. In the 6:50 tonight at Roscommon, The Silver Crown was unruly in the barriers, and was obvious for all to see. Barrier attendants went to the horse, the jockey was off the horse and needed time to get back onto the horse and into the irons. The moron who is paid to start the race pressed the button to open the gates before the jockey had even got his feet back in the irons. He was no more than 10m away from the horse in question, no excuse for not seeing it, and punters have been robbed blind as the horse is declared a starter despite having been denied a fair start. The horse jumped slowly and then the jockey jumped off after three strides because his feet weren't in the irons, a very dangerous situation for a rider.

You can view the replay here on the AtTheRaces site, free membership required.

It's brainless actions like this which rob punters blind with no apology from Horse Racing Ireland that make you wonder how they can justify asking bookmakers to pay more to funds Irish racing. It certainly isn't going to encourage punters to bet on racing in Ireland when they get shafted like this.

Comments

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur

Betdaq.... sold...... FOR HOW MUCH???

So as rumoured for a while, Ladbrokes have finally acquired the lemon, sorry, purple-coloured betting exchange, Betdaq. For a mind-boggling €30m as 'initial consideration'. That's an even more ridiculous price than Fernando Torres for £50m, or any English player Liverpool have purchased in recent seasons! As I've written previously there are no logical business reasons for this acquisition. from Nov 29, 2012 The Racing Post reported this week that Ladbrokes are nearing a decision to acquire Betdaq. This baffles me, it really does. Betdaq are a complete and utter lemon. Their only rival in the market has kicked so many own goals over the years with the premium charge, followed by an increase in the premium charge, cost of API and data use, customer service standards which have fallen faster than Facebook share value, site crashes and various other faults. So many pissed off Betfair customers, yet Betdaq are still tailed off with a lap to go. Around the world, Betfair

lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...

Sport is made for betting

Search This Blog