Skip to main content

No Secrets



The above video won't mean much to anyone unless you're Australian and of my era, but it's a brilliant song and the title, No Secrets, links well to this story.

American trainers wouldn't dream of running a horse without Lasix or other permitted medications. Certain trainers named Dutrow will keep moving states until they find one which will allow them to stick whatever they like into a horse. Bad image for the industry, bad for punters that all the problems of horses are being masked, bad for the next guy who comes along and wants to buy the horse only to find out it is held together with sticky tape.

In the UK, every punter-friendly suggestion - sectional times, open reporting of treatment of horses etc seems to be rebuffed with the 'too expensive to implement' answer. And as a consequence, punter confidence in the product suffers. Here's what going on in Australia as an example:

Racehorse trainers must report surgery


TRAINERS will have to report any surgery or injuries suffered by their horses before they can start from next season.

That was one of several resolutions reached by Australian stewards at their National Policy Conference held in Melbourne this week.

RVL chief steward Terry Bailey said they did not want a repeat of what happened with So You Think before his return to racing in the Memsie Stakes last Spring.

"There was a rumour So You Think had had a throat operation and in the finish we made it our business to find out. But we don't want a repeat of that occurrence,'' Bailey said.

"Trainers need to be more conscious of the punter. Now they will be required to report any sort of surgery, whether it be upper respiratory or even any sign of lameness or gait dysfunction

"Any horse, any time, if something's happened we believe the customer has the right to know.''



Note that last line - the customer has a right to know. Everything in racing is ultimately funded by the punter. Invest in better facilities, better access to data, better freedom of information and in return you get happier punters betting in the confidence that everything is above board. The reporting of surgery should be particularly relevant to UK racing - horses tend to have shorter campaigns, race less often, start over their prime distance rather than have a few prep races as we often do in Australia. Thus punters are coming in blind as to whether a colt has had the snip over the winter, or a wind operation, or anything else whilst spelling.

If the BHA can't find a cost-effective way to handle the information, then give it to the racing press. Let the Racing Post take it up - they'll soon find out whether punters like it or not. As an online business, they will be able to measure how much traffic that part of the site gets etc. Don't just write off the potential benefits of more information for punters just because it might cost money. Punters have a right to know, and there are always alternative ways to do things.

Comments

  1. HI there

    Was wondering if you could link me up to your blog, I have had your linked up for a while....

    Playing it safe
    http://vikingflasghip.blogspot.com/

    If its something that you are not interested in then no worries..

    Good luck with your quest....

    ReplyDelete
  2. sorry, not willing to add blogs which only follow professional tipsters - it doesn't add anything to punters learning the game...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comments, but if you're a spammer, you've just wasted your time - it won't get posted.

Popular posts from this blog

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...