False starts

[xanadu]

Today at Sandown(Hillside) there have been a number of false starts.
As we know, thoroughbred racehorses are a finely tuned animal. Therefore, a false start can completely upset a horse's desire to race.
Accordingly, the TAB should give the punter the option to cancel his/her bet.
Do you think this will ever happen?
"Pig's might fly!"
Similarly, have you noticed the number of times that when there is a delay at the barrier, a lot of money is bet in the minutes leading up to the new start-time?
Well, I have noticed how many times in such instances the favourite is left "flat-footed" at the start and literally has no chance of winning.
Makes you wonder......

Cheers.

[xanadu]

Needless to say, my horse, which, I would probably have liked to get off, ran unplaced, although being well fancied-it's just not good enough for the punter!

Cheers.

[Chrome Prince]

Xanadu, can you tell me what happened in race 3 at Sandown?

I missed the race completely, and it seems it was abandoned but racing continued for the following races.

Was it a false start and declared a "no race"?

Thanks.

_________________
"Two wrongs don't make a right - but three lefts do!"

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Chrome Prince on 2003-05-05 16:14 ]</font>

[becareful]

Chrome Prince,

Can't help you with why it was abandoned (didn't see it either) but I suspect it was a false start. However I can tell you that the race will be rerun on Wednesday at Sandown as Race 1 at 11:52am. So on Wednesday Race 1 will be run on the Hillside circuit and Races 2-9 will be on the Lakeside circuit.

Xanadu - Did you try to cancel the bet? Not sure which TAB you are with but ACTTAB will generally allow you to cancel in these circumstances provided bet is not too big and the operator has time to clear it with the supervisor (ie. you need about a minute before the restart otherwise they may not be able to cancel before the jump)

[xanadu]

Chrome Prince,

Apparently, that race will be rerun at a future date.

Becareful,

Thanx for the advice, I wasn't aware, as I have struck bureaucracy from NSWTAB in the past in such circumstances.
All the best.

Cheers.

[Chrome Prince]

Thanks for the info guys, I wonder if any horses took injury from the false start or even finished the race, my thought would be that the field might be reduced on Wednesday a little.

I have pondered this topic of false starts, horses which manage to bolt either through or around the barrier during the loading period. Also a horse which stuffs around refusing to go into its barrier.

Should the horse be allowed to race? if so under want conditions make it acceptable to the connections and punters? If it does race and wins (very rarely) it was a good decision. As for some of the other horses which have been couped up, getting their muscles knotted and stressed from adreniline over load, their fair race chances have also been blow away.

This probably annoys connections and must certainly punters whose fancy runs a dud race.

Maybe in the overall scheme of things it all evens out. But that does not make for fair racing for each race, which is what connections and punters want.

When a horse refuses to be loaded it can upset other horses and delay the start. To counter this problem I have thought of this possible solution. The horse has 10 seconds to be loaded after the last normal loading has occurred. The electronic gadgits are readily available for this. Basically when the last horse is loaded, the starter hits a button on the enterance gate which starts a digital countdown clock. once the time is up a big red light comes on above that gate which signals the horse has been scratched. Thus the rules for bets on scratched horses apply.

The idea of punters being able to cancel bets on a bolter or false start would be ideal but not practical. With dozens of punters rushing the TAB window or hundreds phoning through chaos results. Each one has to be allowed the chance to cancel their bet. So until that has happened the race has to be held up even more, which will then mean more punters want to cancel their bets on other horses because their fair race chances have been damaged.

So from all this I see the solution as follows. Any horse which bolts or false starts is automatically scratched and all bets on that horse are returned. A refusing horse has 10 seconds in which to be loaded after the last normal loading has been completed. The only exception would be if it is the last horse to be loaded which then refuses. In this case a 20 second limit applies.

What happens when 2 horses play up? 3 horses? Maybe 10 seconds for each horse in turn.

This is an idea not thought out. When one places a bet there is an option available for that bet to be transfered to another horse in the event the original horse is scratched. This would save the need for a mad rush to the TAB window. Though the TAB software would have to be modified.

Maybe somebody could inform us of how other countries racing bodies handle the problems of false starts, bolters and refusing horses.

This has turned into a thesis, complete with the odd spelling mistake.

Good punting, horse cents

[acv4]

It was not only ONE false start. TWO false starts instead in that race.