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