Can anyone give a valid reason for taking this horse to Japan other than the big money on offer?

With $3.5 MILLION dollars prizemoney if it had won do you need another reason???? Sure it was an outsider but I reckon for that money I would have a go! Not sure how much the trip would cost as I presume since FOO was invited to run there would have been some appearance money to help offset the trip costs?

and then to come up at $5 on the tote? Who would be crazy enough to take those odds when it was $40 in Japan? Please explain??

Obviously a lot of "mugs" were more than happy with the odds on offer otherwise it wouldn't have been those odds - that is how the tote works! Just reinforces my belief that most punters deserve to lose because they are too stupid to assess these things rationally.

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"Computers can do that????" - Homer Simpson