I must admit my wife enjoys a bet on the horses just as much as I do, which gets me going on another topic.

I went to Caulfield on Boxing Day, the first time on a track for about a year. $15 for an adult and $10 for a child for an ordinary meeting at best. My family were away with the outlaws in another country but if they were with me it would have cost me $60 just to get in, add another 20 or so for food and refreshment and thats $80 gone without laying a bet. For a $5 and $10 man like me thats a lot of money to LOOSE before placing a bet. And they wonder why no one goes to the bread and butter meetings. The less people that go the less bookies we will have which leaves the punter worse off. I watched the bookies odds for the entire time between races and the % fluctuated between 125% and 145 %
even the top flucuations would have lucky to match the 115% mark of the tote.
I can see the day when on course bookies are no more and it is coming sooner rather than later. They could however try to help themselves by offering decent odds, after all that would be the only reason alot of people would go to the races, to get a bit of competition. For the $80 I would sooner go to the pub and spend 30 on beer and loose 50.