How many times have you seen an incident at the barriers(eg your runner being kicked by another runner...etc), coincidentally, often involving the favourite or one of the fancied runners. After a brief inspection most are allowed to run...and to the chagrin of most punters, invariably they run "down the track."
In my opinion.....if in doubt......they are out!
Sure, punters will be disappointed but at least they have their money back!
The justification for this stance is that prior to being put into the barrier, most horses are "worked up,"(especially the younger ones), adrenalin pumping through their veins and after receiving an injury or a "knock" they basically don't feel it at the time but it could have a detrimental impact on their performance in the race. Most serious injuries are only diagnosed after the race when the particular runner is found to be lame or even worse.....in the meantime the poor suffering betting public have "done their money" again!
An analogy is in football when a player receives a bad knock and believes that he is capable of carrying on playing. After the match he is found to be severely concussed and was in "lalaland" for much of the match. In my opinion it is similar in racing and to retain the betting public's confidence, any such horses(ie. under a potential injury cloud) should be scratched and all monies be refunded...to err on the side of caution. Or do the various TAB's not want this to happen, as it could affect turnover?
Any opinions or have you experienced similar situations?

Cheers.

I think its too easy to say any doubt they are out. And in fact i can only ever remember one horse winning after something happened in the stalls and that was Fastnet Rock when it broke through the barriers and went off down the straight at flemington.

Whilst it is not a problem in the country races but in metro races there is some serious prizemoney up for grabs for the owners and whilst they may or may not be betting on the race i am sure they do not get a kick back because there horse came out at the barrier. Could you imagine how the owners felt if they had a once in a lifetime chance of a runner in the melb cup only for the horse to be scratched at the barriers cause of "erring on the side of causion"? As dissapointed as they would be if the horse broke down during the race, i guarantee that if you asked everyone of them and gave them a vets report they would still say run it, we will take our chance. And in racing a trainer and jockey can only give as much advise as they want, but if the owners say run it- then they have to run it.

Real Deal- you make a valid point but my whole emphasis is for the benefit of punters, both on-course but specifically off-course investors. I am sure the long suffering off-course punter would like to have the option of cancelling their bet when such incidents occur but because of the chaos this would create for the various totes there is no chance of it happening in our lifetimes. We punters will have to put up with the status quo(good band weren't they?) until a workable solution can be devised.

Cheers.