Post by Peter Gross on Mar 31, 2010 4:54:50 GMT -5
It's hard enough to win at the races. You change your mind at the last minute and your first pick wins at 10-1. You get nosed out for a huge tri. Your jockey goes eight horses wide and gets beat by a head. You win by five and get dq-ed. You explode in jubilation when your two longshots run 1-2, then look at your ticket and realize you punched in the wrong numbers.
Or how about what happened at Northlands Park on Saturday, March 20th. The tenth race was run. There was nothing improper about the race. No cheating, no interference, no unfair starts or broken equipment. The winners cheered as they saw their bets come in - win, place, show, exactors, tris, doubles and win threes. The race was announced as Official.
Then it got very stupid. Because of a computer glitch, horseplayers were advised there would be a short delay until the prices were posted. Apparently, the last cycle of bets didn't make it into the final calculation, or were lost or somehow not accounted for. At Northlands, this might have been a couple hundred dollars. The total parimutuel handle for the tenth race was about $14,000. Chicken scratch compared to Woodbine.
So some hour and 20 minutes after the last race at Northlands, when most of the fans had departed the track, ad advisement appeared on the screens - no announcement - that all bets for the tenth race would be refunded. Nice break for those who lost, most of whom had already destroyed their tickets, but a decision of extraordinary stupidity for those who had bought winning tickets and now were entitled to just a refund of their original bet.
At first, the track suggested this bizarre decision was a hybrid conclusion between Northland's management and their Tote system, AmTote, whose computer melt-down caused the mess. But four days later, Northlands indicated they were ordered to issue refunds by the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Association (CPMA), the government body that oversees horse racing. The CPMA supports this decision by stating ( ridiculously) that horse racing must be "conducted in a way that is fair to the public."
Let's poll the guy who had $20 to win on the horse that finished first in the tenth. Or how about the guy who had the superfecta. Let's ask them - was it fair to watch a race, hear that it's 'official' and then get back only the money you bet?
As a bettor myself, I am unable to cut the track or the CPMA any slack on this. It is a profoundly stupid and thoroughly unenlightened decision. Making it much worse is this - even the daily doubles and win threes going into the last race were screwed up. Regardless of what happened to the pools of the tenth race, the double and win three pools were already determined. There was a finite and exact determination on what would be paid based on which horse won.
Even today, you can still see the charts from Northlands at the Standardbred Canada website and see that Rumers Are Flying driven by Rod Hennessy came first at odds of 5.90-1 with the favourite Allbouttaj second and 7-1 shot Katies Gun third. That would set up a nice exactor and triactor. $10 win/place would be worth close to $100. The double might be worth $60, the win three was going to pay around $150. Those prices had already been posted. To deny the winners full value ( consolation payoffs were announced for daily doubles and win threes) is so blatantly unfair that anyone with a live ticket should consult a lawyer.
Making this even stupider is that this decision will probably cost the track much more than if they'd simply decided that even with the tote system failure, they could have figured out manually what to pay. Now they are obligated to honour any reasonable applications for refunds from fans claiming they bought tickets and threw them away. Any person identifying a $2 or $5 or $10 ticket would have to be redeemed. Since this was the track or AmTote's mistake, the bettors can hardly be blamed for throwing their tickets away.
Let me cite an historic precedence for this. Not quite the same, but about 25 years ago, executives at Greenwood had to make a decision. A harness race finished 1-1a, back in the days when you could still bet both halves of the entry in an exactor. The computer somehow thought there had been a dead heat and split the payoff in half, issuing an $11 exactor, when just before post-time, the 1-1a exactor had been offering $21. Unlike the stumble bums in Edmonton, the Ontario Jockey Club (well this was in the 80's) made a very fine decision. An announcement was made that anyone who had cashed an exactor ticket would be given another $10. Since everyone who cashed had yielded their only form of evidence, the track actually paid off everyone who made a reasonable claim. As I recall, Greenwood sustained a loss of a few thousand dollars. But if they'd dug in their heels and refused to compensate the fans and decided, say, the next day to offer the proper payoff, the avalanche of phony claims would have been many times more burdensome.
More important, the OJC made a decision subject to their own expense based solely on what the players were entitled to.
At Northlands in Edmonton on the night of March 20 the winning bettors were screwed out of profits they were fully entitled to. Screwed not by a fixed race or unscrupulous drivers but by a decision that simply illustrates the massive ignorance and incompetence of racetrack officials and those in the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency who have the final say.
I'm hoping there are a few bettors in Edmonton who are refusing to cash for the refund and are consulting their lawyers. With all the problems facing horse racing in this country, it is discouraging to the extreme to realize that the governing officials in this country apparently have no regard for the honour of a winning bet.
Or how about what happened at Northlands Park on Saturday, March 20th. The tenth race was run. There was nothing improper about the race. No cheating, no interference, no unfair starts or broken equipment. The winners cheered as they saw their bets come in - win, place, show, exactors, tris, doubles and win threes. The race was announced as Official.
Then it got very stupid. Because of a computer glitch, horseplayers were advised there would be a short delay until the prices were posted. Apparently, the last cycle of bets didn't make it into the final calculation, or were lost or somehow not accounted for. At Northlands, this might have been a couple hundred dollars. The total parimutuel handle for the tenth race was about $14,000. Chicken scratch compared to Woodbine.
So some hour and 20 minutes after the last race at Northlands, when most of the fans had departed the track, ad advisement appeared on the screens - no announcement - that all bets for the tenth race would be refunded. Nice break for those who lost, most of whom had already destroyed their tickets, but a decision of extraordinary stupidity for those who had bought winning tickets and now were entitled to just a refund of their original bet.
At first, the track suggested this bizarre decision was a hybrid conclusion between Northland's management and their Tote system, AmTote, whose computer melt-down caused the mess. But four days later, Northlands indicated they were ordered to issue refunds by the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Association (CPMA), the government body that oversees horse racing. The CPMA supports this decision by stating ( ridiculously) that horse racing must be "conducted in a way that is fair to the public."
Let's poll the guy who had $20 to win on the horse that finished first in the tenth. Or how about the guy who had the superfecta. Let's ask them - was it fair to watch a race, hear that it's 'official' and then get back only the money you bet?
As a bettor myself, I am unable to cut the track or the CPMA any slack on this. It is a profoundly stupid and thoroughly unenlightened decision. Making it much worse is this - even the daily doubles and win threes going into the last race were screwed up. Regardless of what happened to the pools of the tenth race, the double and win three pools were already determined. There was a finite and exact determination on what would be paid based on which horse won.
Even today, you can still see the charts from Northlands at the Standardbred Canada website and see that Rumers Are Flying driven by Rod Hennessy came first at odds of 5.90-1 with the favourite Allbouttaj second and 7-1 shot Katies Gun third. That would set up a nice exactor and triactor. $10 win/place would be worth close to $100. The double might be worth $60, the win three was going to pay around $150. Those prices had already been posted. To deny the winners full value ( consolation payoffs were announced for daily doubles and win threes) is so blatantly unfair that anyone with a live ticket should consult a lawyer.
Making this even stupider is that this decision will probably cost the track much more than if they'd simply decided that even with the tote system failure, they could have figured out manually what to pay. Now they are obligated to honour any reasonable applications for refunds from fans claiming they bought tickets and threw them away. Any person identifying a $2 or $5 or $10 ticket would have to be redeemed. Since this was the track or AmTote's mistake, the bettors can hardly be blamed for throwing their tickets away.
Let me cite an historic precedence for this. Not quite the same, but about 25 years ago, executives at Greenwood had to make a decision. A harness race finished 1-1a, back in the days when you could still bet both halves of the entry in an exactor. The computer somehow thought there had been a dead heat and split the payoff in half, issuing an $11 exactor, when just before post-time, the 1-1a exactor had been offering $21. Unlike the stumble bums in Edmonton, the Ontario Jockey Club (well this was in the 80's) made a very fine decision. An announcement was made that anyone who had cashed an exactor ticket would be given another $10. Since everyone who cashed had yielded their only form of evidence, the track actually paid off everyone who made a reasonable claim. As I recall, Greenwood sustained a loss of a few thousand dollars. But if they'd dug in their heels and refused to compensate the fans and decided, say, the next day to offer the proper payoff, the avalanche of phony claims would have been many times more burdensome.
More important, the OJC made a decision subject to their own expense based solely on what the players were entitled to.
At Northlands in Edmonton on the night of March 20 the winning bettors were screwed out of profits they were fully entitled to. Screwed not by a fixed race or unscrupulous drivers but by a decision that simply illustrates the massive ignorance and incompetence of racetrack officials and those in the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency who have the final say.
I'm hoping there are a few bettors in Edmonton who are refusing to cash for the refund and are consulting their lawyers. With all the problems facing horse racing in this country, it is discouraging to the extreme to realize that the governing officials in this country apparently have no regard for the honour of a winning bet.
