The most important thing about being a serious punter is that you get value for money as well as a fair shake when taking bets. This is the reason why so many purist punters still support the bookmaking fraternity. The punters enjoy the allure of getting a "fixed price" on a horse to win or to place. When you enjoy playing on the tote you face the wrath of the select few punters who take it upon themselves to "manipulate" the tote dividends to suit themselves. What they would so is place a large bet on a horse using the tote. They will also place a smaller bet on the horse to win or place. When the tote players see this particular horse paying very little for a win or a place they tend to ignore it as there is no longer value in having a bet on a horse that short. Just before the off, these manipulators will cancel the large win or place bet and the dividend needless to say will go much higher. They are then left with the smaller bet at highly inflated odds. This happens daily in most of the races. There are also some knock on effects because of this practice. The punters who study the payouts on the electronic boards notice big fluctuations in the horses prices at the off, during the race and indeed close to the finish. This invokes fears of managerial manipulation from the group who runs the tote operation. Also the punters feel like there are other people in the business who manipulate and cheat the system to suit their needs or to suit the corporate creed of the big companies that run racing. Who loses here? The sport of horseracing does!!

Let us look at a few important points to remember here. I don't believe that the tote administrators are completely to blame. There are (or should be) procedures in place that make sure no bets are taken after the start of a race. I believe that all the betting terminals shut down at the jump. This function should be controlled by an independent person on course such as the starter of a race. As soon as the button is pressed, the terminals close for betting. The only way to then change a bet is to get authorization from the tote headquarters and such a change is then logged for future reference. I believe in my heart of hearts that these procedures are in place and good enough for the audit process. Do I believe the tote administrators are doing everything they can to stop their own employees from cheating? No, I don't believe so but that is an entirely different conversation.

The big problem according to me is the punters who insist on placing "dummy bets" and being allowed to cancel them just before the start of a race. The tote administrators should be controlling this type of manipulation by not allowing the canceling of bets for a certain time period before a race. What I mean to say is there should be no canceling of bets with 5 minutes or less to go before the jump. This will certainly not stop the cheaters but it will make their plans less effective. People would be able to see the true prices of a horse and make better decisions about where their hard earned cash should go! But what about the small player who accidentally placed the wrong bet or the tote operator who keyed in the wrong call bet just before the off? That is easy to sort out but will cost the racing administrators some diligence. They have to refuse ALL call bets with 5 minutes or less remaining before the off. The punters should be educated on how to fill in a betting form and told in no uncertain terms that if they come to the window without the betting slip, then the bet will not be taken. This will cause some outrage and confusion in the beginning but it is not going to affect the tote turnover I don't believe. As long as the administrators stick to their guns they will be fine. In fact all the doubters out there who feel like their money is being manipulated or cheated will rest easily and place bets with a lot more confidence than is the case right now. This will surely increase revenue just by running the tote operations as efficiently and correctly as possible!!

Just to put you in the mood for some great racing action this weekend we can look forward to the glorious running of the Prix de l'Arc De Triomphe from Paris on Sunday!! We will have the opportunity to see the GREAT (in my opinion) "Sea the Stars" running and hopefully cement his place in the history books as one of the all time greats of turf racing!! - Chris Van Buuren

If God had intended man to walk, he would have given him four legs. Instead, he gave him two - one to put on either side of a horse. - Montana Rancher