It seems the last few days in racing have been shocking for well backed horses as a few were put into play by the punters but refused to come home.

Horseracing gambling is big business as millions of Rands are wagered every day on the beloved nags. Without the proper information it is difficult to know how and when to play the correct numbers.

However even when one does the homework, there's still no certain win as everyone that's played the horses know.

Case in point was expertly showcased this week when in particular two 'good things' didn't even hit the board let alone win. The one was at the unforgiving Greyville Polytrack, a well publicised graveyard for punters, when the Kyle Strydom ridden Glen Kotzen trained Stingray was backed down from 8/1 to 22/10 before drifting to 33/10 and lost to another well supported runner in the Puller stable's Brunilda.

In Cape Town on Wednesday, the Brett Crawford yard sent out Quick Breeze in final event only to see that one come up well short in its effort to land the spoils. She was backed in from 15/1 to 5/1 joint favourite with another marginally backed runner from the Vaughan Marshall yard called Louis Diamond. That arrived for the connections while the Crawford yard were out of pocket.

These were two cases that didn't land the spoils this week and makes for interesting punting.

This is why they call it a gamble.