I was at a race meeting and had made my selection for a particular race. A friend kindly informed me not to place a wager on that particular horse as it had been nobbled. I ignored his advice and backed the horse at odds of 7/4. It finished stone cold last.
2006-09-17 05:14:07 · 12 answers · asked by Warlock Fiend 4 in Sports ➔ Horse Racing
The HRA say that they are investigating some 80 races that they believe have been "fixed" since 2004. It sounds a lot, but when you consider that there is racing 360 days a year and an average of 12 races run EVERY day, that is not a lot.
A lot of people mistake jockeys giving a novice horse an easy ride as a horse being "held up". When you ride a horse for the first time in public you have to be very careful not to overwhelm it. If they associate the racecourse with a bad experience they will never run well.
I'm not trying to say that racing is 100% clean - no sport where large amounts are being bet can be - but it is a lot better than it used to be and the HRA are doing their best to improve things further.
2006-09-17 07:47:59 · answer #1 · answered by PNewmarket 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
According to one expert involved in all aspects of the sport for many years (I'm not going to spam here) it's about an average of one race per day at every track in the U.S. So taking the average number of races per card to be 9, that's 11%. In the old days of Lucky Luciano it used to be about 25%, so I guess that's an improvement.
Harness racing is way more crooked than thorobred, and it used to be that a driver would hold his crop in a particular fashion to signal to the wise guys that he was going to fix by either pulling up his favorite, or had gotten other drivers to help let his longshot win. Not sure if that is still the case but wouldn't be surprised if it were. I personally have seen many harness races where the favorite is simultaneously braked and whipped, finishing out of the money.
In the quarterhorse races I've seen it does not appear that any are fixed - there is just too much speed - and due to the short race lengths a horse that gets behind has no chance to catch up.
IMO Most likely the fixing is done by jockeys that are not in the top echelon because they are hungrier - it may even be institutionalized - if they want to progress to the top and get more mounts perhaps they must pay their dues - but this is sheer speculation on my part.
But actually the biggest fixing opportunities do not involve jockeys - they happen when the handicapper is bribed (or threatened?) to give longshot odds to a favorite, while giving a mid-odds horse too low odds to allow the smart money to pile more on the longhsot and still make money. In fact, in the last two or three years I have seen evidence that longer odds horses are winning more often than they did a long time ago, for example during the period when Ziemba and Hausch were developing their System for Show betting on Odds-On Favorites in the mid 1980's.
2006-09-18 00:37:19 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Oh every once in a while you'll have cheating taking place. But you have cheaters wherever there is money to be made, there will be cheaters. Money draws scumbags wherever it can be made. So you'll have people who don't play by the rules in the stock market, real estate, casinos, whatever.
How often does it take place? That question is absolutely unanswerable. There is just no way to do any scientific survey or study. If I had to take a wild intutitive guess, I'd say 1 in 50 races. Not so bad actually if you think about it.
2006-09-18 03:15:40 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Most of them are, I've been a betting man myself like to bet on horses and have followed their form, but the horse you think have every chance of winning don't, I've watched closely at the jockeys and they seem to pull horses to slow them down, So yes I think they are fixed.
2006-09-17 12:22:59 · answer #4 · answered by braveheart321 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think a lot of horse/jockeys try a lot harder than some others
2006-09-17 12:21:37 · answer #5 · answered by Michael R 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
about 99%
2006-09-17 17:17:11 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sadly i would say around 20% are
2006-09-17 13:29:25 · answer #7 · answered by davidhammond_7 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hopefully none.
2006-09-17 13:12:23 · answer #8 · answered by brogdenuk 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Get your own bloody name?
2006-09-17 12:22:52 · answer #9 · answered by Warlock 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes it's true.
2006-09-18 00:17:15 · answer #10 · answered by rivertoheaven 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋