curious

Exactly. No gain likely from the more options aspect for sure. Hopefully, it will reduce FOB offering costs though and maybe make FOB more competitive?

Crucible, that would allow for those who say only have time to post bets on a Saturday to join in, along with others who may have a few every raceday in whatever jurisdiction. So, the comp more resembles real life betting activity for the different posters. Those that only use NZTAB can do so or they can experiment with using other operators hypothetically without opening accounts with them. I'd suggest say a couple of months, say 1 March to April 30.

Can't see why that wouldn't work. Scorer would only have to do a verification of the apparent winner before declaring them then.

I take your point Newmarket, but a big part of successful punting is getting the best price as Barryb has said on a number of occasions, so for the purpose of this type of comp, that is part of the skill being tested I think. It's a simple matter (a couple of clicks) to go somewhere like https://www.oddschecker.com/horse-racing/wolverhampton/19:45/winner and find the best price for any selection and decide if that amounts to value. The idea I think is in part to get away from comps where you have to bet hours before the race and have no clue at the time what the price you get in the comp will be. That's part of what makes those kind of comps a lottery rather than a test of skill to me.

That might not suit the likes of Thomass and the BP.

Pretty much agree. Comments above.

The other problem with multis is that they often amount to a seriously flawed staking plan which means you have way over your usual stake on the second , third or later runners in the multi, even if all are are value and at overs. In my view, place multis are worse because the FO prices make it much harder to find the overs that you might find on a win bet.

You can say that again. Don't usually bet there but had a few bets at Santa Anita this morning. Managed to back the winner of the 5th at nice overs. Paid $28 (for $2) on the tote. TAB were offering $11 and had the market set to 129.5% just before the start. US racing may not attract a lot of interest here but what's the point of bothering if they don't even try to compete on price?

They are both there now if you haven't found them. And yes the website is hopeless - not intuitive at all.

64 bets for $710 return. That's an ROI of 111%! Outstanding.

Too sensible?

Indeed. You'll be pleased to know that I backed them all apart from a couple that I couldn't get enough value on. I appreciate it. Provided a bit of holiday entertainment and to come out a few hundie ahead is a bonus, though 'cos I used only NZTAB didn't quite get the prices you did most of the time. A Masterclass certainly, for all to see. First time I've had more than a couple of bets a year on NZ racing for many years. A good bit of fun.

Is your mate called Thomass? I know he needs help and has also been MIA during the period of your renovation activities

I thought they said it needed a wet track? And they've gone for it on G3? Still $41 here.

Not a lot of excitement to watch sitting on the hill overlooking the races I would have thought. Might be better to just go have a NY's day picnic on the hill and not worry about holding the races?

Pretty much worked in the 90s too. We were at least paying our own way more or less. I thought the writing was on the wall in 2001 when the Racing Act was still a bill. So it has pretty much proved. I must say, as an old codger about to retire from the day job in a few months, I have spent quite a bit of time in the last 2 or 3 years replacing myself on various boards and committees including in racing. I've worked hard to do that, recruiting younger more energetic people and once done, stepped aside. In all cases they are still there. I still occasionally support those boards and committees but don't influence their decision making. It's a bit of work recruiting the right people for organisations that I treasure and want the best for but it's been worth the effort.

Is there a law against that? On a good track and a 4 horse race why would you?

I'm really enjoying the lead ins to the US races. Big bonus. They may be getting on track.

I've usually used MS Access and Mardi has helped me at times writing the queries. If you can find a DB package that suits, it will allow you, as Mardi says, to run the group by and where clauses etc. and you can test a lot of ideas that way using historic data. I have a couple of other mates that know how to do this stuff that I can turn to. I'm not an IT genius by any stretch but if the data is in there, I can easily get help to extract what I want.

Do we need to? Should that be the objective in this day and age? Or, aside from an odd carnival, is that objective misplaced except for the likes of the Melbourne Cup?

Thanks barryb. I'll risk saying it again. Hopefully, there's a couple of winners in that lot. Good luck!

Most of that report appears to have been based on " advice on" various travesties that "came from very close at hand" rather than any of his own investigation. I agree. Very disappointing.

Thanks guys. You may be falling into the same trap as Thomass by applying a population statistic to individuals. As an academic and educator, I'm not sure I fit your generalisation.

Yep, that too.

Yep. Do you have enough land there to build a 2000m track?