October
SeptemberSub sob story #147
The point of this complaint is that I had a horse running for thousands of dollars, and did not even know what it was.
I took two runners in the final leg of the quaddie at Seymour on September 3, and come the last leg I was alive. One of my runners, Amherst (a $5.50 chance) was paying $39,000. My other runner, trained by Peter Snowden, was a late scratching, hence I was looking at a sub.
I had both runners for 30 percent, so one — the sub — was going to be worth minimum $5000, and the other nearly $10,000.
The opening TAB fave, and right up to the jump, was Blow Me Away, which was $4.00 and very solid, and the fave on the fixed odds too at $4.00. I was quite happy with it as the sub.
Next best on the TAB was a group of horses between $6 and $8, with money for the bottom one, Winning Look. It was an open race.
With eight runners in the race, I planned to lay off, make a small profit on the other six horses and save my $150 stake — easy enough, you would think, with two horses running for me, both very good results.
I checked the approximates — two lots displayed, for some reason. One lot had Blow Me Away paying $35,000, the other $16,000. I assumed the $16,000 was the amount for it being the sub. Still all good.
So I had six runners to back in the race. I waited as long as possible. Blow Me Away was still around $4 and in to $3.80 at times just prior to the jump, with Winning Look into $5.00.
At the last minute I backed Winning Look and everything else as required to lay off.
I didn’t have a zac on Blow Me Away. After all, as far as I could know, my money was already on it, was it not?
After the jump, the TAB screen updates. I glance at it halfway through the race and Winning Look is into $4.10, with Blow Me Away out to $4.60.
They run one-two the journey, and Blow Me Away wins by a nostril — no exaggeration. I watched the race, and did not know which horse was mine. I could not even barrack.
There is something fundamentally wrong when I do not know what horse my money is riding on, and thousands of dollars are involved.
I lost my initial quadrella stake, and all the lay-off money.
Surely the sub should be decided earlier, or the quaddie fave should be the sub, i.e. the horse that was taken as the fave in the quaddie. Needless to say, Blow Me Away was the quaddie favourite.
Basically, if I’d known which horse was running for me (is this too much to ask?), I would not have lost.
Talk about being blown away.
Hughesdale (Vic)