You’ve spent days studying the betting odds and analysing race statistics, and you’re confident that you’re backing a winner. After all, the horse has had a long run of good form. But on the day of the race, your winner is disqualified for testing positive for drugs! The one variable you didn’t consider…
You may find some comfort in knowing that the European Horseracing Scientific Liaison Committee (EHSLC) has laid down rules to protect betters against the use of banned substances in horse racing. If your horse is disqualified before the race, you won’t lose any money and you can always resort to Plan B. But is this where the risks end?
A closer look at the testing procedures and penalties highlights some areas of contention that questions whether your bet is based on reliable statistics.
1. Testing takes place after the race
Horses are usually tested by racecourse stewards based on their performance in the race. If a long-priced horse wins the race, this usually serves as a warning for the presence of performance-enhancing drug. If they test positive, they can be suspended and their trainers fined.
But how does this benefit you? If you don’t know that a horse was suspended after a race, or that its owner was heavily fined, how will you know that the performance was drug-induced? Your careful analysis and forecasting, therefore, goes down the drain.
2.Less than 10% of runners are tested
In British horse racing, which boasts sophisticated testing procedures, less than 10% of runners are tested. When you consider that in the UK approximately 94,000 runners participate in races annually, this leaves more than 85,000 runners untested every year.
This can be detrimental to your bet because horses that are competing against each other may have been given performance-enhancing drugs, performance-inhibiting drugs, and masking agents that go undetected. If this happens, you stand the chance of losing money because your future bets will be based on unreliable performance statistics.
3. Results are not widely publicised
Drug scandals in sport have been making international news headlines from as far back as the 1950’s, highlighting the use of banned substances to improve performance in humans. However, drug-related incidents involving horses appear to be rare. Is this because drugs are rarely used to improve the performance of horses? Are offenders not being caught? Or are cases just not being publicized?
Nevertheless, the good spirit of horseracing far outweighs the negatives. It’s a pastime that’s meant to be fun with the chance of winning some money in the process.
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And with the prestigious 2008 Cheltenham Festival coming up there's definetly some money to be won, especially for the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup - the feature race of the event.
http://gold-cup-betting.com
