Just the 30 non runners at Newmarket last night then?

[Glenn]

Anyone that has been betting on Friday night meetings at Newmarket this year may have been puzzled by the amount of late non-runners trained locally that invariably seem to appear. Last night there were dozens of them that came in after racing had commenced despite no change in the going.

Rumour has it that this is a ruse to save money on (or even just get hands on when they’re sold out) concert tickets. You see, connections have so little skin in the game these days, that the stakes they have to put up for what the ancients called ‘stake racing’ are less than a member of the public has to pay to go through the turnstiles.

Of course those engaging is this coupon-cutting scheme, can’t declare their non-runner early, not before they’ve collected their free badges, so what you have is a wrecking ball being taken to off-course betting every ten minutes with a new non-runner being announced. Hot favs were being pulled out with less than 15 mins to the off last night for no discernable reason.

Odds screens are wiped across the industry, bets are adjusted arbitrarily, betting suspended, everything is ripped up and has to be started again. Any time studying these phantom runners is wasted.

Is this what it has come to? The relationship between the betting and racing industries has become so dysfunctional that everyone else is put out so a few connections can save a tenner to see Jessie J?

With stakes so low, it is that same betting industry that is left to provide pretty much all the prize money, and yet trainers complain that it isn’t providing enough while simultaneously treating it with complete contempt.

British racing – where connections pretend to race and the betting public pretend to pay them.

[yeats]

Have Paul Bittar & The BHA said what they’re going to do about it? All this lost levy from punters backing all the non runners and nothing’s ever done.
The whole non runner/ withdrawal/48 hour dec system needs a complete overhaul.
What has Jamie Stier ever done to earn his wages?

[Seven Towers]

Don’t the trainers have to give a reason for the horse being a nr?

[Glenn]

Indeed they do. A rather pointless excercise, in an age of self-certs, what with paper withstanding anything that’s written on it.

[Author]

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