The Friday running of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar has left bettors once again infuriated by the racing industry’s procedures and protocols, with social media abuzz with claims from longtime horseplayers that their confidence and enthusiasm for the sport has been irretrievably shaken. In the Juvenile Turf, one horse, Albahr, was scratched outright after flipping in the gate, an easy call for both veterinarians and stewards. But the horse in the stall next to him, his stablemate Modern Games, the favorite, was then scratched, under the belief that he had run through the gate as workers struggled to free Albahr. After a veterinary examination, Modern Games was allowed to run, but for purse-money only. He won convincingly, but only after all single-race bets on the horse had been refunded and after most bettors in the horizontal pools had been moved to the post-time favorite, Dakota Gold, who finished fifth. Bettors who favored Modern Games were understandably angry that their horizontal bets did not pay off. The same can be said for those bettors who singled Modern Games on top in their exotic bets and received only refunds regardless of whether their bets would have paid off under the actual order of finish. However, the rules are clear: in the event of a horse being inadvertently scratched, the horse cannot be allowed back into the pools. Those rules are in place in all major racing jurisdictions across the U.S. :: BREEDERS’ CUP 2021: See DRF’s special section with recaps, results, charts, news, and more for each division According to Curtis Linnell, the vice president of wagering analysis and operations for the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau, which runs a bet-monitoring operation on behalf of racetracks, once a horse is ordered scratched, a series of bet-processing protocols are triggered that automatically refunds all bets with the scratched horse, and, in the case of horizontal bets, recalculates the pools to reflect the new combinations using the post-time favorite. Those changes immediately go out to every single site linked to the commingled pool, which in the case of the Breeders’ Cup, was upwards of 50 bet-processing hubs, Linnell said. And once the scratch takes effect, bettors are now free to make bets again until the pools are closed, under the odds calculations that have already been re-done. “Once a horse is scratched, it’s impossible to undo that,” Linnell said on Saturday morning. “There are too many things that happen automatically. It’s not like [the pools are] sitting in suspension until the race goes official. That’s why everybody has to be very careful to not scratch a horse on a mistake.” According to officials with the California Horse Racing Board and the stewards at Del Mar, veterinarians behind the starting gate believed that Modern Games broke through the starting gate on his own accord. In reality, he was freed by a member of the gate crew in order to remove the horse from any danger as Albahr struggled on the ground under his own stall. William Buick, the rider of Modern Games, quickly restrained the horse after he was released. Veterinarians then examined Modern Games and determined that he was racing sound, but only after the stewards had already executed the command to scratch the horse from the pools. Stewards then made the call to allow the horse to run for purse-money only, according to CHRB executive director Scott Chaney. :: Get everything you need with a DRF Breeders' Cup package! Includes PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. “The horse was taken out of the wagering pools when it was racing sound,” Chaney said. “The [scratch] was prematurely radioed up to the stewards who took the horse out.” The incident underscores the risks inherent in horizontal bets like the pick 4, pick 5, and pick 6, which are favored both by savvy horseplayers because of their extremely low takeout rates and by stabbers looking for a lottery-like payout at a low cost. In addition to late scratches, weather and racing-surface conditions can change markedly throughout a race day, significantly changing both the complexion of races and the pace dynamics that underlaid a handicapper’s analyses at the time the bet was made. Most linked bets are not refundable except in rare circumstances, such as the declaration of one or more races in the sequence as a “no contest,” and under the rules in nearly all major racing jurisdictions, bettors are moved to the favorite if one of their horses is scratched, regardless of the bettor’s assessment of the favorite’s chances. Most experienced bettors are well aware of those risks, but it doesn’t make it any easier when a late scratch moves a horseplayer to a horse they never wanted, especially when that horse loses. In the case of the Juvenile Turf, the sense of injustice was compounded because a horse favored by the plurality of bettors actually won the race, but at no reward to his backers. :: Bet the races with confidence on DRF Bets. You're one click away from the only top-rated betting platform fully integrated with exclusive data, analytics, and expert picks. In California, horizontal bettors have the option to select an “alternate” pick in the event of a late scratch. California is the only major jurisdiction to have the alternate system in place, and it is reserved for only California bettors wagering on a race that occurs within the state. It’s not known how many players may have cashed a bet by having the pari-mutuel “winner,” Tiz the Bomb, who paid $17.60 in the win mutuel, selected as an alternate. While there’s never a good time for an incident like Friday’s Juvenile Turf, the debacle occurred at a time when there is abundant evidence that horse racing is attracting new bettors due to the widespread growth in sports wagering across the U.S. That growth has resulted in sports-betting operators actively marketing racing to potential players, as companies spend aggressively to build up their customer rolls in advance of new markets opening up. New players with tickets on Modern Games were almost certainly confused by what occurred, if not downright put off. Once Modern Games was removed from the pools, the stewards were left with a matrix of only problematic outcomes. A win by Modern Games would satisfy the colt’s connections while infuriating horseplayers who had used the horse in their bets, as turned out to be the case. A loss by Modern Games (or, worst-case scenario, a racing injury) would have raised questions and conspiracy theories – especially from animal-rights advocates – about whether the horse should have been allowed to run considering the initial decision to scratch the horse. Honoring the scratch would have disappointed both the horse’s connections and the bettors who strongly backed the horse. In short, there was no outcome that generated a net-positive result. Once the scratch was radioed to the stewards, the die had been cast, and in the end, it was the bettors who were left holding the bag. “There isn’t any good solution when you scratch the wrong horse,” Linnell said. “You’ve just got to be really careful when you scratch a horse.”