Forecasting in Horse Racing

A straight forecast pool is also run.

If there are three to six runners, bettors are required to name the first two horses to finish, in the correct order.

If there are seven to ten runners, a dual forecast pool is run, in which the bettor backs two horses to finish first and second in either order. Should an outsider win from the favorite, the dividend paid on the winner alone.

The dual forecast dividend in this case would obviously have been the same had the favorite won from the outsider.

This is not the case, in straight forecasts.

The tote also runs daily double and daily treble pools. The daily double is based usually on the third and fifth races on the card.

The gambler buys a ticket on a horse in the third race and, if it wins, exchanges it for a ticket on a horse in the fifth race--- should this win too he collects the dividend.

The tote treble is base don the second, fourth, and sixth races.

A recent innovation on the tote is the introduction of the jackpot pool. This is operated at the principal meeting of the day on most days of the season.

Backers are required to name the winners of all six races, or of the first six if there are more than six on the card.

Should nobody win the pool, as sometimes happens, it is carried forward to the next jackpot meeting, after a consolation dividend has been paid to backers of the first five winners.

In fact this is well realized and if, say, 5,000 pounds is carried over to the second day, the pool is likely to swell to, say, 50,000 pounds.

The tote's commission and tax will then cancel out the favorable edge, but even so the bet on carried-over jackpot is much better bet than gamblers can usually obtain.

In 1973, the Tote Board began a new pool, the Roll-up administered by the Pools Promotors Association (to which British football-pool companies belong).

In thirty or so special races throughout the season (races with sixteen runners, there being reserves to substitute for withdrawn horses), gamblers are asked to name the first six horses to finish in the correct order.

Because this is extremely difficult, the dividends are high. As with the jackpot, the pool is carried over to the next race should it be not be won, and an early winner of a carried over pool collected over 70,000 pounds for the standard 5p stake.