Today, on Christmas Eve, Tampa Bay Downs was set to kick off the FEATURED schedule, with a set post time of 2:45 p.m. ET.

Experienced horseplayers might recognize Tampa Bay Downs as a track that is well-known to sometimes flex their post times. They typically run early or late no more than 5-10 minutes or so, only from time to time. They do this primarily as a means to avoid running on top of other major tracks that are running simultaneously. (Ironically, this is something loathed by horseplayers in general. Why in the world are these tracks running on top of each other?). Tampa Bay Downs management, all the way up to the very top, literally monitors the races in real time and makes calls on slight adjustments to avoid these situations. In many ways, they are to be lauded for caring enough to pay attention.

In this case, Tampa ended up running a bit early, with the race going off at 2:37 p.m. ET, or eight minutes prior to the scheduled post time of 2:45.

A handful of players missed making their selections for events they purchased in the FEATURED schedule. They were operating on the assumption that Tampa would go off at 2:45 p.m. as noted.

Not unexpectantly, the emails we receive in such cases are generally angry ones, with players suggesting that we had incorrect post times or that our system erred in closing the race before gates open. In any case, the supposition is that it’s our fault. While we understand those sentiments, neither of these are what happened, and this example serves as another reminder regarding the important distinction between tournament play and traditional pari-mutuel wagering. And, the ultimate responsibility that tournament horseplayers have for their play.

In this case, there was no “official” post time change. Tampa officials merely instructed things to get moving along a little faster, again ostensibly to avoid running at the same time as another track that appeared to also be headed toward a 2:45 p.m. off time.

No official post time change means no mechanism for us to inform players that this has happened. Even if we were able to provide some kind of notice within the few minutes leading up to the race, it’s highly unlikley that this would have changed things for those players that were affected anyway. They thought the event would go off at 2:45.

In an idyllic world, if players don’t make selections to any event in a schedule that begins, we could refund the entry fees for that event. But, this kind of practice cannot be allowed by law, as it could open up myriad possibilities for manipulation (I don’t need to get into all of the ways that allowing this could be taken advantage of). Once an entry is purchased, it absolutely must remain in the prize pool, whether or not selections have been made.

All of this underscores the basic but important difference between tournament and traditional pari-mutuel wagering. In normal betting, either your wagers are accepted or they are not. With tournaments, per se, players have the additional step of actually making selections after purchasing an entry.

We are sympathetic to situations like these, we really are, and we know that people are busy. It’s also a lot of inherent human nature that goes into waiting until late to handle things, for a lot of different reasons. We generally will give anyone that this happens to a break, one time.

But, at the end of the day, it is incumbent upon tournament players to be aware of race status of all times, and to ensure that selections are input for entries that have been purchased. As a general matter of course, ensuring that selections are made by no less than 20 minutes prior to the beginning of a posted schedule will almost certainly ensure that one won’t get shut out.

Anything less than that, and unfortunately, it can be nothing else than “buyer beware”.

Have a great holiday. We’ll have some good news to you at the turn of the year and into January.

McKay
President
HorseTourneys.com