Horse Racing's Fake News

There's, once again, plenty of chatter about late odds moves on the twitter; in this case, 8-1 to 3-1 from the gate to the finish.  

Similarly, like "community notes" this gets challenged or modified through more information. This time added by Crunk:

"BSP 4.5-1. PPWAP 3.7-1. Never traded anywhere near 8-1. It doesn't have to be this way for the normie horseplayer."

The horse was never, ever, ever going to be 8-1. He was never 8-1. On no planet was he 8-1. It's good for everyone to know the 8-1 price wasn't real. 

In horse racing, the tote board is fake news which is of course bad and I don't blame people for complaining, but it goes well beyond that because everything that follows isn't real either.

In the third race on Friday at the Meadowlands, McNuggets' odds, off a 5-2 morning line, were 2-1 for most of the betting. The horse was obviously a contender, and in fact she was Greg's best bet at the DRF.

 Dave and Jessica doing the commentary were talking at great length about the horse, and why wouldn't they. Dave Little even surmised with the early betting the horse may end up below even money, as she's taking supposed steam. 

I can't blame him. The horse opened well bet, the exacta pool showed similar early and everyone seemed to dipping in on McNugget. And, our trusty friend - multi-leg wager will pays - were not available that race. 

McNugget, the horse that dominated all the pre-race chatter on the feed, went from 2-1 to 6-1 at the gate and closed as the fifth choice. 

We walk into a diner. We've heard the burgers are the favorite of many. We read the menu, we order. Then our bill comes and we noticed they changed the price of the burger from $5 to $10 and it turns out it tasted bad. 

Like Crunk noted. It doesn't have to be this way. Horse racing can stop spreading fake news. It can stop commentators from spending five minutes of their time talking to customers about the fifth choice like it's Seattle Slew. It can stop the tweets, the articles on the Bacon Report, the commiseration, the "they cheat" narrative. And it's really not that difficult. 

We often hear people lament that horse racing is run in an alternate universe. When the menu that people use to wager the sport is completely and utterly incoherent and they don't seem to want to fix it, that statement probably isn't fake news. 

Have a nice Monday everyone.