Quote Originally Posted by waggamick View Post
This has been a pet peeve of mine for a few years now.
The current Handicapping System is a disaster.
TAB Turnover is the life blood of all codes of racing.

Most punters get their information straight from the TAB screens or from newspapers.
A lot of my mates refuse to bet on Harness Racing in that they don't see backing Odds On pops or betting against them as viable propositions.
Throw in the prospect of getting trapped behind runners on tracks without Sprint Lanes or caught in the pack and you can see why they'll throw the odd $5 on a dog race instead.

I did a little research using the RESULTS sections of HARNESS.Org and THEDOGS.com and looked at the SP for TAB race meetings over the last few days.
There were 37 Harness Racing meetings in the last 7 days.
There were 27 Dog meetings over the last 4 days.
HARNESS RACING
37 meetings 289 races 126 Odds On Faves (44%) of which 72 won (57%)
DOG RACING
27 Meetings 265 races 71 Odds On Faves (27%) of which 43 won (61%)

18 of the 37 Harness racing meetings had more than half the program with Odds On faves.
4 of the 27 Dog meetings had more than half the program with Odds On Faves.

13 /37 harness meetings had 2 or less odds on pops at the meeting...35%.
15/27 dog meetings had 2 or less odds on pops at the meeting....56%.

My experience is that the Pre-Post odds quoted in the morning newspapers tend to be even more conservative than the eventual Staring Prices.
The perception out there is that there are too many poor value betting races at the Trots.

Any ideas on addressing the situation?

That's something I commented on in a similar thread a while ago. The conservative prices quoted in the papers and the ultra conservative opening quotes. For some reason we're getting a rough deal with the betting agency assessors. I used to go to the greyhounds now and then, years ago with a fairly successful trainer/punter. I wasn't that interested in punting but his rule was if it's over 4/1 forget about it. Seemed like a lot of odds on pops won. Not sure if they weighed the dogs then...the old bowl of milk to stop them. Would be interesting if the stats on short priced dogs changed once the greyhounds got fair dinkum on drugs. Eg, even as recent as G Bate being outed. Food for thought considering cobalt/Harness penalties as I did hear one corporate on RSN radio answering a similar risk factor for them (whether real or not's another thing) on thoroughbreds re closing of winning betting accounts. The cheat risk for them.