How big is the impact of a late scratching in harness racing?

Scratchings happen in every racing code, and it’s important to understand the impact of them in harness racing. They could have a major impact on your bet!

Late scratchings can happen right up until the race jumps. Connections or stewards may scratch a horse for any number of reasons, and late harness racing scratchings can occur out on the track if officials aren’t satisfied the horse is fit to run.

If it’s very close to race time, you may not have time to adjust your betting accordingly. If you’re backed the scratched horse, you’ll receive your money back, so won’t be any worse off.

The only exception would be if you placed a pre-post bet well in advance of the race, before the final field was declared. Pre-post betting is “all-in”, which means you don’t receive a refund if your horse doesn’t run.

If you backed one of the other horses in the race, there’ll be deductions in the event of a late scratching. Bookmakers frame their markets with all horses competing, and when they have to refund stakes for scratched horses, there’s not enough money left in the market to pay winners at full price.

So there’ll be a deduction from the winner’s dividend. The size of the deduction depends where the scratched horse was in the market: the shorter the scratched horse was in the market, the greater the deduction amount will be.