It’s hard to please everyone, but it’s not that difficult to please overseas gamblers as far as British Horse Racing is concerned. The way starting stalls are numbered at some British racecourses is all about to be reversed under plans being developed by the sport’s ruling body.
The ruling comes as an attempt to make the sport more attractive to overseas gamblers. What’s wrong with the stall numbering now? Absolutely nothing, except that on righthanded courses, it’s ass backwards to mostly every other country. The new method could be adopted which would change all of that and bring some uniformity. The number one stall will be changed to always be closest to the inside rail, which is in line with the system used by other countries.
Obviously, the aim is to make British racing more accessible to overseas gamblers in hopes of a much needed long-term boost to the sport’s income. But with all this jumping through hoops for the outsiders, what about the countries own punters? These changes could possibly lead to some initial confusion among domestic punters long used to the status quo, particularly with regard to the more renowned draw biases. For example, high numbers have been notoriously favoured over five furlongs at Beverley.
But bettors aren’t robots, they should be able to adjust and learn to look instead for those drawn low if that’s their system. But on the whole, the change shouldn’t affect the countries own punters as much as it does open up the door for overseas gamblers. No surprise then, there were no objections when the issues was discussed at the British Horseracing Authority meeting.
