While I share your disappointment that the Fleur Des Lis scratched down to a field of only 3 runners, I'm not sure that we have much reason to become indignant. The fact that runners in a stakes race were cross entered in either another race at the same track, or a race at another track is not unusual; trainers will enter multiple races and see which one comes up tougher or see how shipping arrangements might work out. It's just not as glaring as yesterday was. Sometimes, trainers will put in an entry or two into a race that has been sparsely entered just to make sure that race actually gets only the program, then scratch on the morning of the race. Sometimes that is even done as a favor to the racing secretary.
As to bettors being hurt by these activities, I don't follow your logic. The scratches were posted long before any bets were placed, so no bettor lost any money because of this. The did lose the opportunity to, say, bet the trifecta on this race, but there are plenty of other betting opportunities. As to the fans being hurt, when was the last time that any of the horsemen really gave much thought about doing something for the benefit of the fans? They are usually the last ones taken into consideration.
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