[justindew]

It's annoying as hell that 10 years after this bet was introduced, we are still only offered 24 betting interests. The reason for this is related to the tote companies. However, I have an idea for a solution that would allow us to bet on hundreds of individual horses like in Vegas.

Instead of offering us one field of 24 betting interests to bet on, Churchill Downs could offer, say, 30 fields of 24 betting interests. The horses would be listed alphabetically starting in Race 1, and after every 24 horses a new "race" would be created until every horses is listed. Obviously, the tote system could not be used to calculate odds accurately, because multiple "races" would comprise the same bet. But this can be done manually with little effort I would imagine. Takeout would be no problem.

For example, if I like Old Fashioned, and he is listed in Race 12 as horse #15, I would say to the teller "Churchill Downs race 12, $2 to WIN on #15."

Bottom line: One bet made up of many different fields, or races, with all the money combined at the end to make up one pool. Odds calculated manually every hour so bettors can make informed judgments.