For what it's worth my previous explanation was inaccurate. It was a decision by NYRA, for better or worse, that because some people couldn't see the odds, and the first leg did have many first time starters and first time turfers, that a lot of people would be betting at a disadvantage. The handle on the first three races was apparently down 50% so they decided to make the decision they did. It's not a decision I agree with, and I say that after I would have been knocked out in the third leg, but that was the reasoning nonetheless.
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