Someone is doing a pretty brazen job of it tonight.
Race #7: Oddity --- a sucker horse with slow dirt form shipping in from Kentucky is 1/9 the entire way.
Thrown Away -- who has a serious pace edge and is the best horse in the race on dirt is 14/1 with 0 MTP.
I end up -- like a fool -- just betting Thrown Away but expecting a huge cancel on the favorite to come at the last second.
Thrown Away -- 14/1 when loaded in the gate paid $6.20
Here is the kicker though ... the 2/1 eventual favorite over the 2/1 eventual second choice paid $61.40 in the exacta.
http://www1.drf.com/drfPDFChartRaces...=20110819&RN=7
That exacta literally should have paid no more than $20 any day of the week.
The horse who was 1/9 before the late cancel job ended up being the 5/2 third choice in the betting.
A couple different people told me the exact same thing happened in race #2 at MNR today ... Andrun was 1/9 with 1 MTP and 2/5 as they loaded --- ended up not even close to favorite.
There is NO WAY in the world that $61.40 exacta ever pays more than $20 without that tote manipulation.
Considering the #2 went in the gate at "14/1" odds -- and the #8 went in the gate at "15/1" odds ... you can understand how it happened.