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http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/aug/29/betfair-pour-moi-withdrawal
Betfair can do more for punters in cases like Arc drifter Pour Moi
Once again, a big-name horse is withdrawn after being heavily laid. Is the leading exchange unable or unwilling to act?
Greg Wood guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 August 2011 18.47 BST Article history
Mickaël Barzalona celebrates winning the Epsom Derby on Pour Moi in June. Photograph: David Davies/PA
There have been seasons on the Flat in which the retirement of the Derby winner without another race might have cast a cloud over the entire campaign, but 2011 is not one of those. The sudden conclusion to Pour Moi's racing career over the weekend was disappointing but not debilitating, which says a good deal about the strength in depth of this three-year-old generation and Frankel's pre-eminence within it.
Pour Moi and, to some extent, this year's Derby will be something of a footnote when the international classifications are published in January, which will always be an occasional hazard for the Epsom Classic now that its role is to be one of the season's most important staging posts, rather than the only race that matters. The decision to put the Derby winner away after Epsom and prepare him for the Arc, as well as Frankel's subsequent confirmation that he is one of the great champions, meant that many punters had half-forgotten about Pour Moi already.
It remains to be seen how he performs as a stallion but, with the might of the Coolmore marketing machine behind him, his chances are better than most. For the moment, though, Pour Moi's most significant contribution to the fabric of the turf has been to give the extraordinary André Fabre his first Derby winner, while also announcing Mickaël Barzalona as the sport's next big star in the saddle.
For those reasons alone, Pour Moi deserved a decent, well-timed retirement. As it turned out, misfortune intervened, but it still seems a shame that his departure from the stage was heralded by the dark mutterings and Betfair chicanery that now seem inevitable whenever a well-known horse sustains a career-ending injury.
Pour Moi suffered his overreach while exercising on Thursday, but confirmation of his retirement did not arrive until 3.06pm on Saturday, on Coolmore's Twitter feed. All credit to Coolmore for embracing the modern world of social networking, but what's the point when the news takes so long to arrive that it might as well have been sent by carrier pigeon?
In the meantime, several thousands of pounds looking to back Pour Moi for the Arc were hoovered up on Betfair, quite possibly by a single client of the exchange with access to inside knowledge that the Derby winner's racing career was over.
Both Binocular, in the Champion Hurdle, and Kicking King, in the Gold Cup, have demonstrated that it is risky to decide that a horse is a certain non-runner in a race as long as it is still entered and still breathing. But the big drifter who comes out of a race some hours later is such a regular feature of life on Betfair that it seems reasonable to ask whether the exchange is really unable to claw money back by voiding bets that are judged to have exploited inside information, or merely unwilling.
The suggestion after Pour Moi's retirement that Coolmore Stud puts the racing and betting public at the bottom of its list of priorities is depressing enough. The impression that Betfair has scarcely more respect for some of its own customers is even worse.
Betfair can do more for punters in cases like Arc drifter Pour Moi
Once again, a big-name horse is withdrawn after being heavily laid. Is the leading exchange unable or unwilling to act?
Greg Wood guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 August 2011 18.47 BST Article history
Mickaël Barzalona celebrates winning the Epsom Derby on Pour Moi in June. Photograph: David Davies/PA
There have been seasons on the Flat in which the retirement of the Derby winner without another race might have cast a cloud over the entire campaign, but 2011 is not one of those. The sudden conclusion to Pour Moi's racing career over the weekend was disappointing but not debilitating, which says a good deal about the strength in depth of this three-year-old generation and Frankel's pre-eminence within it.
Pour Moi and, to some extent, this year's Derby will be something of a footnote when the international classifications are published in January, which will always be an occasional hazard for the Epsom Classic now that its role is to be one of the season's most important staging posts, rather than the only race that matters. The decision to put the Derby winner away after Epsom and prepare him for the Arc, as well as Frankel's subsequent confirmation that he is one of the great champions, meant that many punters had half-forgotten about Pour Moi already.
It remains to be seen how he performs as a stallion but, with the might of the Coolmore marketing machine behind him, his chances are better than most. For the moment, though, Pour Moi's most significant contribution to the fabric of the turf has been to give the extraordinary André Fabre his first Derby winner, while also announcing Mickaël Barzalona as the sport's next big star in the saddle.
For those reasons alone, Pour Moi deserved a decent, well-timed retirement. As it turned out, misfortune intervened, but it still seems a shame that his departure from the stage was heralded by the dark mutterings and Betfair chicanery that now seem inevitable whenever a well-known horse sustains a career-ending injury.
Pour Moi suffered his overreach while exercising on Thursday, but confirmation of his retirement did not arrive until 3.06pm on Saturday, on Coolmore's Twitter feed. All credit to Coolmore for embracing the modern world of social networking, but what's the point when the news takes so long to arrive that it might as well have been sent by carrier pigeon?
In the meantime, several thousands of pounds looking to back Pour Moi for the Arc were hoovered up on Betfair, quite possibly by a single client of the exchange with access to inside knowledge that the Derby winner's racing career was over.
Both Binocular, in the Champion Hurdle, and Kicking King, in the Gold Cup, have demonstrated that it is risky to decide that a horse is a certain non-runner in a race as long as it is still entered and still breathing. But the big drifter who comes out of a race some hours later is such a regular feature of life on Betfair that it seems reasonable to ask whether the exchange is really unable to claw money back by voiding bets that are judged to have exploited inside information, or merely unwilling.
The suggestion after Pour Moi's retirement that Coolmore Stud puts the racing and betting public at the bottom of its list of priorities is depressing enough. The impression that Betfair has scarcely more respect for some of its own customers is even worse.
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GregWood
31 August 2011 1:15PM David O'Reilly from Betfair has been in touch with me by email and has agreed that I can post the following points on his behalf: 1. Most obviously we have a specific rule in the case of a horse which dies, where we seek to ascertain a time of death and void bets from that point in any relevant AP markets. The rule was introduced in 2004 and has been used numerous times since. Best Mate and Nil Desperandum are high profile examples which spring to mind and examples from the last NH season include Pride of Dulcote, Money Trix and Glencove Marina. It allows us to void not just bets on the dead horse, but on others in the market too if we think their price has been materially effected by the death. The rule has also been expanded to allow us to void in cases where a horse has been formally scratched from a future engagement, with no possibility of being re-entered. 2. Where we receive intelligence that a horse may be doubtful for a future engagement ahead of the information becoming public domain/becoming apparent in the market, we will suspend the market and will cancel unmatched bets if the rumour is confirmed. I recall TC being alerted by a press contact that there was a doubt around Manduro running in the Arc in the hours after the horse had won his trial at Longchamp a few weeks before the Arc itself. We suspended the market on the Sunday evening overnight and cancelled all unmatched bets on the market when the rumour was confirmed on the Monday. A few examples from the last NH season, where we reacted more quickly than the market and protected unmatched backers (i.e. cancelled their bet requests) of the following include: Aegean Dawn – Imperial Cup, Diamond Harry – Gold Cup and Noland – King George. 3. As a matter of routine, our integrity team will investigate any unusual antepost moves. In cases where it looks clear that a customer(s) was trading on information not publicly available, we can and have voided bets. One example of this was Age of Aquarius drifting from around 4 to double figures shortly before the 48 decs stage of the 2009 St Leger (for which he wasn’t declared). We also voided all AP bets struck on the Sunday morning before this year’s Champion Hurdle, when it turned that Binocular had effectively ruled out 2 hours before the 48 decs stage. In many cases however it is extremely grey. There may be no one customer driving the market and those betting in the market may be doing so within their normal betting parameters. That was the case with Pour Moi. |
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"The impression that Betfair has scarcely more respect for some of its own customers is even worse."
Hilarious; a member of the fourth estate spouting off about respect for customers. Pot and kettle Greg, pot and kettle you 'hack'. Mixing metaphors, it seems that Mr Wood has an axe to grind with Betfair as he has slated the company unmercifully of late and maybe it's he who has the 'access to inside knowledge' he refers to? |
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from this forum alone seem like everyone has axe to grind with BetFAIR hattersfan.
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strange hattersfan1 suggest greg wood has "access to inside knowledge". how do you jump to that conclusion,...???
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It's not a conclusion per se but Mr Wood, to use current parlance, does seem to be ahead of the curve when it comes to posting his bash Betfair articles with info that's not known to most. Given BF's solid sounding defence of the jaundiced journalist's whinge about Pour Moi maybe he'd like to reply. More than likely though he'll just wait for the next bad news bus out of Hammersmith and have another dig.
Why does he save his rancour for one particular company when there are plenty more far more valid targets in the world of racing? |
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Maybe he's been hit with a 40-60% charge and isnt best pleased?
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Pretty poor by Betfair to let these bets stand...
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