just a gripe
 

I was at an OTB in AC yesterday. I liked four horses in the 6th at Saratoga and bet a series if trifectas using these horses. I included the #2 horse, Clever Martini, in every play. Clever Martini acts up in the gate (I think he reared and threw off his jock) so they back him out and he's scratched.

I see all of this happening, and rush to the (single) window, but the race goes off before I can lay down a bet. The three remaining horses I liked came in 1, 2, 3. With only three horses among my picks, I would have used them all and would have had the tri at least three or four times (it only paid $80, but still...). Instead, I had to settle for just getting my money back.

I understand that they didn't want to delay the race with the rest of the field at the gate, but this just pissed me off. It was the last race I handicapped, too, so it was a sour way to end the day.

Boxing can be expensive in the long run but you can hit the undereath horses in a nice payoff. Do I box? Only in 3 horse exactas. I always play a saver with a exacta box of underneath horses to save the bet if key-horse is run off ticket, in this case he scratched. If you pick-up a handful of tickets at the track and see what people play most o them are keyed bets and the underneath horses hit the ticket. I know how this feels.

I almost never box because I think, aside from the fact it burns a lot of tickets, it's a concession that you don't really have a strong enough opinion to bet the race. However, I can see the utility of placing a saver bet in the situation you describe. I usually make myself a grid of the expected exacta payouts using my picks, so I know that the expected returns would have been worth risking the $12 box bet with my non-key horses. As it turned out, the exacta only paid just under $20, but it could have paid as much as $100.