Morning Line

[joeydb]

The conversation on the air Wednesday about the morning line was very interesting on the show.

The caller was asking whether the morning line was even necessary at all -- whether the odds could be undefined before the betting starts.

I think this would be a bad idea. It's my guess that the morning line performs much the same function as the "blinds" do in Texas Hold 'Em. It starts the pot and makes something to play for so everyone does not opt out.

If there was no morning line, then the return for every horse that initially has zero in its pool would be infinite, and the first horse with any money in their pool would have zero return. The pools are meaningless as a basis for odds computation until every entry has at least some money in it.

One question I have: When the track sets the morning line, do they "stake" the pools with their own money to back those odds, and then remove the money later along with the takeout, or are the morning line odds completely notional, with no money backing them?