Claims on horses, what are they?

I got the below reply from bookies.co.za when i asked them to explain "what a claim is"


Hi BoB ,


Claims are for Registered licenced Bookmakers only.

If a Bookmaker takes a claim. It will be R25 000 OF the horse.

So if a horse is 5/1 then he will take 25 000 / 5 000.

Then the horse is shortened.

We donot lay bets. Claims are laid by registered Licenced Bookmakers who
control the Claims.

Claim amounts vary between Provinces.

KZN-GTG-WC - 25 000
Maur-Flamingo-Zim - 10 000

We donot deal with the general public as our service is exclusively for
Bookmakers.

bumped for richie

So there we go (tu)

What did you think of the response i got from bookies.co.za

I thought they were a bit fuck the punters ()

So what else is new?

What I don't understand is that there are many many bookies..so if a punter takes a bet 25k/5k with one bookie why do they all have to shorten the horses odds?

Thanks guys....trust me there will be more of these questions the longer i am on here. I have tried to troll through the pages but there is too many pages to get through.

Really enjoying my time on this forum.

Richie77 Wrote:

---

> Thanks guys....trust me there will be more of
> these questions the longer i am on here. I have
> tried to troll through the pages but there is too
> many pages to get through.
>
> Really enjoying my time on this forum.


(tu) my feelings exactly

I think the answer from bookies .co.za re '' claiming '' is as clear as mud. For me anyway. Also, if the odds are 5/1 why would the bet [ or claim ? ] read 25000 / 5000 ?? as opposed to 125000 / 5000 ? I don't get it.

@ Rob Faux --- I think your illustration of how '' claims '' worked in the old days with a punter ringing the bell in a Tattersalls to lock in a price with the bookies while he put his money down, makes total sense in terms of what a claim is, or should be.

Very interesting and something about racing that I never knew. Makes one wish the old days were back. Seems like there was more honour then?? Even among bookies. Or maybe I'm wrong. looking back now, a laaitie cop on the beat in Loop street Cape Town, I used to stand inside the Tatts doorway to catch a smoke with one eye out for the ' sarge ' There always seemed to be a lot of action going on upstairs in the rooms. Bookies, runners, punters coming and going, characters like bookie '' King '' Louis Miller, among others, and bets like the BIG FOUR which was run by 4 bookies if I remember correctly, and which allowed you to take a 10 cent ' jackpot' which paid out 10 percent of the tote jackpot to a maximum of 460.00 rands. Why 460.00 I don't know, but let me tell you that was still good bucks in those days if you could klap the pot. Jeez, talk about nostalgia. After all that I think I'll have a stywe dop and call it a day.

@ chrism - love your post
@ Oscar - I echo your question
@ Rob Faux - i remember, thanks the reminder

Overall, though, Strydom must be the biggest punter of all - everything opens shorter than form suggests and then shortens later.....

Today's Bookies are a joke, IMHO.... Pirates is right ! And Hibs hits the nail on the head.

i have 2 question.

1. how often is the claim limit review? 25000 in 1990 is not the same as 25000 in 2012......

2. how do we now the claim is genuine? it is easy to say "claim" when no money come for the horse. often then the public see the shorten price and think this horse is fancy, let me have the bet. why can bookies.co.za say " black beauty claimed by keith ho 25000/1000, new price 16/1" ? so that we can see where money come from??

oscar Wrote:

---

> What I don't understand is that there are many
> many bookies..so if a punter takes a bet 25k/5k
> with one bookie why do they all have to shorten
> the horses odds?

It is to prevent that bookie who took the bet to take back the bet by laying some or all of it off to other bookies.

excample lets say horse ABC is 4/1 so the horse get's claimed @ bookie1 for R25000/6250, now if the other bookies do not shorten he can now lay off some of it or allof it, and in some cases other bookmakers would have had the horse ABC @ 9/2 so he could have laid off for a profit..

but ya it is all still clandistine, as you still not know who made the "claim" and if the "claim" was legit, was it a bookie who just claimed the horse to turn the market and take the focus away from another runner? or was it a claim by a bookie on behalf of a client (owner, trainer or (even jockey lol:))

But i think sometimes to much emphasis are being put on claims, i don' know how many times have I changed my selections because of a claimed horse and lost money.