mr hawaii wrote: While I agree the owners can enter and scratch as they like I do think we must be cautious when it comes to boom horses - Now trainer a nominates his top horse for a race - others see this and decide to give that race a miss but the trainer has also entered a lesser horse in the race- Come raceday the top horse is scratched and the second string is home- Also there was a trend to enter top MR horses in a race and then enter a lesser light in that handicap - The field is set and then lo and behold one or two from the same stable are scratched . Though not illegal I do think Racing needs to avoid these grey areas that can cast a shadow on the sport and create an impression of deceit.
I think there is a slight difference in the 2 scenarios you put forward - the first really gives the impression of some 'scheme' being in the offing, while the second is often the case when the race would not have stood up due to lack of entries - here I think there is a fine line on whether the purpose was to 'save the race' (which would be fine imo), or to 'manipulate the outcome' (which brings up the same bad taste in the mouth as would be the case with scenario one)
