The board of H.R.I. met yesterday to appoint a number of people to key positions within racing. The main appointment was that of Michael Osborne as chairman of Punchestown, but other apointees included baord members for Navan, Punchestown and Tote Ireland.
One name that sticks out is Dr. Patrick Waldron, who has been added to the board of Tote Ireland.
Dr. Waldron is a professor at Trinity College and a well known figure on Irish racetracks.
He achieved a degree of notoriety several years ago when he forced the Tote to change its practices regarding place betting.
Dr. Waldron was one of the people that exploited a loophole in the way that place dividends are calculated.
The idea was to find a short priced favourite and have a large bet on it to be placed. This in turn distorted the pool and smaller wagers were then put on other horses in the race to be placed.
Once the favourite was placed and paid 1.10 you would be in profit, but the real sweetner was that if you backed the other placed horses they would pay freak dividends of maybe 20.00 or 30.00 euros.
Presumably H.R.I. thinks it is better to have Dr. Waldron on the inside looking out rather than the other way around.
