Horse Racing - Rule 4 Rules
If your horse racing bet hasn’t returned as much as you thought it would, the first action to take is to check if the race was affected by a 'Rule 4' (or R4). The quickest way to do so is by using our Account History or Settled bets options within the My Account area.
Rule 4 (or Rule 4(c) to give it it's full title) is a Tattersalls Rule of Racing which governs all Horse Racing to compensate for the later withdrawal of a horse or runner in your chosen race. To explain the spirit of the rule in it's simplest terms, please consider the following hypothetical example:
You have elected to bet on Horse A @ 5/1 in the 2.30 at Ascot. There are only 3 runners in this particular race and later on in the day, Horse B @ 7/4 unfortunately has to withdraw from the race. The race now becomes a 2 runner race and immediately your horse's chance of winning have increased from 1 in 3 runners to 1 in 2 runners. Once the non-runner is official we will revise the race at the earliest opportunity with new odds for the 2
remaining runners. Therefore with this in mind, the 5/1 taken earlier in the day is now no longer a fair reflection of Horse A's chances and some form of reduction is needed to compensate.