So if a horse is scratched, what happens to the money already involved? Do the owners get their entry fee back? I’ve heard bettors get the bets back. Does that apply to exotics/multihorse bets, too, like you bet the daily double, and your choice in the second half is a late scratch?
The majority of races don’t have any fees attached so that part is irrelevant. In stakes races they have a nomination fee, an entry box fee and a start fee. The nomination and entry box fee is forfeited, the start fee would not be charged in the event of a scratch.
In multi race bets the substitute the post time favorite if the horse you bet on scratches.
Bettors do not get a refund. The money bet is switched to the post time favorite.
It can get a little tricky if the horse is scratched or pulled by the vet at the gate at post time or after as one of TPs was a few years ago. IIRC, you are stuck with the bet at that point.
As Laurierace mentioned, nomination and entry fees are not refunded. You don’t pay the starter fee. (Conditions of the race read, for example, “$100 which must be accompanied by the nomination, $750 to enter and $750 to start.”) That money becomes part of the purse.
Certain types of bets are refunded. This would be your win/place/show type straight bets.
For your more complicated bets, and depending on where the race is being run - for example, NY has many different rules that don’t apply anywhere else - you might get a consolation payoff, be switched over to the betting favorite at post time, or get a refund. Often and especially with a gate scratch or just-before-they-get-to-the-gate scratch, they will pull all the horses out of the gate while the scratched horse is tended to/taken off the track, and give bettors time to go back to the windows and change their bets.
States have different laws regarding refunds. In some cases, you get a refund, in others you revert to the post time favorite. The latter usually involves late scratches in anything but the first leg of a multi race bet, like a pick 3 or pick 4.
