Harness bookmakers are steeling themselves for another assault after punters took them to the cleaners last Friday night.
The TAB's oddsetters were left reeling by a series of huge bets on the two harness meetings at Cambridge and Addington last Friday that may have taken as much as $400,000 outof the coffers.
The biggest hit came from three all-up bets, covering 10, eight and seven horses respectively, some for the win and others for the place, all of which won. That saw payouts of roughly $197,000, $50,000 and $38,000 all to the same punter.
As if that wasn't bad enough some larger-than-usual bets landed at Addington, with one punter having $18,000 on Border Control at $1.60 and another, likely the same punter, $10,000 on the same horse at $1.50 just before the start of the race.
Even after having a harder run than expected, Border Control won.
TAB bookie Richard Wilson admits the night was a horror show and a shock. "It has really dented our profits from the harness book for the year and the season so far.
"The all-up bet, well that can happen and the fact there were three similar tickets made it tough.
"And then bets like the $18,000 on Border Control, even at the short odds, they are big bets on racing anywhere."
The harness book has already had a rugged start to the year with around 41 per cent of favourites winning, well up on the usual 29 per cent.
Harness racing lends itself to punters who think they can read a race taking large four- or even five-figure bets on odds-on chances.
"We probably have around six punters who regularly bet between that $2000-$5000 mark, even up to $10,000 on those type of horses and a lot of them have been winning."
With their regular punters winning big at the moment and cashed up, it seems logical they will attack again soon, especially with so many harness meetings on at the moment.
"You tend to find with big punters when they win they come back for another crack so we are hoping the favourites stop winning soon."
The barrier draws for Saturday's Hunter Cup and Victoria Derby were held last night, with coverage in tomorrow's Herald.
