To put it simply a Rule 4 is a deduction that is made to all winning bets that were placed before a non runner was declared in a race and is only relevant to non runners of a certain price.
What is a Rule 4?
Rule 4 Deductions
A Rule 4 is only activated if a horse is withdrawn after the official declarations have been submitted and it will only affect bets where the odds have been taken on a horse rather than choosing the Starting Price (SP).
When is there not a Rule 4 on a bet?
It won’t affect ante-post bets or SP bets. Also, if you placed your bet after a horse was withdrawn then it won’t be affected. Also nowadays with so many bookmakers offering guaranteed odds, if your horse has an SP the same or bigger than when you placed your bet, then the Rule 4 will not affect your bet.
The amount of the Rule 4 is dependent on the price or the horse or horses that are withdraw. The shorter the horses price then the bigger deduction will be made to your winning bet. We have displayed a full breakdown of deductions below.
Why are there Rule 4s?
They are basically in place to secure the integrity of racing. The potential for kinds of corruption would be open to be abused, if this wasn’t in place.
Rule 4 Deductions
- 1/9 or shorter – 90p
- 2/11 to 2/17 – 85p
- 1/4 to 1/5 – 80p
- 3/10 to 2/7 – 75p
- 2/5 to 1/3 – 70p
- 8/15 to 4/9 – 65p
- 8/13 to 4/7 – 60p
- 4/5 to 4/6 – 55p
- 20/21 to 5/6 – 50p
- Evens to 6/5 – 50p
- 5/4 to 6/4 – 40p
- 13/8 to 7/4 – 35p
- 15/8 to 9/4 – 30p
- 5/2 to 3/1 – 25p
- 10/3 to 4/1 – 20p
- 9/2 to 11/2 – 15p
- 6/1 to 9/1 – 10p
- 10/1 to 14/1 – 5p
- Over 14/1 – No deduction