No - I've heard you talk of jackpots, but I don't know how they work. Wanna tell me? :~D
Yeah,:), There are some complaints in this area about the 4D, if they are fair or not. They can be 3D, or 5D, it depends on the how many people show up.
Anyway, The old way of running a jackpot was, they had classes. Novice horse, $100 horse, $500 horse, Open.
If your horse had won no money you ran Novice, $100 dollar horse class was horses who had won under $100, $500 under 5, open was any horse who had won over $500. The problem with this method was alot of people 1. lied about the amount of money their horse had won so open horses were running in lower divisions, 2. you get a very experienced rider even on a green horse they could run times as fast as an open horses, 3. green riders on an open horses were not as good as the horse could be.
3-4-5 D's are: everyone runs in one group. There are no divisions by the amount of money your horse has won.
To keep this simple I'm rounding off times. Say the fastest time in a 4D is 17.00, depending on how many people are there determines how many places they pay per division. (the D stands for divison.) 17.00 wins 1st in the 1st division. they pay 3 places. 17.1 wins 2nd, 17.2 wins 3rd. THEN they add a 1 second to the winning time. Which makes the 2nd division winner the closest one to 18.00 without going under. They pay 3 places, add a 1 second to 18:00 and so on.
The thing that alot of runners complain about is if they run 17:5 they do not win, where as an 18:00 would.
Is this clear as mud. IMO, the 3-4-5 D's are more fair. What do you think?
Becky
I guess I should add, if its a 3D day they add a second 2 times to the winning time, if it's a 4D 3 times...understand:)
Also, sometimes, they only add a 1/2 second instead of a whole to start each division.
Becky