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THE Tote are offering a €1,000 bonus on top of the usual prize for the winner of their Fantasy game on Galway Plate day, but what is the craic with Tote Fantasy?
Well, much like Fantasy Football, on which it’s loosely based, Tote Fantasy gives players a budget to buy a team; in their case that budget is a mythical 10,000 guineas to spend over a seven-race card, with the guinea prices based largely on overnight odds, but not subject to fluctuation.
The budget offered means that – just like its football equivalent – you can’t simply buy all the best horses, meaning the skill is in finding which horses are undervalued, while also retaining those bankers likely to guarantee points.
Points are scored for winning (20pts) as well as finishing second (7pts) or third (2pts), but there are extra points on offer for the winning distance (up to 5pts) and for the size of the field (up to 10pts for a winner, with pro-rata bonuses for placed horses, as well as points for extra places on a similar sliding scale). Importantly, there are no extra points based on SP, which needs bearing in mind.
There are also two boosts which players can choose, namely ‘stable star’ and ‘stewards enquiry’ with each player’s stable star scoring double points. The stewards enquiry boost allows the horse in question to be promoted by one place for points purposes.
The cost is £7 (€8.12) per entry and prizes are based on the total number of players, but the prize structure remains the same, with 25% of players guaranteed a profit, and over 80% of the game fees are paid out in prizes. The prize fund works in two ways, with a tiered payout based on percentile (there are six tiers ranging from the top 2.5% down to top 25%), and a fixed pot for the top five players.
The top five therefore each get a dividend for being in the top 2.5% and on top of that 20% of total game funds go to the winner, 5% to the runner-up, 3% to the third, 2% to fourth and 1% to fifth. If that seems complex, there is a useful worked example on the tote website which helps illustrate the potential breakdown of funds.
In terms of tactics, it’s clear that the majority of points on offer are for winners, but a limited budget means piling the wins up isn’t easy. Doubling your race tally for finding a winning stable star is almost a necessity, but splashing out on an obvious banker means you’ll need to cut corners to make the budget stretch.
You could top-load your team with expensive purchases and pad it out with the cheapest runners available in the remaining races, but it makes more sense to spot the anomalies in the price structure. With prices assigned the night before and unable to change, there are bargains to be had with horses trading much shorter on the day, and it’s often the case that tissue prices are wildly inaccurate, so shopping around will pay dividends.
Utilising the stewards enquiry is also crucial, with the boost best utilised in small-field races, particularly those with short-priced favourites, where a reasonably cheap purchase can almost guarantee a good points return, leaving money in the budget for other potential bankers.
Unlike most pool bets, a complete disaster in the first race doesn’t end your fun for the day, and you can chop and change your selections up until the first race is off. With an extra grand on offer, and a one-in-four chance of cashing in, it will be the best value €8.12 you spend all week, Toblerones notwithstanding.
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