JR,

You bring out a situation which is handled differently at the tracks than it is when you bet offshore. But I don't believe the tracks have a choice. Let me try to explain why, changing your example slightly.

Let's say you had a ticket that was 1x2x4x2, a total of 16 combinations.

You bet it at the track and you bet it offshore.

You lost your single in the first race. You lost the second race. You lost the third race. In the fourth race, there is a gate scratch on one of your two horses. How many people at the track would still be holding their tickets with three losing legs? Unless they were holding for offset against IRS winnings, not many. No refund at the track, you would get the post time favorite instead of the scratched horse, which is a moot point since you already had a dead ticket.

However, if you bet the race offshore, they don't grade the tickets until after the last race and you would get a refund on half of your ticket. This happened to me on Friday with Inamorato, who I singled heavily in the pick 4. He was in the second leg and I had missed the first leg. When Inamorato was scratched about 4 minutes to post, I got my full wager back.

I know my example isn't the same as yours, but the tracks need to have a consistent policy and I think that giving a refund if a horse scratches in the first leg, and defaulting to the post time favorites in any of the next 3 legs is probably the most workable solution.