I’ve been unable to check my facts because – despite my ringing Tabcorp’s public relations department about this Melbourne Cup debacle – I am unable to get a comment from them.

As far as my recollection goes, a few weeks ago Tabcorp / Sportsbet made a promotion where they advertised double the pre-post odds about any Japanese entrant in the Melbourne Cup.

At the time I remember thinking gee, how can they afford to do that? But I never took advantage of the offer.

Yesterday there was a discussion on the radio that equine flu had broken out in Japan and the speculation is that the Japanese raiders will not be able to take their place because of quarantine.

If this is the case, punters who took advantage of the offer face risking all their wagers in this promotion.

Despite their innocence, because this outbreak has happened so close to the above promotion the inference from these punters will be that the marketplace already had knowledge that the equine flu was affecting Japan as these sort of things do not appear overnight.

My guess is that Tabcorp will probably refund the punters if this equine flu outbreak does indeed cause the elimination of the Japanese raiders as this is not the kind of publicity Tabcorp are seeking.