Lucky 15 Rule 4 deductions
Rule 4 on a Lucky 15 applies when a horse you didn't back is withdrawn from one of your races. Your own pick now has fewer rivals, so a set amount is taken off what that selection wins. How much comes off depends on the price of the horse that was pulled, worked out as pence per pound. So for each £1 your pick would have won, that number of pence is removed.
The Rule 4 deduction scale
The figures are set out in the Tattersalls Committee Rules on Betting. The lower the odds of the horse that came out, the bigger the cut, since that horse not running improves your selection's chance of winning.
A few of the prices listed are odds-on. That just means the horse was fancied so heavily that backing it to win would have returned less in winnings than the stake itself, like 1/9 or 4/6.
| Odds of the horse that was pulled out | Deduction per £1 won |
|---|---|
| 1/9 or shorter (odds-on) | 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 | 45p |
| 5/4 to 6/4 | 40p |
| 8/5 to 7/4 | 35p |
| 9/5 to 9/4 | 30p |
| 12/5 to 3/1 | 25p |
| 16/5 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 | Nothing |
When two or more horses come out of the same race, the cuts are combined. Even so, the Tattersalls rules cap the total at 90p per £1.
What does Rule 4 cost a Lucky 15?
Only the winnings are reduced; the stake you get back stays as it was. Picture a 4/1 winner on a £1 single with a 25p deduction. The winnings fall from £4.00 to £3.00, meaning you get £4.00 back rather than £5.00.
The reduction affects every bet in your Lucky 15 that includes that horse, not just the bet on it to win alone but also the bets combining it with your other selections.
Imagine a £1 Lucky 15 with picks at 2/1, 3/1, 4/1 and 5/1, where the 2/1 and 3/1 come home first and the other two are beaten. With nothing deducted it pays £19.00 on the £15 staked. Apply a 25p Rule 4 to the 3/1 and every bet that includes it is paid at the reduced price of 2.25/1, so the slip returns £16.00 instead of £19.00.
| Same bet, with the 2/1 and 3/1 as winners | Return from £15 |
|---|---|
| Nothing taken off | £19 |
| 25p Rule 4 applied to the 3/1 | £16 |
A Lucky 15 when one horse doesn't run
If it's your own pick that doesn't run, that's a non-runner, and Rule 4 has nothing to do with it. A non-runner is simply a horse that was declared for a race but never actually ran in it. You still pay the full price for the slip, so one non-runner in a £1 Lucky 15 leaves the cost at £15.
The £1 stake on the non-runner's single is handed back to you. Any line that had the non-runner in it is settled on the remaining legs, meaning a fourfold drops to a treble and a treble drops to a double. Paddy Power puts it like this: the single's stake is returned and each multiple loses a leg. bet365 describes the non-runner as void within a multiple, with the bet settled on what remains.
For instance, a £1 Lucky 15 with 2/1, 3/1 and 4/1 all winning alongside a non-runner pays £239.00 from the £15 staked, and that figure already includes the £1 handed back on the non-runner's own bet.
Rule 4 or a non-runner: how to tell which applies
It helps to keep these two situations apart when you check a settled bet, because they work in quite different ways. When a horse you didn't back comes out, your selection still takes part and Rule 4 may trim its winnings. If your own horse is a non-runner, its single stake is returned and bets containing it are settled on the remaining selections, though a Rule 4 deduction can still affect winnings from another selection on the same slip.