The Rule 4 deduction scale

Pence taken off each £1 of your winnings, by the price of the withdrawn horse.

Read this before relying on it

• OFFICIAL This is the table in the Tattersalls Committee Rules on Betting (Rule 4(C); last revised 17 May 2010, reissued with new place terms on 1 January 2015, and the Rule 4 text is identical in both). Sky Bet's help page and Betfair Sportsbook's rules print the same bands but with slightly different edges in four places (13/8, 15/8, 5/2 and 10/3 instead of 8/5, 9/5, 12/5 and 16/5); the deduction is the same at every price a horse is actually quoted at. We have not checked for a newer version of the rules.
• The printed scale has gaps. Some prices fall between two printed bands, for example 13/4 (between 3/1 and 16/5) or 21/5 (between 4/1 and 9/2). BOOKMAKER Betfair Sportsbook's help page says a price not in the table is treated at the next highest price quoted: its example puts 21/5 in the 9/2 bracket. The calculator does the same. Other bookmakers may differ.
• BOOKMAKER Betfair Sportsbook also says it uses the last Betfair price available at the moment the horse was withdrawn, and gives this example: £10 at 10/1 wins £100 profit; a 2/5 favourite is withdrawn (70p), so £30 profit and £40 back.
• BOOKMAKER William Hill's own help page confirms: the stake is always returned, total deductions never exceed 90p in the £, no deduction above 14/1, Rule 4 applies to win and each-way bets, and a total deduction of 5p is waived. It says the rule begins after final declarations and applies when a horse is withdrawn before coming under starter's orders. It also says a further withdrawal after a new market has formed can add a deduction to bets struck earlier.
• BOOKMAKER Sky Bet's own page says the deduction is based on the withdrawn horse's price at the time of withdrawal, that the 90p cap applies, that your full stake is always returned (apart from dead heats), and that deductions start only after final declarations. Its worked example: a 7/4 horse (35p) and a 6/1 horse (10p) withdrawn give 45p on bets struck before the first withdrawal; bets struck between the two withdrawals get 25p (the second horse was then 5/2); bets after the second reform get nothing. The calculator gives 45p for that case.
• The calculator puts a price that falls between two bands into the next longer band.
• The Rules themselves say racegoers should be aware that some bookmakers may vary from them, and that a bookmaker who does must display the difference. Reports say some firms ignore the 5p band (William Hill, for one, waives a total of 5p).
• Total deductions are capped at 90p in the £, and a horse withdrawn at longer than 14/1 brings no deduction (Tattersalls Rule 4(C)).

Source: Tattersalls Committee Rules on Betting. We compared two copies: the original text (last revised 17 May 2010) from the Tattersalls Committee's own website, and the January 2015 reissue with updated each-way place terms from the Jockey Club website. The Rule 4 scale and wording are the same in both. The Committee is a separate body from the Tattersalls horse-sales company. If you spot a later version, tell us and we will compare it.

What the official rule says

• Which bets: a bet where a price was taken on the day of the race, when a horse is then officially withdrawn or declared "not to have started". The deduction is based on the odds current against the withdrawn horse at the time of the official notification. The Starting Price validators (Press Association) are the people who decide the prevailing odds of withdrawn horses.
• Several withdrawals: the total never exceeds 90p in the £.
• Reformed markets: for a bet placed before a withdrawal, the total over all withdrawn horses (one in the original market, one in the reformed) is worked out on the prices in the original market. A bet placed in a reformed market is worked out on the prices in that market.
• Starting Price bets: not affected, unless there was too little time for a new market to form, in which case the same scale applies.
• If no market had formed when a runner was withdrawn, all bets (other than ante-post) are settled at Starting Price, except bets at Early Prices (day-of-race prices offered more than 90 minutes before the off), where Rule 4(C) still applies.
• If a reserve replaces a declared runner, bets placed before the replacement and a new market are settled at Starting Price (non-ante-post).
• A walkover (only one runner left) makes all bets on the race void.
• Dead heats: the stake is halved first and the Rule 4 deduction is applied to the winnings from the reduced stake.
• Ante-post: a separate part of the rules (Rule 4(A)): single ante-post bets are void in certain circumstances such as the race being abandoned.

Place-only markets are different

BOOKMAKER Betfair Sportsbook's own rules use a separate table for place-only bets. The deduction depends on the withdrawn horse's place price and on how many places are paid. Deductions add up but are capped at 95p in the £ here (90p for win bets). If the withdrawals leave no more runners than places, the bets are void. Other bookmakers' place-only rules may differ.

Source: Betfair Sportsbook, Horse Racing Rules (read 29 October 2026). The calculator on the front page covers win bets only. For other special markets Betfair says it uses the withdrawn horse's win price: for example a horse at 4/1 to win but 11/4 in an "Insurebet 2 places" market gives a 20p deduction.

How the bookmakers differ

All of them use the same scale, but they do not all use the same price for the withdrawn horse, and a few have their own small variations. All of this comes from each firm's own rules or help pages, as supplied.

Why it matters: say a horse was 3/1 when you bet (25p band) but had drifted in to evens by the time it was withdrawn (45p band). A firm using the price at withdrawal takes 45p; a firm using the price when you bet takes 25p. The calculator asks for the price you want to use, so try both if you are not sure which your bookmaker used.

A worked example

From William Hill's own page: £20 at 7/4 would win £35. A 4/1 horse is withdrawn (20p in the £), so 20 per cent of £35 = £7 comes off. Winnings £28, plus the £20 stake, makes £48 back. (The calculator gives the same answer.)

Another example: £10 at 4/1 normally wins £40 profit (£50 back). If a 7/1 horse is withdrawn, the deduction is 10p in the £: £40 becomes £36 profit, so £46 back. The £10 stake is never touched.