From the
YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS UP folder.
There is one crackpot author who explained
that the way to play was to make mind bets for the first 8 races, keeping score of how much you lost.
Since you didn't actually make those bets, you are
AHEAD.
So, you take a small percentage of what you
would have lost had you actually bet, and set that aside.
Then you bet the rest of it in the last race.
The way he saw the end result was that you either
"WON" a little or you won a lot.
IOW, the worst that could happen was that you came home only a "small winner" because you didn't lose as much as you would have.