Or maybe to qualify for the prestigious Melbourne cup a horse has to have a running history good enough, and the long odds only reflect its relative strength against the favoured horses with even better histories. That is, put the Pirates of Penzance in race no.6 at Doomben and its odds might be only 3 / 1 !

Now why didn't some of you horse heads tell me that instead of letting me continue to bask in my ignorance.
Boo hoo hoo, maybe I'm just doomed to kill conversations stone dead with my contributions.