ABSTRACT

The effect of a jockey’s sex on both pari-mutuel betting odds and race outcomes is examined for a three-year sample of North American thoroughbred races. The results reveal that for all races in total, a jockey’s sex has no significant impact on the outcome of a race, holding all else constant, including horse quality. However, horseplayers assign a 1.5% higher probability of winning to female jockeys as reflected in their betting behaviour. For the subsample of stakes races, female jockeys are 2% less likely to win, ceteris paribus, but horseplayers do not consider jockey sex to be significant information for these premier races. Thus, the results indicate that horseplayers overestimate the performance of female jockeys in an industry where female jockeys often report significant hurdles to achievement and advancement. We conclude that pari-mutuel betting markets reflect an inefficiency with respect to a jockey’s sex and that additional research is needed to uncover the source of this anomaly.

摘要

在北美纯种马比赛的三年样本中检查了骑师的性别对彩池投注赔率和比赛结果的影响。结果显示，在所有比赛中，骑师的性别对比赛结果没有显着影响，其他所有因素保持不变，包括马匹质量。然而，骑手认为女骑师获胜的概率要高 1.5%，这反映在她们的投注行为中。对于赌注比赛的子样本，在其他条件不变的情况下，女骑师获胜的可能性要低 2%，但骑马者并不认为骑师性别是这些主要比赛的重要信息。因此，结果表明，骑手高估了女骑师在一个女性骑师经常报告成就和进步的重大障碍的行业中的表现。我们得出的结论是，彩池投注市场反映了骑师性别方面的低效率，需要进一步的研究来发现这种异常现象的根源。