Traditional Odds Or Metric? What Do You Prefer?

Since I started doing the Belhus Racing Blog, I've been quoting odds in my favoured traditional style, for example 6/4, 3/1, 50/1 etc. Now that's created a bit of a storm with emails, telephone calls and even one bloke getting right up me at the races! Australia went decimal in 1966, but the traditional odds traded on the racecourse stayed around until a couple of years ago - but I still use them!

Now I know it's the way things are nowadays, but as an ex bookie myself, I just reckon that sometimes, the old ways are the best. There's just something very different about a bookie shouting "$2.75", instead of "7/4 this favourite", (if you're lucky enough to hear a bookie shouting his odds nowadays"!).

There's no doubt the language of the racecourse is all but disappearing. The "grand" of course is still around in today's language, but gone are the "monkeys", "ponies" and "Archie mores". And instead of "even stevens", "levels ya devils" and "yours for mine", all we get today is a very sterile "$2.00".

So, let me know which you prefer. Do you want the odds as they were, or would you prefer the new fangled decimal odds as quoted in newspapers, TAB's, etc...

- Peter Morley