I note some disquiet with the treatment of late scratchings.

As JWH observes "late scratchings  are the bane of the existence of comp compilers." I agree.

Yet they are a fact of life and, one way or another, the rues of a competition must deal with them.

As far as I can see there are four ways of dealing with them.
1. If you can get in fast enough, you can amend your selection.
2. Lose the bet. UGH
3. Have the $20 credited (no chance to advance in the wins and placings listing).
4. Have the bet replaced by an arbitrary, but fixed, process.

For this competition, we follow the 1st and the 4th way.  In the original description of the competition I wrote the following.

Selections must be made prior to the scheduled starting time for the race.  If any selected horse is scratched and not replaced (or if a horse is not nominated for a race) the horse carrying the highest saddle cloth will become the de facto selection.

Brian I posted my numbers early today but reset them as actually spent more time looking for value. So my score was actually only $21 with the changes.