Horse Racing U.K Racing Bogus Payoff

So I don't bet UK racing much, but I did today.

1st race at Lingfield, 6 horses, I made what's called a "swinger" bet, which (as most US bettors probably aren't familiar with) it's picking 2 of the top 3 horses, in any order of the 1st three positions.

I bet a combo with the pretty heavy favorite (around 3/5 M/L) and a horse that went off at 8-1 (3rd choice).

The payoffs were as follows:

For the winner: 1.4 for the win, 1.8 for the place. (well, that's already pretty bogus!)
For the 2nd place horse 2.5 for place.

Now the swinger bet for these 2 horses paid 1.1 (one dollar gets you $1.10 back).

If you think about it, say instead of a swinger bet, it was a show bet. Well, the favorite coming in top 3 would have probably paid 1.1 ($2.20 show, at least that's what most 6 horse fields with heavy favorite would pay in the U.S.). So if the favorite does show, that means the other horse now only has 2 other places to complete this swinger wager. You'd thing that would be considerably more difficult, and therefore must have a higher payoff.

WTF is going on there in these UK pools? Are they so small that one large bet can knock things down to such low odds?

Link to days racing (Feb. 18, 2015)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-rac...iner-lingfield

Source.

 

Yes - the tote pools are not the best way to bet, especially in small runner fields at low grade tracks. Unlike the US you are competing with massive bookmakers taking most of the market off course and peer to peer betting markets. This leaves low pools with big relative takeouts in small fields.