Still Looking for My Answer on the Horse Betting Quiz

Yesterday morning, I posed a challenging question for horse bettors:

Is there ever a situation in a parimutuel betting system in which you would want to bet on a horse to win, even though you knew for sure that the horse would lose the race?

Some clever folks came up with an answer involving “breakage.” That was not what I was looking for, but it is correct, meaning blog reader “dd” –the first one to mention it — will win a prize.

But I am still looking for the answer I have in mind, so keep on thinking. I knew this was a hard one.

Hint #1: It does not involve arbitrage between the parimutuel pool and any other odds.

Hint #2: It does not involve influencing other people’s perceptions of what the true odds should be.