Who says you can't beat a dead horse? . . . or bet one, for that matter !!

Earlier this week a South Australian betting agency accepted a bet on a horse that died more than two weeks earlier.

Chicakaloo was the horse's name. It was put down Sept. 9 after breaking a leg. Chicakaloo was listed as a 200-1 shot to win the Epsom Handicap on Oct. 7 — long odds, to be sure, yet not bad for a horse that had been dead for more than two weeks.

Tom Hunt placed five Australian dollars ($3.75) on the horse, and the Totalisator Agency Board accepted the wager. Paul Caica, minister of South Australia's gambling watchdog, said his office would investigate the matter — how it was possible, if not quite encouraged, to bet a dead horse.


HERE ARE OTHER STRATEGIES FOR HANDLING A DEAD HORSE:

Wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.

2. Changing riders.

3. Saying things like "This is the way we always have ridden this horse."

4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.

5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.

6. Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.

7. Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.

8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.

9. Comparing the state of dead horses in today's environment.

10. Change the requirements declaring that "This horse is not dead."

11. Hire contractors to ride the dead horse.

12. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.

13. Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat."

14. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.

15. Do a CA Study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.

16. Purchase a product to make dead horses run faster.

17. Declare the horse is "better, faster and cheaper" dead.

18. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.

19. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.

20. Say this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.

21. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.