What is NRNB in Horse Racing?
If you are the kind of racing punter who likes to tackle the ante-post markets, you’ll likely have come across the term NRNB. It stands for Non-Runner No Bet, meaning that you will have your stake returned if, for some reason, your selection does not participate in the race.
NRNB is, therefore, an easy concept to understand, yet that said, its importance to some bettors cannot be understated. Moreover, it gets a bit more complicated as part of horse racing betting strategies.
To explain, you should consider the following scenario: If you place a bet, say, a couple of hours before a race, and your selection is suddenly scratched from the race, it’s almost certain that NRNB will be applied automatically. You’ll get your money back by presenting your betting slip (if you’re at the track) or automatically refunded to your online betting account.
Now, what if the bet wasn’t placed a couple of hours before the race but several months before it? Perhaps surprisingly for some inexperienced bettors, it’s actually highly unlikely that you would get your money back. That might sound unfair, but we can elaborate on the reasons why.
NRNB & Ante-Post Betting Strategies
It’s important to understand NRNB within the context of ante-post betting. If you were to look at the 2026 Grand National odds today, it’s clear that the markets will look very different nine months from now when the race goes off. There is a summer and the best part of the national hunt season to get through before we reach Mid-April at the Grand National at Aintree.
The allure of finding value
Therefore, you might see a horse available at 100/1 in the Grand National markets today who ends up being 10/1 on race day after impressing across the jumps season. That’s the art of ante-post betting: you are betting on the potential. It is an attempt to outsmart the bookmakers.
Now, the flipside is that your selection might not end up running in the race. If NRNB is not offered (which is unlikely at this point in our Grand National example), then you wouldn’t get your money back. The argument, on the bookmakers’ behalf, is that you are benefitting from potentially inflated odds and thus your wager is twofold: first, you are betting on the horse winning the race. Secondly, you are betting on the horse participating in the race.
For balance, we should say that there can be instances where you pick a horse in the ante-post markets and its odds actually rise before the race goes off, meaning you took a price that was lower than the SP. This does happen, but it’s again part of the ups and downs of ante-post betting.
A balance between risk and reward
So, why bother at all with ante-post betting? Why not just wait until closer to the race, knowing you will get your stake back if the horse doesn’t run? Well, as hinted, it’s all part of the art of ante-post betting. You are, in a sense, hunting for value. We can give some real-world examples. In January 2021, Put the Kettle On was priced around 66/1 for the Queen Mother Champion Chase that upcoming March at the Cheltenham Festival. By the time the Festival rolled around two months later, the mare was priced with an SP of 17/2. She duly won the race, and those who took the risk in January were handsomely rewarded.
It doesn’t always work out as neatly as it did with Put the Kettle On, but it is an example of what ante-post bettors are trying to achieve. They get double satisfaction – knowing that they won the race and that they got a much better price by employing a long-term strategy.
We will finish with an important tip. If you have an eye on a particular festival, shop around different bookmakers, as many will offer NRNB on big races as part of a promotion. It could give you an extra piece of insurance as part of your racing strategy.