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What happens to a Patent bet if one horse is a non-runner?
A £1 Patent with one non-runner, settled in pounds: the missing horse's single is refunded, six stakes run on, and one 2/1 winner returns the £7.
Under Sky Bet’s published rule for bets placed on the day, if one horse in a Patent is a non-runner, its own single is void and that stake comes back, its two doubles become singles on the other horses, and the treble becomes a double. Applied bet by bet, on a £1 Patent, £1 is refunded and £6 keeps running.
This is an evergreen explainer, with no news event behind it.
What happens to a Patent bet if one horse is a non-runner? The rule
This desk read Sky Bet’s non-runners page on 3 October 2026. It says that “in most circumstances” a bet on a non-runner is void and the stake returned, and that in a multiple “the bet will become the next accumulative bet down”, a treble becoming a double. Only Sky Bet’s rule was read for this piece; other bookmakers’ terms can differ.
Sky Bet’s bet-types page, read the same day, defines the Patent as seven bets on three selections: three singles, three doubles and one treble. Call the horses A, B and C, and let C be the non-runner:
- The C single has no runner left: void, £1 returned.
- The AC and BC doubles become singles on A and B.
- The ABC treble becomes the AB double.
- The A and B singles and the AB double stand as placed.
Result: four singles, two doubles, one refund. The singles are doubled up: A and B each now carry two £1 singles.
A £1 Patent with one non-runner, in pounds
Take A at 2/1 and B at 3/1, with C a non-runner. Illustrative desk prices, not an operator’s payout; returns include stake and assume no Rule 4 deduction.
| Bet as placed | Settled as | Neither wins | A only wins | A and B win |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A single | A single | £0 | £3 | £3 |
| B single | B single | £0 | £0 | £4 |
| C single | void, refunded | £1 | £1 | £1 |
| AB double | AB double | £0 | £0 | £12 |
| AC double | A single | £0 | £3 | £3 |
| BC double | B single | £0 | £0 | £4 |
| ABC treble | AB double | £0 | £0 | £12 |
| Total returned on £7 | £1 | £7 | £39 |
With no winners, only the refunded £1 comes back. With A alone at 2/1, the slip returns £7, exactly the outlay; B alone at 3/1 returns £9. Two winners return £39.
Do you get your money back on a Patent with a non-runner?
Part of it. Only the non-runner’s own single is refunded, so one £1 stake in seven. The other six stakes stay on the slip because each still holds a live horse. That is the difference from a Trixie: with no singles, a Trixie’s non-runner refunds nothing, as settled in the Trixie non-runner post.
A Patent with two non-runners
Now let B and C both be withdrawn. Sky Bet’s page does not spell out a double whose two legs are both non-runners; the reading below follows its void rule and its step-down rule to their end, and is the desk’s inference, not a quoted rule.
- The B and C singles are void: £2 returned.
- The BC double has no runner left: void, £1 returned.
- The AB and AC doubles become singles on A.
- The ABC treble steps down twice, to a single on A.
- The A single stands.
So A carries four £1 stakes and three are void. If A wins at 2/1, the slip returns £12 plus the £3 refund, £15 on £7. If A loses, £3 comes back.
Ante-post non-runners and Rule 4
Everything above is for bets placed on the day. Sky Bet’s page carves out ante-post: a bet on a non-runner placed ante-post “will be classed as a losing bet”, with Cheltenham Festival bets under its Non-Runner No Bet promotion refunded where that promotion is stated. If C was backed ante-post, the C single, the AC and BC doubles and the treble lose outright. Only the A single, B single and AB double stand: £19 if A and B both win at the prices above.
A non-runner in a rival’s race is a different matter. A late withdrawal can bring a Rule 4 deduction on A’s or B’s winnings. No deduction scale was read for this piece, so no figure is printed; the mechanics are in what Rule 4 actually costs.
Patent, Trixie, Yankee and Lucky 15 compared
What decides a refund is whether the bet holds a single on the missing horse. Among the three-horse bets, the Patent does and the Trixie does not. The four-horse versions behave the same way: a Lucky 15 holds singles and refunds the missing horse’s, covered in the Lucky 15 non-runner audit; a Yankee has none and refunds nothing, settled in the Yankee non-runner post.
Frequently asked questions
What happens with a non-runner in a Patent bet? Under Sky Bet’s published rule, the non-runner’s single is void and its stake returned, the two doubles containing it become singles on the other horses, and the treble becomes a double. Of seven stakes, one comes back and six keep running on two horses. BetHQ notes the affected single may be refunded or lost depending on the bookmaker, so read your own bookmaker’s terms.
How many bets in a Patent? Seven, on three selections: three singles, three doubles and one treble, per Sky Bet’s bet-types page. The stake is multiplied by the number of bets, so a £1 Patent costs £7 and a £2 Patent costs £14. Drop the three singles and the same three horses make a Trixie, which is four bets.
Is a Patent a good bet? No bet type is good or bad on its own; each of the seven bets carries the bookmaker’s margin, so a Patent pays that margin seven times. What it buys is a return from one winner. On a £1 Patent, a single winner at 6/1 returns exactly the £7 staked; anything shorter is a loss unless a second horse wins too.
Which is the best bet, a Trixie or a Patent? Neither is better by construction. A £1 Trixie costs £4 and needs two winners to return anything; a £1 Patent costs £7 and adds three singles, so one winner pays. With a non-runner the gap narrows: the Trixie’s doubles become singles, but only the Patent refunds a stake, because only the Patent holds a single on the missing horse.
A non-runner turns a Patent into a smaller bet on fewer horses, not a safer one: the £6 still running can lose in full. Count the £7 as spent when the slip goes on, and if a refunded pound starts to look like a reason to stake again, that is the chase, not the maths.