Grand horse race

I understand the first season once you got a strategy for playing and holding card hands I won a lot of races. Now this season it seems like there are BOTS are making sure wining is low. It even appears there are "players" that play more times and more cards than they should have. When a player play 4 of a kind 2 times in 1 race how am I getting 3rd and 4th place that round?