USTA - what are you accomplishing?

[Just a Fan]

Every week or so the USTA posts an update on their Grand Circuit Handicapping challenge, a yearlong competition where they track spot plays from 10 handicappers.

a) Other than the 10 people in the contest, I don't know why anyone would really be interested in how other people's picks are doing. As far as I know, the picks aren't made public before the races.

b) Even if people are interested - guess how the 10 esteemed handicappers are doing? The combined W/L is a loss of 13,719.33!

This isn't meant to pick on the 10 people in the contest. No serious bettor would make wagering plays without knowing what the odds are going to be, and its nearly impossible to show positive results when you are submitting plays with no knowledge of odds Betting horses is more about understanding odds and value than identifying the horse(s) that are likely to win. But if the USTA is trying to promote wagering, they are showcasing 10 so called experts that have lost THIRTEEN THOUSAND dollars! What exactly does this thing accomplish?

[am1947]

FAN,

I think that is a HANA contest not USTA.
winning capper has prize money go to a horse rescue charity of their choice I believe.
http://hanaharnesscontest.blogspot.com/p/leader-board.html
http://hanaharnesscontest.blogspot.com/p/horse-rescues.html
http://hanaharnesscontest.blogspot.com/p/handicapper-selections.html
is where they post the selections
Contest Standardbred Rescues
Central Virginia Horse Rescue - South Hill, VA
Changing Fates Equine Rescue - Laurel, DE
Heading For Home - Saratoga Springs, NY
Helping Hearts Equine Rescue - Perrineville, NJ
Horse Lovers United – Salisbury, MD
Lollypop Farm (Humane Society of Greater Rochester) - Fairport, NY
Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals - South Windham, ME
Racers Placers - Parddville, WI
Rockin T Equine Rescue- Lisbon Falls, ME
TROTR (Therapeutic Riding and Off Track Rehabilitation) - Woodland, CA

AM

[Just a Fan]

My bad. The USTA is merely publishing the weekly updates from HANA. I'm glad there is a charity aspect, because beyond that I don't know what the point of the contest is. It does nothing to spur interest in either the sport or the wagering aspect. No offense to the folks participating, but they keep publishing all these updates even though no one outside of those 10 people and their charities cares who wins. And the cumulative W/L that they are showing does nothing to inspire people that the game can be beaten.

Maybe I'm just a grouch - I don't see anyone else complaining about this. I just think they could have put the time and effort into setting up a contest that the public could participate in, rather than sending weekly updates on a closed contest that is doing nothing to flatter anyone involved.

Side note - I just pulled up some previous selections, and saw one player betting three $10 pick 3 combos (total bet cost $30) into a Hoosier pick 3 pool that had a pool size of $688. I guess that's the beauty of mythical wagers... you don't have to worry about skewing the potential payoffs!

[RaceTrackDaddy]

I was part of the first Hana competition back in 2010. Back then, Jeff Gural, owner of Tigoa Downs took the steps to create interest in wagering at Tioga by lowering the retention rates. In support of that effort a few of us created an online program named Pen v chip at Tioga. We had two pen and paper players and two compute generated players one of which was Trackmaster Chatsworth Consortium. Then in 2012 we brought it back with more sponsors on board with four computer generated contestants and four pen and paper. I have link to my page I created back then and if you are interested, please check it out.
http://puppypicksbyz.webatu.com/test_contest_page.htm

I left the sport this year so I really cannot say much about this year's contest. The two previous ones were just Win wagering. The stats were based upon a $2 wager to win. We also gave out our second and third picks and although not part of the contest, we kept track of the return on investments in those mythical wagers.

All the money donated by the Hambo Society and tracks all went to rescue shelters. We also had side wagers on certain days that would also give the shelter that we playing for a chance to get a $100 check during the contest.

I think on that linked page above has the original post by Hana that describes a little information on the Pen v Chip players.

Here is the link to the current contest as Allan (who is handling it this year) posts the picks prior to the day of the racing. http://hanaharnesscontest.blogspot.com/