Takeout Rates for Greyhound Tracks

[yak merchant]

Does anyone, know where I can get a full list of takeout rates for Greyhound tracks. I'm starting to think it's a mystery. Thanks in advance.

[Zaf]

Mystery, what about purses ? I do not ever recall seeing a purse listed in a past performance program.

ZAFONIC

[yak merchant]

Yeah not in the programs. They just set the purses for each class, and tell you what class the dog ran in. It's ridiculous, I called US OFFtrack which is supposed to be the biggest Greyhound Telebet place in the nation, and the guy didn't even know what takeout was. I had to explain to him that when you bet, they take out money before redistributing it, it was quite comical. Then he went and talked to his manager and she said, "Oh we don't have that". That really means, "It would take me time to get you that information, and I could care less about customer service, I hate my job, and my husband is cheating on me".

I'm going to send an email to every track in the nation and see how many actually care enough about customer service to give me the information.

YM

[Zaf]

I do not bet greyhounds. I go to Mohegan Sun Race Book from time to time and they usually have these races on one of their big screens. For some reason whenever they are running a race I am drawn to watching it, even though I don't wager. My eyes are always on that big screen.

I have been to Wonderland, Plainfield, Derby Lane, Sanford-Orlando and the defunct Green Moutain. I only have bet them when I was watching live.

ZAFONIC

[JimG]

Southland Greyhound Park 19% on all wagers. I'll post more as I find them if anyone interested.

Jim

http://www.southlandgreyhound.com/today/default.asp

[Zaf]

Does anyone know what the typical purses are and how they are divided up ?

ZAFONIC

[Whitehos]

A % of the handle on each race.
I don't know2 what the % is.

[Zman179]

True, purse values for greyhound races are almost as easy to find as a Big Mac at a vegetarian's house. The only place that I've known that regularly listed dog purses were the tracks in Britain.

Two of the most popular greyhound tracks in Britain are Walthamstow and Wimbledon (both in the London suburbs). The average total purse is £225, and they're top tracks.

Almost impossible to find exact purses at American tracks, but to give you an idea, the leading trainer at Southland (one of the top tracks) has won 150 races from 1018 starts with purse earnings of $112,309. On the other hand, the leading money winning trainer at Shoreline Star (one of the lower rung tracks) won 459 races from 2851 starts for purse earnings of $118,428.

In regards to takeout, here are a few examples:

Dubuque (and all Iowa tracks): WPS 18%, DD/EX/QUIN 24%, all other exotics 25%
Southland (Arkansas): all pools 19%
Shoreline Star & Plainfield (Connecticut): WPS 18% (soon to be raised to 19%), all exotics 23% (soon to be raised to 26%).

[JackS]

At the cheapest tracks I believe i'ts about $500 for the winner in a Grade A race. At the very best tracks such as Flagler, i'ts probably 5 or 10 times this amount.( Purse values)

[Zman179]

Zafonic: Usually 50% of the purse goes to the winner. The rest of the purse is normally divided amongst the other participants regardless of finish with the second dog getting a few dollars extra.

For an idea of purse distribution, here's a card which shows the purses to be paid out along with the entries:
http://www.wsgreyhound.co.uk/race.pages/advance.card.htm

[Zaf]

Thanks Z-man,

and a trophy to boot , nice :cool:

Have you ever been to Shoreline Star ? They must draw 10's of patrons a card :D .

ZAFONIC

[yak merchant]

Greyhound racing in the UK is great, six dogs, less bumping because they get to choose their box, and you can get fixed odds. I had one of my best days at the track when I went to Wimbledon when I was over there. I loved how they rolled the starting box out in the middle of the track and moved it like a horse gate, and it looked like Plywood Box with garage door springs. Plus it malfunctioned all the time, and instead of declaring a no race like they do in the states, they just packed them back in and ran again. It was great. First race I bet 5 pounds to win on a dog and the tote went crazy. I soon realized that the Win bets were made with the track side bookmakers. Problem was I couldn't read the program. So I asked one of the bookmaker's cronies what one of the symbols meant and instead of answering my question he and his buddies started making fun of me and making stupid American comments. So I paid a guy like 5 bucks to teach me how to read the program, and by about the sixth race I was out for revenge (yes I had been over served). So I proceded to start betting with both fists. I think I won like 1000 pounds in 4 or 5 races. Stupid drunk American.

YM

[Zman179]

Zaf: Yup, tens of patrons sounds about right. Funny thing is that half of them won't bet a dog race, they bet the horse simulcasts. I'd still rather have the Jai-Alai at the abandoned fronton next door.

Yak: Yeah, the tote can get quite nutty at times for the day races. It's a bit better for the nighttime cards though since the tracks have a monopoly at that time.
Went to Walthamstow back in October, looked at the tote board and was totally perplexed at what I was looking at. Took me a while to realize that all of the info was based on a £0.10 wager.
And I do have to admit that I'm still not used to watching dog racing over hurdles in Britain. Just like a canine steeplechase.

[Zaf]

Yak : Great Story

Z-Man : Is Milford Jai-Alai still in operation ? Do they still play at Newport in Rhode Island. Last time I was in Newport they had just got slots. ( This was many years ago. )

ZAFONIC

[Zman179]

All of the Connecticut jai-alai operations have since closed. Milford, which was the last one in CT, closed in 2001. The Milford building is now dormant.
Newport Jai-Alai also discontinued jai-alai in July 2003, but the building is now used for slots and simulcasting.
Right now, there are only 5 jai-alai frontons left in the US, all of which are in Florida.