Magna 5

[SoCalCircuit]

Apparently this wagering option is back with some adjustments. Does anyone have any insight into the details (all I can find is a drf plus article at the moment...)

[davew]

2 Saturdays ago, there was a cross country pick 4 with $500K guaranteed pool. - 2 races from GP and 2 races from SA the guarantee was a little over $20K short.

Last weekend, I could not find it anywhere.

I am not sure if it is an occasional wager , occurring whenever there are 4 great races - or a onetime attempt

what can you tell us about the magna 5? what I remember was 3-5 tracks involved across the country and all races ran within a hour.

[Donttellmeshowme]

Is it back? It was usually 3-4 tracks. Love the Magna 5

[SoCalCircuit]

Here's the article (apparently they realized how rediculous it was to make this a drf plus article):

http://www.drf.com/news/magna-5-wager-return-few-tweaks

I'm extremely excited about this.

[Donttellmeshowme]

Cant wait for it.

[SoCalCircuit]

I love keeping the base wager at a buck as opposed to the .50 bet.

[Stillriledup]

Cant wait for it.

tKnG06-oYcg

[SandyW]

I love keeping the base wager at a buck as opposed to the .50 bet.

In this day and age a one dollar wager will be nothing short of a big failure.
A 50 cent wager you can expect giant pools.
The competition and the size of the pools today in multi-race betting shows that a 50 cent wager is the right way to go.

[SoCalCircuit]

In this day and age a one dollar wager will be nothing short of a big failure.
A 50 cent wager you can expect giant pools.
The competition and the size of the pools today in multi-race betting shows that a 50 cent wager is the right way to go.

My initial thoughts. However, it looks like Frankie's aiming towards making this a 250K guarantee. FWIW I remember back in 2008-2010 timeframe this pool with a 2 dollar minimum would reach pools of 500K. I think this is a such a unique bet (only on Saturdays, involving multiple tracks, quick turnaround, etc.) that I would be very surprised if this pool doesn't average atleast 350K.

[Stillriledup]

My initial thoughts. However, it looks like Frankie's aiming towards making this a 250K guarantee. FWIW I remember back in 2008-2010 timeframe this pool with a 2 dollar minimum would reach pools of 500K. I think this is a such a unique bet (only on Saturdays, involving multiple tracks, quick turnaround, etc.) that I would be very surprised if this pool doesn't average atleast 350K.

keep in mind the market is saturated with pick 5s, what incentive would serious pick 5 players have to spend time capping magna 5 when theyre busy capping the normal pick 5s at their favorite tracks.

[SoCalCircuit]

True but the pick 5 market is primarily dominated by Stronach tracks minus NYRA. There's no way they'd offer this if they weren't confident it'd reach its guaranteed pool without taking away from the others. I think the appeal is the gimmick nature of this wager. It's once a week, it only takes an hour, I'm sure they'll try to arrange it so the 5 races are good quality, and you can bet it'll be heavily advertised. I would imagine more casual bettors would want to get involved, as will those bettors who don't want half the pick 5 sequence to be small MC fields which tends to be the case at SA and Aqu.

[Stillriledup]

True but the pick 5 market is primarily dominated by Stronach tracks minus NYRA. There's no way they'd offer this if they weren't confident it'd reach its guaranteed pool without taking away from the others. I think the appeal is the gimmick nature of this wager. It's once a week, it only takes an hour, I'm sure they'll try to arrange it so the 5 races are good quality, and you can bet it'll be heavily advertised. I would imagine more casual bettors would want to get involved, as will those bettors who don't want half the pick 5 sequence to be small MC fields which tends to be the case at SA and Aqu.

Good points. They're up against more pick 5s and a massive amount of jackpot carryovers that are hanging all over the country...but if you get big fields of good racing, that will sell the bet for sure and it will handle well.

[SoCalCircuit]

Plus the advantage of owning all of these tracks is that they have the luxury of ensuring that the major competing wagers at SA, Gulfstream, Laurel, and Golden Gate are all scheduled appropriately so as to not interfere with each other.

[Stillriledup]

Plus the advantage of owning all of these tracks is that they have the luxury of ensuring that the major competing wagers at SA, Gulfstream, Laurel, and Golden Gate are all scheduled appropriately so as to not interfere with each other.

That's true, but they could do that anyway even without the pick 5. What it does do, which goes even deeper than scheduling conflicts is the idea that if you bet the Magna 5, you are "following along" to those 5 races. I know personally if i bet the magna 5, i would be very conscious of when leg 2 was going off and would plan on not missing it......if you handicapped a few dozen races on a saturday and planned on "following" all of them, you might miss something you planned on betting...happens to me all the time for one reason or another...but it wouldnt happen on the magna 5 if i decided i was going to play the bet...i would see all 5 races.

[SoCalCircuit]

That's true, but they could do that anyway even without the pick 5. What it does do, which goes even deeper than scheduling conflicts is the idea that if you bet the Magna 5, you are "following along" to those 5 races. I know personally if i bet the magna 5, i would be very conscious of when leg 2 was going off and would plan on not missing it......if you handicapped a few dozen races on a saturday and planned on "following" all of them, you might miss something you planned on betting...happens to me all the time for one reason or another...but it wouldnt happen on the magna 5 if i decided i was going to play the bet...i would see all 5 races.

Great point - the wager is essentially a marketing tool in itself. I remember back in 2009 I was primarily a Gulfstream and SA player but after handicapping Laurel a couple times to get ready for the magna, I started following that track regularly outside of the magna.

[Stillriledup]

Great point - the wager is essentially a marketing tool in itself. I remember back in 2009 I was primarily a Gulfstream and SA player but after handicapping Laurel a couple times to get ready for the magna, I started following that track regularly outside of the magna.

Yep, they got you into Laurel, they got a new customer. Laurel is a track i really like to handicap because i love the way the track surface plays there..its very fair, you can come from the clouds and you can wire the field...in other words, the surface is an afterthought for me in the sense that i'm not handicapping biases there too often, if you are closer and they battle up front, you can get there....not always the case at some of these other places. I like handicapping horses and not worrying about my bets getting beat because a speed bias was in play.

[taxicab]

One dollar minimum won't do the trick.
Fifty cents is the magic number.