Choosing Which Racetracks To Play

[trying2win]

Would be interesting to see what opinions other PA members have, when it comes to choosing which racetracks to play.

1. Do you usually play the same set of racetracks each year because of habit, handiness, or loyalty...regardless of whether you've been successful at playing them in the past...or do you prefer to play only certain tracks because of past success at them?

2. Do you like to play only certain racetracks that operate year-round, or do you prefer the tracks that run on a single meet basis...or will you play both types?

3. Do you like to play the CLASS A tracks only...or do you prefer to play the lower class tracks only...or will you play any class of racetrack, as long as you can show a profit at them?

4. Are you flexible? That is, if tracks you played in the past inexplicably become unprofitable, would you abandon playing them either temporarily or permanently?

5. What is the number of racetracks you are comfortable playing on any day?


Thanks,

T2W

"I played a great horse yesterday! It took seven horses to beat him".
- Henny Youngman

[trying2win]

Well, I'll attempt to answer some of my own questions:

1. The majority of the racetracks I play, are the same ones as in previous years. The main reason? The element of a fair degree of past success at these tracks. Handiness plays a part. Some eastern tracks start too early in the day. Not at their actual location. It's just that due to the time difference out west here, it can be inconvenient to play some tracks early in the morning.

2. It doesn't matter to me whether the tracks operate year round or individual meets....although in some cases, when most of the horses at a certain meet haven't raced for 6 months or so because of regional winter weather, then I prefer to wait about 5 or 6 weeks into the meet. Then a lot of the horses will have had a start of two. Just makes it easier to handicap for me.

3. I haven't played CLASS A tracks for quite awhile now. Too tough trying to figure them out generally (thus too difficult for me trying to make a profit at them). I play the odd CLASS B track, but most of the tracks I play, would be considered to be CLASS C tracks. As for CLASS D tracks...not very often.

4. Yes I'm flexible. For many years I liked playing the CLASS A California tracks, but after awhile it became apparent that I wasn't making any financial progress betting the horses that ran at them, so I abandoned playing those tracks.

5. I would say, playing four thoroughbred tracks in one day is the most I can handle comfortably. I usually only play that many thoroughbred tracks on a Saturday or Sunday.

T2W

"Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

[kenwoodallpromos]

For my win bets I like tracks I can guage the surface, so I like longer meets and not the most minor.

[Hosshead]

If my bet is going into the track pools (vs. offshore claims), I want it to effect the payoffs as little as possible. Especially if it's a decent size bet.
I have a list of the yearly avg. mutuel pools of all the tracks. Therefore on any given day, (when I play) I handicap only the top 15 or so tracks with the largest pools. After awhile you know which ones they are. You'd be surprised at how little amount of a bet it takes to change the odds at a dinky track. (ask me how I know!)

[bettheoverlay]

My 2 main tracks currently are Churchill and Woodbine. Currently deciding what is going to replace CD for the summer, probably Arlington. Although I live in Jersey I rarely play the East Coast tracks because their races are loaded with scratches. Play Fair Grounds and Oaklawn as main tracks in the winter.

I like the beginning of most meets because I like to analyze workouts and trainer stats and the prices are sometimes big on layoff horses.

I play mostly A tracks except for Tampa Bay and Fort Erie.

Although I use 2 tracks for the main course, I supplement with up to six other tracks looking for competetive races. Usually look at all stakes races on the weekends. I avoid tracks on days with sloppy tracks and off the turf.

[penguinfan]

I play the tracks everyone else seems to complain about. Mountaineer, Charlestown, Penn National. If you get to know these tracks you can hit some very nice scores while everyone else sits back and complains the race must have been fixed because there is no way a certian horse could have won. I love when some 50K claimer from Churchill Downs shows up at MNR in a 4K claimer and they bet the balls off of him, umm, maybe there is a reason the horse has found the bottom level at a minor track, ya think? Usually these tracks have full fields, for the most part run year round, and seem to have an overwhelming favorite less often than the bigger tracks, and certainly less often than the Southern California circuit, and often times the big favorite is beatable at the tracks I play. These tracks are more about angles, trainer intention, placement of horses, etc.... than they are just about speed, though the public sure bets it that way:D

Penguinfan

[Zman179]

My responses to question#:

1) I prefer to play only certain racetracks that I have had prior success at.

2) I'll play a racetrack, regardless of the length of the meet.

3) Class A? Heck, I'll dive down to Class L if I can show a profit there (and yes, I've dived down to the L's before). However, there are certain tracks that I don't play because my handicapping just doesn't work there like Saratoga, All So. Cal. tracks (except Fairplex), Calder, Gulfstream, Monmouth, Meadowlands, Colonial Downs, Suffolk Downs, Beulah Park, Charles Town and Penn National.
I do like to play Belmont & Aqueduct (mainly because they're my two local tracks), Finger Lakes, Emerald Downs, Bay Meadows, Golden Gate, No. Cal. Fairs (especially Ferndale), Philadelphia Park, Churchill Downs, Ellis Park and River Downs.
You'll notice that I'll like one track on a circuit, but not the other. Strange really, but I have to go by what my wallet tells me. Like Saratoga to me is equivalent to Kryptonite to Superman.

4) Listen, if a track that I've been playing at all of a sudden becomes unprofitable, I'll drop that track like one would drop a lobster into a pot.

5) I am truly comfortable playing only ONE track at a time and I prefer live racing if I go to a racetrack. Like today as an example if I were playing seriously, I would play Philadelphia, Emerald Downs & Evangeline Downs.

[maxwell]

I have been playing only SoCal for the past seven months. I love it because the track never seems to be worse than wet/fast, and the horses are even faster.

I no longer play turf races so I am going to add the NY circuit to the mix. Those guys can rock n' roll as well !

I find the quality at CD to be down this year - something that Pat Day himself has said.

On dirt, speed rules .:)

[PSTfredk]

I personally can't do more than two tracks a day.
I stick with the ones I know best,right now belmont is my track ofchoice. Saratoga opens the end of the month and i'll go
to that track next, but I find it hard to beat.
I love oaklawn and louisanna tracks. I do poorly on the west coast tracks. the reason that I stick to n.y, tracks is the fact that I have a great data base for those tracks.

[TravisVOX]

1. I focus all my efforts on the NYRA circuit. But dancing around in the back of my head is picking up another track. NYRA sometimes to me seems to favorite-oriented. I attribute it to the knowledge of the bettors...all the big guns dance there.

2. NYRA runs "year round" but it isn't the same track. So that's a tough call.

3. I'll play whatever honestly. Mountaineer I've danced with a few times, for the four or five times I've played it, I'm ahead for my lifetime.

4. I feel that to be successful you have to know the track. Therefore, I don't drop in and play a track too often seriously. Sometimes for fun, but other than that, no.

5. It takes me some time to handicap, one track is enough.

Added note...I'm looking to try Meadowlands this fall. I love night racing, the day is done and your you sitting around nothing...why not play The Big M. A lot of NYers go back and forth there, could help with an edge.

[JimL]

I like full fields and that means MNR, TDN, RD, and BEU. The class of the track does not bother me. I would also like Charlestown however I cant deal with the 4.5 dashes. JimL

[kenwoodallpromos]

News From the North

Golden Gate Downturn Continues


By Jim Ghidella

One of these days I'm going to write an article that answers more questions than it raises, but I'm afraid this isn't the one.

At this writing, the 105-day Golden Gate Fields meeting was in its last two weeks. Two factors have greatly hurt the meeting: 1) reduced field size and 2) a monumental downturn in out-of-state handle.

Our horse inventory has been drastically reduced, not by horses leaving for other states, but by injury. If there is blame, it is on the makeup of the surface. We had very heavy rains in late December, January, and February, in response to which the surface was tightened to rock-hard proportions. With the lowest-end claimers running track-record times, something had to give, and it did.

We are currently housing 250 fewer horses than at the beginning of the meeting, and that is before the exodus of Washington horses. In March, we've had beautiful spring-like conditions, and the track has been excellent. Before the next Golden Gate race meeting and before the next purse agreement is signed with Pacific Racing Association, management will have to demonstrate to our satisfaction what steps have been taken to make this track conducive to winter racing.

The drastic dip in out-of-state handle is directly owing to Magna's shutting off its signal to several out-of-state rebaters and others in competition with its own unsuccessful ADW operation, XpressBet. While most all of the denied carriers are back online, a large sector of the customers has not returned. The meeting is now down 17% in out-of-state handle, or $38 million, which translates into roughly $580,000 of lost purse revenues. This deficit is the principal reason why purses were cut mid-meeting by 3.9%.

In the next six months we need an influx of out-of-state horses. We're typically dependent on Arizona horses to replace those returning to Washington. If workers' compensation rates can be pared almost in half by new legislation, it will go a long way toward ensuring that this sport will continue in Northern California.

[BillW]

T2W,

I like to look at the fieldsize and distribution of winning mutuels (somewhat interrelated). For instance CT looks like:

Win % by Odds Range
<2:1 2-5 5-10 10-20 >20:1
------------------------------
25% 39% 21% 10% 5%



I like that 21% & 10% in the 5:1 thru 20:1 range. (Normal under 2:1 is about 31%, 5-10 is 18% and 10-20 is 9%). It also helps If I can cap the track :)

Bill

[Valuist]

I've found thru experience that I need to play the same tracks in order to either survive or make money. I've played the Chicago tracks for 20 years and NYRA and Kentucky for 10. Over the years I've done well at CD but this year I've had a terrible meet there. But once I try to play tracks like Mth or Delaware, I get killed. I also find that the same months tend to be successful (April-June, Sept-Dec) and the same months tend to be very difficult (July-Aug & Jan-Feb).

[raybo]

AP,CRC,CD,EvD,FG,Hoo,Lrl,LS,LaD,Hou,TB,TP

Select races and select cards for some. Others I play every day they're running. My favs are Hou, LS, LaD (after LS closes because field sizes increase then), Hoo, EvD, TB. I love OP but only 1 superfecta per day, not good for me. The more class the track has the less well I do. Superfectas in every race with 8 or more entries and super pools of $10,000 avg are my prime choices for obvious reasons.

[Jed]

Crc,Del,FG,Lad,Mnr,Mth,Pha,Pim,Tup

Bel,SA,Dmr,AP

Mostly the larger fields on the dirt, Four to six tracks a day.

[charleslanger]

Almost all tracks.

Present/Future --Current & planned rythm:

1. Play all the online eliminator, showdown, survival contests(where you must pick an in the money horse). Make selections before day's racing starts(mandatory).

2. Handicap all races/tracks with extreme biases--- whether early or late, starting with those races with the smallest fields. Mark for betting any standouts.

3. Retrieve from Formulator 4, Takach watch list & stablemail any applicable positive / negative runners(key races, bad trips, trainer specialties)-- and mark for betting.

4. Handicap all races with 6 horses or less at the rest of the tracks. Mark for betting any standouts.

5. While handicapping for #1, 2, 3, 4-- identify & list separately all non-contenders for the WIN slot, sort by odds, and lay off as many as possible at betting exchange those under 4-1 odds, each race winning parlayed to subsequent race in groups of 4.

6. Non-handicap, place / show parlay, progressive tote board system-- works at 4 undisclosed tracks.

7. HSH rolling pik 3 system- for So.Cal tracks only.

8. Night Quarter Horse tracks-- handicap for trifecta boxes & part-wheels. But only after season is well underway.

9. Insert in Formulator 4 or StableMail any biases, trips: visual & culled from articles & bbs's.

10. Pre-handicap next day.
.

[Turf2Dirt]

2. Handicap all races/tracks with extreme biases--- whether early or late, starting with those races with the smallest fields. Mark for betting any standouts

??? how do you know 'extreme bias' before they start running?

4. Handicap all races with 6 horses or less at the rest of the tracks. Mark for betting any standouts.

You like short fields:confused: YUCK, whats the point 'any standout' is going to be 4/5

5. While handicapping for #1, 2, 3, 4-- identify & list separately all non-contenders for the WIN slot, sort by odds, and lay off as many as possible at betting exchange those under 4-1 odds, each race winning parlayed to subsequent race in groups of 4.

Huh?

6. Non-handicap, place / show parlay, progressive tote board system-- works at 4 undisclosed tracks.
7. HSH rolling pik 3 system- for So.Cal tracks only.

Oh I totally understand what your saying with those two. Not.

.
8. Night Quarter Horse tracks-- handicap for trifecta boxes & part-wheels. But only after season is well underway.

Whats wrong with Trifecta boxes and wheels at T-bred tracks?

Your handicap like a fruitcake

[charleslanger]

I apologize for having offended you, and for having created all that extra copy/paste work :o

[Zman179]

Ah, everybody knows that New York City breeds weirdos. :p

[Tuffmug]

Play only NY tracks and So Cal. Important for my handicapping to know trainer patterns.

[charleslanger]

Zman179 Ah, everybody knows that New York City breeds weirdos. :p
I think the hazardous materials that went into building Union Turnpike have a deleterious effect :D

[racingrev]

When I lived in Australia the beautiful Caulfield racecourse was the place of many. many victories on the punt for me....

Flemington, with it's massive home straight and super wide track was a little harder, but none the less most enjoyable.

In New Zealand my home track is a sinch to win at...Matamata...just back the local horses, trainers and hoops.. They win 8/10 at most meets.....The visitors are always on the back foot...

My observations on US racing...For what there worth...

I would be a Del Mar regular....

Great track, fantastic setting and the races seem to run to form....lol..

A top place to hang out at.....:D

[JohnGalt1]

Because I live in the central time zone I mostly play midwest and western tracks.

[Zaf]

I play amost anything.


I have played Everything from Hollywood to Great Lakes to Assiniboia Downs. I have even been to Kawartha Downs & Rideau Carleton in the last couple of months.

Though I prefer CD - HOL - BEL - LS - MNR - EVD.

ZAFONIC