NY and KY Pool Boards Missing

[BlueShoe]

For reasons that baffle me,my local SoCal outlets have stopped showing the money pool boards from the NY and large Kentucky tracks.Up until a few months ago,a terminal would be devoted to showing the money amounts in the win,place,and show pools.No more.Churchill does give rolling money totals on their main feed,so if you are handy with numbers,you can compute pool ratios.Also,late in the betting,they will show the whole pool once or twice for about 15 or 20 seconds.New York is worse,no rolling totals.At 2 or 3 minutes before postime,they show the whole pool,very briefly.On the Web,the very good Supertote at Tsnhorse also does not show pools from NY or KY,just a field of zeros and the odds.This rather hints that the tracks themselves are restricting this info.Any theorys or information as why no more money pools after many years of making it available?

[kenwoodallpromos]

I will be interested also!

[Mike at A+]

Speaking of zeroes, does anyone know why all of a sudden BrisBet Charts are showing odds to 4 decimal places? For instance, 2/1 shows as 2.0000.

[PurplePower]

For reasons that baffle me,my local SoCal outlets have stopped showing the money pool boards from the NY and large Kentucky tracks...............This rather hints that the tracks themselves are restricting this info.Any theorys or information as why no more money pools after many years of making it available?Blue, I don't know about your current situation but I can tell you what happened when I was at Sam Houston Race Park. SHRP carried just about every track running (including Greyhound tracks) and did not have enough open channels to carry the pools for all of the tracks. In certain areas of the grandstand, Sammy did have some smaller monitors showing only the pool board sitting on top of bigger monitors that showed the live feed from certain "big" tracks. In this case "big" meant
tracks on which SHRP players wagered the most money. I was in a meeting some 4 or 5 years ago in which we discussed our video presentation. An argument was made as to why the pools were shown for the final 3 minutes to post, blanking out the view of the warm up and the exacta probables. In an informal survey leading up to that meeting it was discovered that less than 1% of the fans even knew what the pool totals meant, but about 25% of them did use the exacta payoffs to make late wagering decisions. The less than 1% of fans wagered about 20% of total handle, however, and a compromise decision was made. The pools continued to be shown at 3 minutes before post, but only for 1 minute before the video switched back to the warm-up and exotic payoffs. That is similar to what you say Churchill and NY are doinig. When I left Houston last summer they had a designated channel (in the 40's or 60's usually) that would show the Sammy pools on a green background during live racing. I don't know if that feed was available to other tracks carrying the SHRP signal or not. I don't think there is a conspiracy to keep players form knowing what is going on with the pools, but I think (and this is strictly MY opinion) that the simulcast signal guys sometimes make decisions based on what makes their jobs easier. Isn't it true that Cal tracks can only take 8 different signals a day? They should have plenty of open ports for incoming signals. So if CD and NYRA are sending out the pool signal, there should be room on your local host's board to put them on a dedicated channel. Might be worth finding out who you might ask at your local host, and let them know you want the pools.
Purp

[BlueShoe]

California has a restrictive simulcast policy,so lack of available channels is not a factor.In fact,the regular local channels are on the individual terminals.Some nitwit can watch reruns of I Love Lucy or the noon news instead of racing right at his seat if he wishes,and a few actually do,usually with the sound turned up as high as will go.Am friendly with a man that works in the control room of one of the sites that I attend,and he has told me that the pools are not being sent to them,they just are not available.Know a couple of bettors that are fairly big place and show wagerers,and they are annoyed at losing a source of info that is part of their style of play.As for myself,am a long time tote watcher,and pool ratios are vital to spotting unusual betting action.Am aware that many of you scoff at betting action,and ignore it,feeling that it is meaningless.However,it works for me,and often comes up with a play in a race that I had intended to pass.At every racetrack the bargain hunters will fill the out of line pool starting about 5 minutes before post,therefore at NewYork with just one quick scan two minutes before post,will often miss the live horses that were bet early or midway.Even so,will still catch a good one every once in a while,often at a nice price,because the pools are filled faster on the shorter price runners than on the price horses.Recent example was Memorial day Monday in a maiden race at Belmont when the $23.00 winner recieved good support on the tote.

[Jeff P]

I think this may have something to with Net Pool Pricing...

http://www.paceadvantage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23562

http://www.nyra.com/belmont/news.asp?id=1758&track=B


-jp

.

[BlueShoe]

Jeff,thanks for the link,it was an active thread before I joined this forum,so missed it.Comments from you and several others pretty well covered the situation.All seem to be in agreement;the technology to continue to show pool amounts is easily available,it just isnt.Going in the other direction,doesnt Woodbine also use use net pool wagering on bets from the US?At my SoCal sites the pool boards are shown on Woodbine races.So,does this mean that the programmers in Ontario are smarter than the ones in New York?And what about Churchill Downs?In the bar next to the program numbers and odds on the entrants they will show win amounts,then place,then show at selected intervals.But no one board devoted just to pools,as in the past.Same thing at Keeneland.May be sounding a bit sarcastic and cynical,but is this the same old attitude of Racing Managers?---"Keep em as dumb and ignorant as possible.Give them as little information as we can.That way we can screw them easier and take their money faster"Bah!Humbug!

[Jeff P]

My biggest pet peeve with Net Pool Pricing is that track management could, if they wanted to, hire programmers, and inside of a week, start showing us raw dollar amounts on each horse in the win place and show pools. This would at least make players aware of when a "bridge jumper" situation exists. Right now at tracks with Net Pool Pricing, this info is kept hidden from us. As a result, players end up not knowing until we see the payoffs themselves. IMHO, straight bets like win place and show were never meant to be made in a manner where the player has no idea whatsoever what the payoffs might be ahead of time. It's not like I'm talking about getting new info into the hands of players - like accurate fractional times for all horses in each race at each half furlong interval or having correct shoe and tongue tie information in the past performances. I'm talking about getting something back that up until very recently had been available for all to see ever since the toteboard was invented.

So far as pool information coming directly from Woodbine (someone correct me if I am wrong) I don't think they use Net Pool Pricing on their side. I can see the Woodbine pool information on the web and have very little difficulty calculating exact win place and show payoffs whenever I want them. Yet I can't do the same at NYRA.

I don't think track management ever deliberately set out to screw us. It just seems that way because, quite frankly, track management is either:

1. Inept beyond all comprehension.

or

2. Simply does not care.


-jp

.

[Mike at A+]

My biggest pet peeve with Net Pool Pricing is that track management could, if they wanted to, hire programmers, and inside of a week, start showing us raw dollar amounts on each horse in the win place and show pools.

Actually, I remember years ago (and maybe still today since I haven't been to a harness track in years), I think it was either Yonkers or Roosevelt (or both) where the tote board showed a range of the possible place and show payoffs. Of course, the actual payoff depended on which horses the pool was split amongst. And given the individual amounts bet on each horse in those pools, it's a few very simple lines of computer code to come up with a payoff range.