CHANGES IN RACING SINCE I BEGAN BETTING

[Robert Goren]

When I first started betting a 4 yo md was rare site. No major track would have one the grounds. There were great older geldings like Kelso. Every circiut had a stake gelding at least 5 yo. There were at least 10 starters in almost every race. Except for 2yo mds, high class alw and stakes, fillies and mares ran against the boys. There was no Non-winners of two claimers. Bottom claimers did not run 6F in 1:10 and change. There was such a thing as heavy track. Aweek day card had 8 races and weekends had 9. In the summer the 3rd race was for 2yos. The only exotic was DD. The only 9For longer races were stakes or Starter ALWs. There were field horses in any race with more than 10 starters.

[jballscalls]

When I first started betting a 4 yo md was rare site. No major track would have one the grounds. There were great older geldings like Kelso. Every circiut had a stake gelding at least 5 yo. There were at least 10 starters in almost every race. Except for 2yo mds, high class alw and stakes, fillies and mares ran against the boys. There was no Non-winners of two claimers. Bottom claimers did not run 6F in 1:10 and change. There was such a thing as heavy track. Aweek day card had 8 races and weekends had 9. In the summer the 3rd race was for 2yos. The only exotic was DD. The only 9For longer races were stakes or Starter ALWs. There were field horses in any race with more than 10 starters.

So your old??

[njcurveball]

Aweek day card had 8 races and weekends had 9. .

Was this before the 70s? When I started, the 9th race was the trifecta (even during the week) and the 8th race was the feature (the race everyone wanted an exotic and there was only WPS). 3rd, 5th, and 7th were exacta races and the double was the first two races.

We also had plenty of 4 year old Maidens, and I sat in the Keystone (now Phila Park) grandstand and watched cheap claimers go 1:09 with exercise riders in sweat pants riding. (Track was frozen that day and the regular jocks refused to ride).

A female against a male was an instant throw out, so I do not remember a steady diet of them in any kind of race. And there was only a field when there was more than 12 horses, which was very rare except big stakes races.

You have been around quite a while my friend. I hope the horses have been very kind to you! :ThmbUp:

Jim

[Robert Goren]

I started in early 60's

[Pell Mell]

Started in 1948.

[lamboguy]

years ago there was no such thing as condion's in winter racing in florida. when you ran for a tag you would face horses that have won 10 times vs. horses that have only broken their maidens. guys used to claim the horses that had the conditions left and made the trip up north with those horses to run out their conditions.
because of the lasix, the designer drugs, and the hard surfaces horses run faster and have more injuries, meaning less good older horses to run, so that is why florida racing is all about conditions now.

[Greyfox]

The only exotic was DD.

Not just the DD. Most tracks had the Quinella before the 1960's.

[rrbauer]

Not just the DD. Most tracks had the Quinella before the 1960's.

Actually, California had exactas (early 70's) before quinellas. And they had only one DD....1st and 2nd races. The origin of quinellas was at dogtracks.

I believe that NY was the first to offer Trifecta's (triples) and perhaps the late DD too.

Today's betting-smorgasboards allows circuits that are offering races consisting of short fields and lousy horses more ways to extract takeout from their customers and stay alive. Those circuits would never make it otherwise.

All of the conditioned claiming races (NW2 in 6 mths, NW3L, etc.) are written to keep the sharp claiming trainers from cleaning up and giving the barns with less-than-stellar stock a chance to win something; and, the combination Allowance/Optional claiming races are creative attempts to keep the condition book full.

[lamboguy]

these condition races in larger tracks are only here because of the lack of good horses racing in this country.

face it, the race meets are to long, most of the good breedings are leaving this country, and we are faced with a very mediocre race cards most of the week.

the slot machines have made crazy purses and ingenious people slipping thru the system taking big edges on route to making money at the expense of the sport.

bad racing at the top meets have a trickle down effect on the smaller meets.

now instead of handicapping horses you have to handicap "supertrainers". you can use a double up system betting the super trainers and make a profit. it seems like every track has about 5 trainers that win about 80% of all the races.

I am now hearing that places like Philly Park are banning steroids like winstrol and equepoise. that is a good start, but more is needed!

[Greyfox]

Actually, California had exactas (early 70's) before quinellas. .

That may be true in California, but some tracks elsewhere had Quinellas before they had exactas.

[kitts]

Pell Mell beat me by a year. The DRF was a quarter and had no internal fractions, no trainer stats, no horse for course and no distance and turf numbers. No turf numbers was OK since there was no grass racing in Southern California

[RonTiller]

Boy I feel positively young after reading the post by Kitts.

When I first started, circa 1991-1992:

No simulcasting - people who wanted to bet multiple tracks moved to Las Vegas.
BRIS and CSW were the two places to get data files.
$14 for 1 file from BRIS (I believe the cheapest file was $7 at the time)
You logged on to a BBS over a 2400 baud modem to get data - no WWW.
Trackmaster was just unveiling their handheld unit.
Getting results was a pain in the $%^$@#! In Las Vegas, I went to racebooks to copy results stapled on the bulletin boards. You also could get results and the stretch call recreated for Cal tracks by dialing 594-race.
Gordon Jones was giving Easy Pickings seminars at Sam's Town (Oops, he's still doing it - never mind).
All in One was in a fledgling version, newly morphed from 5 in 1.
Data for modeling tracks came courtesy of Eric Cunningham's Dark Horse.
Dave Schwartz's latest offering: Thorobrain.
Handicapper's Institute receives hot new manual entry program from Rubin Boxer, based on his engineering analysis and friction formulas.
Dick Mitchell, Jim Quinn, Barry Meadow, Tom Brohamer, Mark Cramer et al. were highly prized seminar presenters and drew large crowds.
Howard Sartin was giving seminars.
Howard Sartin was a scurrilous phoney, a brilliant handicapping icon and everything in between, depending on who you asked (OK, some things never change).
The Handicapping Expos were put on by Greg Lawlor, not the DRF (and the presentations, presenters and topics look remarkably similar today).
$5000 bought you a week of personal instruction from Dick Mitchell and Ron Ambrose in Las Vegas.
Harrah's, Imperial Palace, Palace Station, Stardust and a few others booked their own bets, the last holdouts to go parimutuel.
Handicapping tournaments were pretty much local affairs in Las Vegas - pick up $500 playing the Excalibur or Santa Fe weekly tournament.
Equibase was a fledgling company, preparing to take on the DRF.
No NTRA.
No Magna Entertainment.
No polytrack.
No Youbet, Xpressbet, BRISBet or YabadabadooBet.
No race replays.
No PaceAdvantage.
DRF sells charts on Microfiche.
DRF customers enjoying new addition: Beyer numbers.
Want to attend the races? How about Detroit Race Course? Sportsmans Park? Hialeah? Northampton Fair? Rockingham? Garden State? Yakima Meadows? Playfair? Prescott Downs? Trinity Meadows? Birmingham? Ak-Sar-Ben? Santa Fe Downs? Atokad? All closed now.

Wow things have really changed in 15 years, let alone 50! I had no idea till I made a list.

Ron Tiller
HDW

[Tom]

What DRF?
I had the Telegraph - 35 cents.
WPS, one double....then, along came this daring new wager - a quinnela - one race a day.

[Norm]

Wow, you guys are making me feel really old ! Anyone besides me remember Jamaica Racetrack ?

http://pic40.picturetrail.com/VOL269/8161730/16877554/304516134.jpg

:)

[Bruddah]

compared to some of you guys. I went to Oaklawn in 1965 and have followed this sport from that time. All of us old guys have seen many changes. However, there are two changes which stick out the most to me.

1. having to stand in separate lines to make different types of bets. (win-comginations-exactas etc) Therefore requiring you to go to separate windows for cashing a ticket.

2. Simulcasting. I thought it amazing, when I could bet a horse at Arlington and they could bet races at Oaklawn. (they were the first tracks to have simulcasting) It was an industry experiment that went over BIG.

If the big shots in racing don't first kill the sport, there will be more innovative changes to come. :ThmbUp:

[wes]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_Racetrack

Little on Jamaica Race Track

wes

[Pell Mell]

The biggest change to me is a personal one and that is, the amount of time spent on each race. In my early days when there was only one track to bet, unless you bet with a bookie, which I did all winter since there was no winter racing in NJ back then, I spent a lot of time on each race. I would get the "Telly" at night and spend a few hours with it. In the morning, another few hours and then there was a 1/2 hr between races to study some more. I knew most trainers by sight and knew the name of every horse in their stable. I learned every move they made, who rode for who and when the money was down. It was a different and more profitable game back then, to me anyway.


PS- Most memorable memory was betting a $20. DD with Larry Gilligan in the saddle for River Divide Farm in both ends and it paid $500.:jump: :jump:

[Norm]

It was a different and more profitable game back then, to me anyway.

I have to agree with you on that. In the old days I could maintain a 25% winning average and profit handsomely from it. In each decade aftewards, my winning percentage has gone up and my profits have gone down. I figure that in another 10 years I'll be winning 100% of my bets and losing 20% of my bankroll. :D

[Spendabuck85]

Betting at the corner candy store in the 1960's using the Morning Telegraph and the Armstrong. Then having to wait until the next day when the NY Daily News was delivered to get the race results.

[Pace Cap'n]

Fewer pickpockets.

[cnollfan]

Want to attend the races? How about Detroit Race Course? Sportsmans Park? Hialeah? Northampton Fair? Rockingham? Garden State? Yakima Meadows? Playfair? Prescott Downs? Trinity Meadows? Birmingham? Ak-Sar-Ben? Santa Fe Downs? Atokad? All closed now.



Atokad is open for live racing one weekend a year in September.

[onefast99]

Was this before the 70s? When I started, the 9th race was the trifecta (even during the week) and the 8th race was the feature (the race everyone wanted an exotic and there was only WPS). 3rd, 5th, and 7th were exacta races and the double was the first two races.

We also had plenty of 4 year old Maidens, and I sat in the Keystone (now Phila Park) grandstand and watched cheap claimers go 1:09 with exercise riders in sweat pants riding. (Track was frozen that day and the regular jocks refused to ride).

A female against a male was an instant throw out, so I do not remember a steady diet of them in any kind of race. And there was only a field when there was more than 12 horses, which was very rare except big stakes races.

You have been around quite a while my friend. I hope the horses have been very kind to you! :ThmbUp:

Jim
Remember Outer Voyage, dropped out of the clouds everytime he raced!

[BIG49010]

New York didn't allow lasix!

When a horse was put on it after a few bad races there were major form reversals.

Now every horse is on the stuff, along with a laundry list of other crap.

[Kelso]

2. Simulcasting. I thought it amazing, when I could bet a horse at Arlington and they could bet races at Oaklawn. (they were the first tracks to have simulcasting) It was an industry experiment that went over BIG.


Brud,
When did s'casting come to Oaklawn? (I read someplace that the first U.S. simulcasting was between Atlantic City Race Course and the Meadowlands, in 1983.)

Thank you.