Your Voice is Being Heard

[DeanT]

http://blog.horseplayersassociation.org/2009/01/tipping-point.html

We need your help. If you have not signed up for HANA, please do at this link. We have to keep people like this in the business speaking of growing handles to grow the sport. We can not do it alone.

Scherf added, “The first voice we need to listen to are the bettors. If we are not meeting their needs, and obviously we are not, we need to figure out ways to address those.” Scherf told the Paulick Report, “We’ve got to look into pricing (the takeout charge on pari-mutuel bets). We need to make the same kind of concerted effort on handle that is currently being made to improve the safety and welfare issues.
Couto said, “We have to face two very important realities. First, we have allowed (racing) to basically disappear.

“Second, we have to adopt new ways our fans can participate. New wagers, betting exchanges. We have to embrace these new ways of playing ... so it’s new and fresh. If we don’t begin to do things differently and find new ways to operate, we are bound to be the definitive example of what Einstein said.”

[kenwoodallpromos]

Virtually every Tbred race bettor knows that based on an average takeout of 20%, the stagnant $15 billion per year generated for racing by bettors is really like $3 billion income not counting recycled dollars. Now check out these 2004 facts=
"The NFL's $3.2 billion in retail (logo merchandise) sales make it the world's seventh-largest brand and the leader in sports, according to License! magazine's April edition. An ESPN poll of sports fans ages 12 and up showed 31% owning NFL products, topping major league baseball (14%), NBA (10%) and NHL (4%). "
This does not count the many billions in TV contract income in a sport where teams play 16+ dates per year. In TBred racing, the $15 billion per year is based on 200+ dates per year per circuit, and not counting smaller tracks who are not part of a year round circuit. Does anyone know what the actual racing fan base is of bettors who bet say, $500.00 or more per year?
Good luck to racing with their "We want no fans, just bettors" attitude!

[InsideThePylons-MW]

Dean,

I know you like Scherf, but as I've said before, for many years, he was so anti-bettor it was scary.....Anybody getting a rebate was a criminal.......Any professional player that was a winner was stealing money out of the tracks/horsemen's pockets.....lowering takeout is absolutley ludicrous...etc.

He obsessively said this stuff to everybody in the industry and trust me, they listened, so in my eyes, even if he is changing course, he is one of the main reasons the industry is in the stone age.

I would rather have a auto-mechanic that can look at my car and see a problem and fix it rather than the auto-mechanic who looks at my car, says everything is fine, twenty miles later, my engine blows up and now he can see the problem.

The racing industry needs people who understand the business before the engine of the business blows up. Scherf is not one of those people.

[DeanT]

Hi Inside,

I am not making any grand assertions. I am just looking at the fact that these two folks are speaking publicly of the racing customer for the first time in quite a while, if ever. To me that is a good thing. One step at a time, as in this business as we know, things move slowly.

I think the picture in the piece speaks volumes with this. It is a long lonely push, so any small victory is a victory, imo.


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CG5TVR2hGjE/SWjnYaJhuYI/AAAAAAAAAHI/75HSQIFEZxM/s1600-h/tippingpoint.jpg

[rrbauer]

Chris Scherf. Ever the politician. Which way is the wind blowing? That is Scherf's way. His only concern ever has been protecting his cushy job. Is he a HANA member? Anybody can talk the talk...if you're pointing to people like Scherf and Couto to lead us out of the woods, then start looking down for the edge of the cliff.

[DeanT]

Which way is the wind blowing?

After 25 years of the wind blowing to raise takeouts, I would be very happy if it has shifted to people speaking of lowering them. That would be a huge shift, imo, in this business.

[LottaKash]

Hi Inside,

I am not making any grand assertions. I am just looking at the fact that these two folks are speaking publicly of the racing customer for the first time in quite a while, if ever. To me that is a good thing. One step at a time, as in this business as we know, things move slowly.

I think the picture in the piece speaks volumes with this. It is a long lonely push, so any small victory is a victory, imo.


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CG5TVR2hGjE/SWjnYaJhuYI/AAAAAAAAAHI/75HSQIFEZxM/s1600-h/tippingpoint.jpg

I think that just the fact that he had a change in his thinking, is at least a step in the right direction.....Often people in his role capacity, as with politicians, often are just paying lip service, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt, as his words are encouraging at least......we'll see...

Since HANA's Inception, I personally have perceived more and more activity concerning these burning issues....

I am glad and proud to be a member of HANA......

All you HANA folks, are doing a fantastic job.....Action, does speak louder than vain rants and curses.....

best,

[turfnsport]

After 25 years of the wind blowing to raise takeouts, I would be very happy if it has shifted to people speaking of lowering them. That would be a huge shift, imo, in this business.

Or that wind blowing could actually just be Scherf farting.

[turfnsport]

Since HANA's Inception, I personally have perceived more and more activity concerning these burning issues....



I think it has more to do with the fact that handle was down $1 billion in 2008 and more than 20% in December.

The idiots running the asylum now realize SOMETHING has to be done

[chickenhead]

positive changes will have to be made by the same people who made a lot of bad decisions in the past, there is no way around that. Politicians will do things in response to pressure, that's good. Ideologues would seem like the bigger problem.

[Indulto]

A slightly different version of Dean’s article while quoting the same people:

http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2009/01/10/sports/horseracing/doc496838e1487f1914288329.txt
Lights in the tunnel?
By Nick Kling January 10, 2009… Compared to December, 2007, betting was down almost 21 percent. The total handle for all of 2008 was down a little more than 7 percent on a year-to-year basis. The report indicated betting was approximately 10 percent less than the record wagering handle set in 2003.

… the December figures were skewed downward by fewer racing dates than the prior year. Equibase reported the total number of racing days nationwide last month was down 9.6 percent. The drop is still massive, but not quite as bad as it appears.

… [Chris] Scherf told bloodhorse, “This should be a wakeup call to our industry that ... we need to keep focused on the issues of pari-mutuel wagering and the bettors.”

Scherf added, “The first voice we need to listen to are the bettors. If we are not meeting their needs, and obviously we are not, we need to figure out ways to address those.”

…“We’ve got to look into pricing (the takeout charge on pari-mutuel bets). We need to make the same kind of concerted effort on handle that is currently being made to improve the safety and welfare issues. The problem is we’ve got tracks and horsemen both saying they need more money in this economy. But the first thing we need is an engaged gambling public, and they should be at the top of the list.”

.. [Drew] Couto said, “We have to face two very important realities. First, we have allowed (racing) to basically disappear. It’s no longer a sport, but simply a justification to gamble and wager, and as a wagering proposition we know it’s not the most attractive. (We have to) make some very serious fundamental changes to focus on the sporting aspect of racing. We have left it largely to the tracks to be the stewards of the sport, and they only care about the financial side.”

He went on to say, “Second, we have to adopt new ways our fans can participate. New wagers, betting exchanges. We have to embrace these new ways of playing ... so it’s new and fresh.

… Any business which puts its customers anywhere but first is doomed to fail. Racing has done that for decades, putting bettors and other patrons behind horsemen, government tax collectors, and others.

I don't necessarily agree with Couto's assertion that racing is not the most attractive wagering proposition. …. In addition, some will argue that the “betting exchanges” he refers to need much more study before being embraced by North American racing.

Couto was speaking of organizations such as Betfair, a firm based in Great Britain. Betfair allows players to wager on horse races in a manner not much different than buying or selling oil, grain, or gold, on a commodity exchange.

… The issues are: 1) whether a mechanism can be worked out to return a percentage of exchange wagers to horsemen, racetracks, and government, as is now done with pari-mutuel wagers, and, 2) whether safeguards can assure that horses bet against will not be deliberately stiffed to collect on the losing side. There should be ways to implement such measures. …If Couto is willing to accept lower commissions on wagers through Betfair, then why is he still preventing PTC from giving rebates in California? Is it because Betfair doesn’t involve exotics? It seems to me that the threat associated with betting against an entry that isn’t well-meant is even more potent when leveraged in exotic pools. Would lower minimums reduce that threat?

Also instead of creating new ways for existing fans to participate, Couto should be advocating enticing more fans to participate. PTC is a far less risky experiment than betfair with far less lead time.

But the TOC's support for synthetic surfaces may impact California handle even more than takeout. When the horsemen advised Stronach against going back to dirt at Santa Anita prior to the pro-ride installation, was there any indication that keeping synthetic would discourage out-of-state horsemen from pursuing California purses?

[Cangamble]

A slightly different version of Dean’s article while quoting the same people:

http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2009/01/10/sports/horseracing/doc496838e1487f1914288329.txt
Lights in the tunnel?
By Nick Kling January 10, 2009If Couto is willing to accept lower commissions on wagers through Betfair, then why is he still preventing PTC from giving rebates in California? Is it because Betfair doesn’t involve exotics? It seems to me that the threat associated with betting against an entry that isn’t well-meant is even more potent when leveraged in exotic pools. Would lower minimums reduce that threat?

Also instead of creating new ways for existing fans to participate, Couto should be advocating enticing more fans to participate. PTC is a far less risky experiment than betfair with far less lead time.

But the TOC's support for synthetic surfaces may impact California handle even more than takeout. When the horsemen advised Stronach against going back to dirt at Santa Anita prior to the pro-ride installation, was there any indication that keeping synthetic would discourage out-of-state horsemen from pursuing California purses?
My guess is that if PTC had full content, why would anyone sign up with Tracknet, Youbet, etc. in states that allow PTC.
Why Couto is protecting these ADW's is anyone's guess.
Of course, it could be personal. And that is no way to conduct business.

[Indulto]

From Equidaily:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20090110-1019-horsecol.html (http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20090110-1019-horsecol.html)
Synthetic-surface concerns reignite
By Hank Wesch January 10, 2009… “They're no good,” Vienna told magazine, referring to synthetic surfaces. “The promises at the beginning were (that) they were safe, consistent, maintenance-free, and all-weather. They are not safe, they're not maintenance-free, they're not consistent, and they can't take water. None of it is true.”

… Vienna said he had gone from synthetics skeptic – “Because I didn't think we had enough knowledge about what we were getting into” – to believer over the first season of Polytrack at Del Mar, when injuries, fatal and non, went down dramatically.

But subsequent synthetic problems at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and yes, Del Mar, caused Vienna to change his opinion.

“The first year at Del Mar was very safe, but I thought last year they somewhat sacrificed that safety on the altar of consistency and speed,” Vienna said.

… But the tracks had surfaces forced upon them, Vienna said, that he now believes contain too many “variables” to ever be worked out to satisfaction.

“We're told that the choice is to go forward with synthetics, or go back to dirt, and I don't think those should be the only choices,” Vienna said. “We should look for something better, something different, with as much speed as we can but without another rush to judgment.” …

[jballscalls]

who is sherf?

[rrbauer]

who is sherf?

Executive Director TRA.

[jballscalls]

Executive Director TRA.

Ok thanks.

[banacek]

You know I was just looking at Al Stanley's Newsletter from 1983. His topics for the month:State of the Industry, What Management are Doing, Problems in the PR department, why fans aren't coming, Integrity of Racing, Solving the Problems.

The horseplayers have known this for so long, it's amazing how dense the track managements have been.:bang:

[LottaKash]

You know I was just looking at Al Stanley's Newsletter from 1983. His topics for the month:State of the Industry, What Management are Doing, Problems in the PR department, why fans aren't coming, Integrity of Racing, Solving the Problems.

The horseplayers have known this for so long, it's amazing how dense the track managements have been.:bang:

Hey Banacek, I remember reading that very issue, and it's true, the tracks still don't get it.....

One has only to see the current state of harness-racing to see that it was and is still still true even today....

I hope for the T-bred players that the tracks will have learned something from their racing counterparts, before it goes the same way......When I was first introduced to Harness Racing, the Harness-tracks all over the nation, gave their brother sport a good run for the money, both in attendance and handle....Not so today, not even remotely (except for the Meadowlands)..

There was and still is too much mischief, that is blatantly obvious to most (and I believe, especially in chicago), and that was their ultimate demise,,,,that toleration and the complaceny of such, is now I'm afraid, slowly but surely, creeping into the T-breds....

best,

[JCB]

Chicago harness racing has been crooked as long as I remember. The only major player who wouldn't go along with it was Jim Dennis. He brought a big stable to Sportsmans every summer. The crooks left Dennis alone and worked around him. They were all crooks. Both Busse's, the Banks family, Walk Paisley, Wrecker Decker, Lutes, Guerra, Burright, Sprunger, the Pletchers, the Willis's, the Leonards....all crooks. In the late 70's, Yvonne Demers, Dale Hiteman, George Shaw, Laverne Hosteltler and others invaded from Detroit and Canada. Racing was on the square for a year or two. Then the invaders joined the fraternity.

The cast is different now, but the cheating hasn't stopped. Anybody who plays Chicago harness racing deserves to lose their money. They don't even try to hide what they're doing.