Lies, Dam Lies and *** ****** Lies! Or is it just Incompetence?

[andymays]

It is my hope that people on the Board understand that we don't always get the truth from Racing Officials, Racing Executives, and some Journalists or people who are supposed to be Journalist.

Sometimes I think to myself "maybe they just stayed at a Holiday in Express last night". :D

It frustrates me to no end when people take the word of these people without asking questions. Whether it's New York where they can't seem to time a race correctly or California where they just mislead people about just about everything in my opinion. I've gotten to the point where I know what they are going to say before they say it in most cases.

I follow California Racing more than anywhere else but maybe this stuff is happening all over. I really don't know!

Here is an example from today and it's about Del Mar handle from an article at DRF.com by Matt Hegarty.


This is the link and the title of the article.

http://www.drf.com/news/article/106957.html

U.S. handle dips in August

Excerpt:

Through the first five weeks of its meet, Saratoga was down 2.8 percent in all-sources handle, while at Del Mar all-sources handle was steady through mid-August despite the cutback in race dates.


Here is the email I sent to the author and his response. You have to read it from the bottom up because it is a reply to me. I deleted my last name and email address.

http://www.drf.com/drfNewsArticle.do?NID=106514&subs=0&arc=1

I took the statement from this article, but failed to see the language "overall average handle," which is not all-sources total handle. I am amending my article.

Matt


-----Original Message-----
From: Andy [mailto:]
Sent: Fri 9/4/2009 12:03 PM
To: Matt Hegarty
Subject: Del Mar Handle/Your Article in the DRF

Matt, I'm not sure whether or not you know this but Del Mar has been putting out misleading information about handle and attendance all meet long. You may have repeated the misleading information in your article and I hope you will correct it or retract it.

Is Del Mar all sources handle up or down from last year and what is the actual number up or down?



They are racing one less day but are having one more race per day on average than last year.

[andymays]

What happens is that if you look at post #597 in the "slowly but surely the truth about synthetic surfaces" thread gm10 tries to hit me over the head with the misleading information (see the correction by the author above and I also have the original email).

I can't really blame him or anyone else for repeating the bad information and the truth is when I copy an article it could happen to me as well.

I hope the majority of the people on the Board understand what happens on a regular basis. It sure seems to happen in California more than anywhere else in my opinion!

[rwwupl]

Free grandstand admission at Del Mar on Wednesday and reduced food prices on wed. have inflated the on track figures, which is a good thing. But to crow about increased on track attendance without an explanation is not considering all the facts. I understand that free Wed. are up 42% on track attendance,why not? I would be surprised if it did not boost on track numbers.
Del Mar has concerts after the races and there are people who come late to see them and do not bet the races. That being said ,entertainment should also boost on track attendance.

I think you will find the per capita betting numbers down because the people who come for entertainment do not bet much, like the Friday night crowd at Hollywood.

While the on track numbers are promoted at Del Mar, it takes an explanation to understand why.

All sources handle is a more important number to consider trends, and all we get is that it is "steady"