PDA

View Full Version : A crazy new Picx idea


Ray2000
09-07-2010, 07:31 PM
OK they recently let me out after posting this idea a year ago

http://www.paceadvantage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61356

So here's another one..



A crazy idea on a new type of Pic3 or Pic4....

2 or 3 early races and 1 late race.

After the early races but before the last race, live tickets can be put up for auction, if you hold a live ticket you have the option of selling it for highest bid price on the board. Asking and Bid prices are displayed along with the ticket's last leg's picks and probable payoffs. No commission to anybody on sales, the track is the broker. Would work best with ADW account but could be live at the track.

This is similar to a betting exchange but it does feed the need for something to do between races and this new type of 'action' might attract newbies.


Any thoughts?

DeanT
09-07-2010, 08:15 PM
Ray always thinks sharp.

This is not unlike a betting exchange. And it does add something to the enjoyment of a bet.

I remember being in University in the late 1980's and the track came up with the super 7 (Greenwood). It was run once a week and it would carryover often. On one big day after two longer ones won the first three or four legs people would walk around selling a piece of their tickets. They used to do it with big pick 4's too. It added a ton of fun. I had very little money as a student, but a lot of us would still offer $100 or something, knowing he'd say no, but just in case we would. It was one of the neat things about being at the racetrack in that day and age.

markgoldie
09-09-2010, 11:18 AM
Good idea and there might be some initial enthusiasm for it. However, I think the idea would find few takers after they began to realize that the value of a winning ticket was closely tied to the win odds of the horses who are live on that ticket. Naturally, you would normally calculate the cash value of the selling ticket as more or less the parlay price of the first two winners, but if the final cash probables are already posted, this would be meaningless.

So the bidding becomes mostly a straight assessment of the probable closing win odds. Since I don't have to tell you how impossible this is under any conditions these days, with big odds' bumps happening after the race is off, there will be a large group of embarrassed buyers who will buy the live ticket, have their horse win, and then realize that the same investment to win would have brought them back more money. On the other hand, there might be a small niche of unusual circumstances where a bettor wished he had the ability to put a large wager on a horse without dropping the price due to scanty pools. But I don't see this as a general case.

We also, of course, run into multiple original ticket punches, where any prospective seller would need one and only one horse in the final leg, since tickets with more than one live horse would be difficult to price.

Here's a gimmick that I thought might have some merit to get new people involved in the sport: A free horse give-a-way night. Here's how it would work. The track designates a certain bottom-rung claiming event as the horse give-a-way race. The race is offered at a slightly higher purse value than usual and the horsemen know that the winning animal will be "claimed" by the track management. (You might want to add 20% bonus over the normal claiming price to attract entrants).

A lucky patron has a number drawn out of a barrell and that person wins the horse, subject to licensing eligibility (no criminal record, etc.) and if the person has never been licensed before (we don't want previous or current owners winning the prize).

Available to the winner are trainers who would like to train the horse for them on either a lease or standard basis. The lease option would no doubt be taken by many new owners who might not have out-of-pocket capital to foot training bills. But that's fine because they are now participating in the sport with a rooting interest in their horse. Trainers could produce a written proposal of a few pages describing all fees and charges for normal ownership and/or rules and responsibilities for a lease agreement. These proposals could be given to the new owner. Before the new owner makes an arrangement with a trainer, the track employs the former trainer to continue training the animal until new trainer is selected. A period of something like two weeks might be reasonable for the new owner to make up his or her mind.

IMO, this type of promotion would pay massive dividends over time as new owners bring friends, family, and co-workers to the track to see their horse race, and hopefully to make some wagers in the process. It would undoubtedly spur enough interest to create further ownership investment from new owners, since a working arrangement with a trainer is already underway. The costs to the track are managable and under agreement with horsemen could be partially funded by the purse account.

Ray2000
09-09-2010, 12:10 PM
Great idea Mark, reminds me of my initial attraction to this sport. On my first or second visit to The Meadows I was at the rail and saw Speedy Somolli with Beissinger go by in a warm up mile and couldn't believe a horse could move that fast, that smooth, making almost no sound and remember thinking I'd like to own one,... but had no idea how to get involved.

The Meadows did have special give-away promotion of some sorts that year where a lucky draw gave some people part ownership of standardbred. I didn't win it so I had to hang around in the bars and paddock to finally make connections.
That's why I think your Promo idea is a good one.


Actually the first claim I was involved with was a bummer, the trainer didn't have claiming rights so used his boss's name without permission, and the claim was dis-allowed, a week later. (Bilante/Zaimes:))

You're probably right about the Pic ticket auction..maybe close the bidding before odds are known in last race?