Tote Board Action

[harpowitz]

The 3rd race at Prairie Meadows was the 10th and final race of the Bris contest and I followed the tote action on BRIS. The #6 horse (Most....) morning line was 20/1. It opened at 6/5 or 8/5 as the favorite. This was my play and I was hoping for a big payoff and was dismayed at the odds. However after about 5 minutes as the favorite, the odds started to go up and at post-time (10 minutes later), it was 14/1. THe horse won and paid $30.80!! I do not believe I have ever seen tote action like that at a horse race track. From 6/5 to 14/1 in a space of 10 minutes. I noticed a similar trend at a dog track outside of Denver but never at a legitimate track. At the dog track I saw that the pools were very small so that any bet(almost) affected the odds. I didn't check pool size at this track, but could that be the reason? Or, did the connections dump their dough on the horse really early to get away from the tote board players who look for late action?

A second question. How important is tote board action in this time of cyberspace betting? Are the bets made over YOUBET, BRIS, et. al. reflected in the track's pools?
I recall stories about NY owners and trainers who had people in the Connecticut otb teletheatres who made their large bets for them because Connecticut maintained a seperate betting pools. How about the Vegas action? Separate pools or combined track pools?

[Figman]

Herb A:
I've got to take issue with you...Prairie Meadows is NOT a legitimate track. Last year they screwed up the entries and sent out a sheet with a race with just one coupled entry. The neXt day they sent out a revised sheet with the same race having two coupled entries thus revising the betting numbers of all the horses in that race.

When they finally ran the race the following day and some simulcast customers immediately called after the race to complain, they waited 25 minutes to make the race official. What did they do?

Why 25 minutes after the race was run Prairie Meadows decided to refund all off-track money and pay off only those people on-track because they had purchased "an official program." New York was handling this race from Prairie Meadows through its OTB system and I know of at least one person in New York that had a winning $10 dollar ticket for which he got a refund of $10 and he had the bet the winning combination with the right numbers. Like I said...NOT A LEGITIMATE TRACK!

[JimH]

On Friday night at the Meadowlands, there was a horse who opened up (and stayed for a while) at 8/5 and ended up winning at double-digit odds.

All it takes is one person making a $500 win bet and the opening odds are going to be smashed. Then everybody tries to bet elsewhere looking to beat this "false favorite" and the horse with all the early money is overlooked.

Happens quite a bit.

[superfecta]

Originally posted by harpowitz
The 3rd race at Prairie Meadows was the 10th and final race of the Bris contest and I followed the tote action on BRIS. The #6 horse (Most....) morning line was 20/1. It opened at 6/5 or 8/5 as the favorite. This was my play and I was hoping for a big payoff and was dismayed at the odds. However after about 5 minutes as the favorite, the odds started to go up and at post-time (10 minutes later), it was 14/1. THe horse won and paid $30.80!! I do not believe I have ever seen tote action like that at a horse race track. From 6/5 to 14/1 in a space of 10 minutes. I noticed a similar trend at a dog track outside of Denver but never at a legitimate track. At the dog track I saw that the pools were very small so that any bet(almost) affected the odds. I didn't check pool size at this track, but could that be the reason? Or, did the connections dump their dough on the horse really early to get away from the tote board players who look for late action?






A story I heard long ago was at my home track(Remington Park):
Seems a group of owners and trainers named The Bad Boy Thoroughbred Club (supposedly everyone in the "club" had done time or were on their way) would drop a ton of money on a horse when the pool opened,and just before post time would cancel their tickets and bet the horse they really liked.This caused the Horsemens association to get the state to change the law so you couldn't cancel a bet unless the horse was scratched or before you left the betting window.Don't know if it was true, but now the rule has been changed to amounts less than 100 dollars, and even then some OTBs still don't let you change your ticket if you leave the window and come back.

[ceejay]

Superfecta:

I heard the same story but with different players. But, that said even now the same thing can be done with a number of tickets. I've seen the tote action during QH season. A horse with three legs opens up at 1:9 with $500 early $. As betting action proceeds, the win pool on the nag goes down! Remember the QH win pools are sometimes $3000 total so $500 early is huge.

[hurrikane]

This happens all the time..and at larger tracks too. I see it frequently. Believe it is more the monies coming from online betting comingled. Money is bet way before the race so when the race opens a horse may have $100 on it but the pool has only reached 500 or so. Then the local money comes in and the pool grows..odds go up.
Would be interesting to track how many win...don't have a way to do it though.

[Some_One]

Numerous Times was 15/1 in the ML for the Atto Mile, opened at 3/2 but went off at 7/1 once the American money was on the American trio and won the race.

[JimH]

At many tracks, comingled simulcast money is added to the pool only two times: with two minutes to post and within seconds after the start. So with 2MTP, at the smaller tracks who send their signal to the four corners of the earth (Great Lakes, Penn National, etc.), you can see some wild moves in the odds. I once saw a race at GLD where the win pool jumped from about $400 to over $2,000 in a flash, due to the influx of simo money. THAT kind of jump can play havoc with the odds. A horse in that race dropped from 70/1 to 6/1 in one click. (All it took was 10 simulcast players seeing the crazy odds and betting $10 apiece on that horse--it's not any indication of high rollers or "smart money". If it was "smart money," it probably wasn't too smart since the horse ran OTB.)

Compare that to the Kentucky Derby where the odds with 10 MTP are, within one point either way, what the closing odds are going to be. When you're talking about pools in the millions, those numbers aren't going to move much.

[GR1@HTR]

Another way to find the early speed of the field...Majority of the time it is the horse who is well bet down from MLO...Odds will then slowly rise from there...

[alyingthief]

you will find a lot of odds fluctuation at california fair tracks, where any amount of money can be withdrawn anytime during the wagering period. i tracked this a number of times--and found neither the opening horse so favored, nor any subsequent favorite, identifiably at risk of failure because of it.

many a drunkard is at work at the fairs...(myself being one of em) :-)~

[RECON]

IN THE GRASS STAKES RACE SATURDAY AT ARLINGTON A UNRACED MAIDEN OPENED AY 3-5 AND WENT OFF AT 12-1 AND WON THE DAMN THING BY A BUNCH

[The Judge]

Unless the off track money has changed things. A $20 bet could cause the swing. I bet was betting $20 but it was too much for the pools if placed on a long shot. Most bettors were eating (great food)and drinking and betting $2 place and show. It's like a fair. Its a beautiful track that makes a fortune because of the slots.

Next door is Theme Park so you can drop off the kids and go play the horses. This was about 5 years ago and they had the best simulcast selection I ever saw you could play almost any track running.

So check how much money is in the pool. When I was there no one had the exacta so it paid to 1st and 3rd.