Balmoral's Handle Gains

[DeanT]

Story on BLMP's bump in handle of the past while.

Quote from our pal Ray too :) (page 2 - pdf file)

http://www.harnessracingupdate.com/restricted/pdf/hru/hru042212.pdf

[melman]

I posted about this before Dean. Balmoral "gets" it. They deserve and have earned our support. There is NO track s-bred or t-bred that is showing these kind of handle gains for this long a time period. Yonkers---boring little attendance lousy handle. Chester---next to no one watching, or betting. Plus at Balmoral you can get FREE pp's (good ones at that) for all races, except race one at ustrotting.com.

[pandy]

Balmoral has low minimum wagers, 10 cent supers, 50 cent trifectas, 50 cent Pick, $1.00 Pick 4 with guarantees. But more than that, only 33% winning favorites, the lowest in the sport, and of course, NO SPEED or POST POSITION BIAS. I've been writing about this for years, you cannot have a successful racetrack with 44% winning favorites and an inside speed bias.

[RichieP]

Plus at Balmoral you can get FREE pp's (good ones at that) for all races, except race one at ustrotting.com.

Hey Mel :)
where can I find these free pps?? do they gave fractions and positions ?
Mmmm a buggy track looks like they "get it" :ThmbUp:

I hope you are doing great

[wilderness]

Hey Mel :)
where can I find these free pps?? do they gave fractions and positions ?


Trackmaster/USTA FREE programs and/or pages (http://www.trackmaster.com/usta/)

[RichieP]

Thanks Don! :)

[mrroyboy]

I have always liked Balmoral. The problem is they have no live video. I can't watch with TwinSpires etc because I live in Nevada also known as "greedy casino state" If Balmoral gets live streaming video I think their handle will go up even more

[melman]

Richie--Yes tks to Don who beat me to the link. I was very busy watching Flyers/Pens. At the Giroux school of cooking they have announced that chef Claude will be serving fillet of Penguin tonight. :)

[precisionk]

Definitely one of the reasons I play and pick for Balmoral is the wide open of every race. Every horse has a shot. Their is no inside or outside post bias. The stretch on that track literally gives any of those horses a shot at the wire. The variety of wagers give the ability for any person with any size of a bankroll have a shot.

They know how to race, they race all year around and they have great drivers there. Big price horse come in all the time.

[pandy]

Definitely one of the reasons I play and pick for Balmoral is the wide open of every race. Every horse has a shot. Their is no inside or outside post bias. The stretch on that track literally gives any of those horses a shot at the wire. The variety of wagers give the ability for any person with any size of a bankroll have a shot.

They know how to race, they race all year around and they have great drivers there. Big price horse come in all the time.


Exactly right. One of the main reasons why Harness Racing is in such a bad state is the fact that almost all of the tracks are half or five eighth tracks, and almost all of them have either a speed bias, or both a speed and post position bias. When I first started following the sport in 1971, none of the tracks were speed biased and the outside posts on half mile tracks won more than twice as often as they do now. So the racing was excellent. Now the favorites win 44% at Yonkers, Chester, even more at Freehold, etc., because the bettors know that you have to bet the inside speed so they pound the obvious in-form speed horse that has an inside post.

It's hurting the sport because there are still a lot of fans who prefer half mile track racing, but good half mile track racing, not what we have now. And it could come back but they would have to run the races in the conventional wood sulkies in order to eliminate the inside speed bias and get the action back. Not everyone understands this but it's a fact. I was handicapping for Sports Eye in the mid 70's and I was the best handicapper in New York (showed a flat bet profit of over 25% on my Best Bets for 7 years straight). When the modified sulky came in and every driver got one, immediately the races became more speed favoring and the percentage of winning favorites went up from 34% to 38%, then as the sulkies evolved it got worse. In 2002 the first off-centered bike (Harmer) took over and the percentage of winning favorites has risen to 44% or higher as the speed bias has strengthened.

Some people say the horses are faster, but it's a moot point. The bias is due to the bikes, so even if the horses are a bit faster, it doesn't matter. If you run the races in the conventional sulky, I guarantee you that it will slow down the races significantly and there will be better racing and better payoffs.

Balmoral and the Meadowlands have the long straight aways so no speed bias. On a half mile track, the horses racing in the outside flow simply can't gain around the 4 turns into the hot third fraction. So the racing sucks. It's really a damn shame, should never have happened.