Clean races or low takeout
 

If you could choose one of these two, which would it be: (keep in mind these are hypotheticals, so pick 1 of the two as opposed to trying to debate why either one could never happen. for the record, neither one could ever happen lol)

1) Spectacularly clean races, like Hong Kong only cleaner. Massive suspension and financial fines for cheating as well as prosecuting trainers in court and sending cheaters to jail and revoking their licenses permanently. Whatever has been discussed is implemented, cameras in stalls, on site lab, super testing with no expenses spared, horses must be stabled on grounds at least 72 hourse before their race and so on and so forth. Takeout levels remain the same.

2) WPS takeouts at all tracks slashed to 10%, exas and DDs 12.5% and anything 3 or more (tris, pick 4s etc) 15%. but nothing changes as far as #1 goes.

Low takeout for me, I can handicap the other stuff.

A clean game, for me. The more apathy and leniency there is concerning drugs and cheating trainers...the more incentive there is for even more trainers to cheat. And then...no takeout reduction can save us. IMO...you either have a clean game...or you got nothing.

Bingo, we have a winner.

Low takeout. Despite all the irregularities/illegalities in the present game, there are still enough recurring performance patterns to allow profitable handicapping, particularly if you're considering the winning chances of each horse or combination in a race field in relation to its odds or payoff, rather than focusing solely on narrowing the field down to the one most likely winner, to the exclusion of every other horse. That possibility for profit would be enhanced even further by lower takeouts for all types of wagers.

Cheating to try to get an edge in a race has been going on forever. It is merely a factor in the handicapping process. Give me lower takeout any day.

I'll vote for integrity.

Good question, BTW.

Should have been a poll.

Clean...easily worth 5% of my bet to take vets out of the equation.

If cheating is "merely a factor in the handicapping process"...then why is the game in the shape that it currently finds itself? Why have the mutuel pools tumbled nationwide? Have you noticed a great increase in the takeouts in recent years...is that why so many of our brethren have lost interest in this game? Or do you suppose that the horseplayers have fled our game for the greener pastures that the casinos have to offer them...which is what the tracks would have us believe?

I'll tell you what I think:

Cheating has NEVER been as widespread as it is right now...but there is a great cover-up in place, to protect the "integrity" of the game. Ask your friend Andy Beyer, if you don't believe me. And the proliferation of these legal and illegal drugs is the main reason for the tiny fields that we are witnessing today. If a sustained effort isn't made soon to deal with the cheating element in this game...then the six-horse field will be considered to be a "full field" in a few years' time.

And that's a game that no one would touch...even with a 12% takeout.

I sincerely believe that if you polled the general non fan/player public, you would get a similar response to the above...

It is saddening to most of us, I think, what has happened to this once great sport/game of ours....I have watched this sport slowly eroding for some fifty odd years...

I miss the roar of the once crowded grandstands...

As a result, I have slowly made the transition from a large churner to a moderate "guerilla style player"....Picking my spots, and just grinding away, when formerly, a "reach for the pie in the sky player"....

The only thing that I have going for me is that I still do ok, but I gave up on getting rich, due to unexplained reasons for losses....Not that I know everything, but I do know when I got screwed versus, when I lose, due to just silly racing luck, lazy, sloppy and/or lack of focus handicapping, or lack of knowledge ....

I can beat the take, but not the crooks...

I am losing interest in this game, more and more, these days... I still love it tho, just not in the same way and with the same enthusiasm as I used to...

Maybe just being 70 has something to do with it all too... :cool:

totally agree with c.j.

Good call, maybe CJ or PA can add a poll to this?

Clean game for me.

It was # 1 on a short list of reasons why I left the game I loved.

In hindsight though, the best move I ever made .

I am not a player anymore
 

This really should be a 2 part question...second part being:
Which of the 2 are we most likely to see improvement in the next 10 years?
answers (A) Cheating (B) Takeout (C) Neither (D) Both
I would have to vote for C which is why I decided to quit.

Stuball :confused:

Clean racing for me.