Small tracks
 

Interested to hear if posters find that they have better success at smaller tracks. Any truth to the idea that there may be advantages to be had from less sharp/CAW money in some of these pools, particularly the win pools? I guess the counter would be that the pools can be so small that any kind of late money can more drastically change the odds compared to much larger pools, but I'm hoping that on balance that disadvantage might be outweighed.

A lot higher percentage of the pools at the smaller tracks is CAW money, stable money, smart handicapper money...than at the bigger tracks.

Monday, R4, the :1: horse left the gate a 4-1, hit the quarter mile at 3-2.
I see a lot of drastic changes at FL.

Even if there is less CAW money, the odds are still volatile because the pools are so much smaller. There's probably a sweet spot in the bigger small tracks, but I don't know where it is.

My last small-track visit was to Portland Meadows the year before they closed. It was very enjoyable as to atmosphere, facilities and the crowd. I had a winning day despite never having followed it, and prices, especially place and exactas were better than I expected. Maybe all of this was just coincidence, but I was looking forward to returning on my next visit, which didn't pan out.

In my own experience, success at smaller vs. larger tracks has been tied to specializing on the trainers, horses and jockeys who run there. My one-day of luck at PM was just getting lucky. The more tracks I've tried to play simultaneously affects my bottom line negatively..

As to sharper or CAW money, I thought NYRA and Fla tracks were tougher to compete. For a while I did focus on Belmont and Aqu, and did better than I expected. Sar and Ky tracks were the toughest in my mind to compete with sharp money.

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I believe that whales don't want to bet the smaller tracks for obvious reasons

and I believe that the big plungers are generally the sharper bettors

so, it follows that it is easier to find a good bet there than at the big tracks


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How can you find a good bet when 80% of the win pool comes in during the final tick? It's delusional.

you're generalizing
that doesn't happen every times
and why would you assume that all the money is coming in on the horse you want to bet on______?
if it happens and you bet on a different horse your odds will be inflated
some of these 3/5 shots who got bet down late are real dogs

if you're a player that usually bets faves - yes, than this can sometimes hurt you

but if you're a player who usually bets against faves it can often help you

I believe I got a good bet in this race at Delta Downs
there was no huge late bet down



https://www.equibase.com/premium/cha...22&cy=USA&rn=2



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Speed is KING...No long straightaways for the pressers and sustained animals to catch up.

That has never been proven

I think sharper turns can also be an underrated part of speed being an advantage at the physically smaller tracks on smaller circuits.

The sharper the turn the harder it is to accelerate without bearing out. So on a small track, at the point in the race where mid pack horses and closers should normally being putting themselves in a position to win, they can't make up as much ground as they might at Belmont or even at a 9F track like AQU etc.. That leaves them with more work to do in the stretch.

You also see that on some turf courses that are inside dirt courses, though turf races develop differently so it's not nearly as big a problem for the closers.

First track I attended and actually WAGERED, was the old 4 furlong bull ring at the LA Country Fair.. A COMPLETE ROOKIE, I bet speed all program and wound up with the (regrettable) belief that I had figured out the entire game .

Lo and behold, I then attended the inaugural Oak Tree at Santa Anita using what I thought was the "secret" I had discovered at Pomona...I got wiped out financially before the 6th race cleared. Thought it was a singularly Bad day, but after repeating the same experience over and over at Oak Tree, I began to study pace in earnest

Over the ensuing years, with more experienced under my belt and the KNOWLEDGE that the Sartin energy distribution concept gave me. I kept records of the race I used to evaluated a field's winners (the early/later balance) and was able to discern where (AND MOST IMPORTANTLY WHEN....what time of year that is) various speed favoring tracks that ran almost consistently that way and kept my play associated with them.

Of course, these speed data did not fit turf racing, where the "trip" is usually far more important that almost anything else.

The late Tommy Wolski,a retried rider who had a Sovereign winning TV showing Vancouver, explained to me, from his experience riding East Coast ovals in the late Fall and Winter, that SPEED is even MORE important a factor when it got really cold and wet. "When it gets close to freezing, small amounts of ice form around small bits of the dirt on the track...If you are not OUT in front, you and your horse are subjected to a "rooster tail" of sharp sided missiles ( a hardened frozen piece of dirt encapsulated in ice) flying back at you. No horse wants to move into that barrage. Being out front on days like that insures that mount of having a clear ride with fewer mid to late moves able to catch you.

Howwith does all running styles etc have anything to do with your 10-1 leaving the gate
coming home at 6-5?

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how sharp could a plunger be if he bets $5K into a tiny win pool and crushes down his own payout to peanuts if his pick wins_________?

when he could have bet the same $5K at Belmont or Santa Anita and it would have had little effect on the payout


methinks not too sharp



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What year was your Pomona debut? I loved that place, I first went in 1980.
With Southern California not opening OTBs till the mid 80's. I had a half dozen years enjoying the novice money the fair brought in as admission was free after you paid at the fair gate. We would go hang out in the beer garden watching college football and discussing the races before first post.


As for Santa Anita the winter meet had a strong speed bias for couple weeks at it's start in 1986. Other than hitting pick sixes that was the best week I ever had.