What could improve the experience?
 

I'm curious if there are things that could be changed (on a low level) that would enhance your watching and/or betting experience. Not really talking about bigger scale things like takeout and drug oversight, but more fairly obvious things that could be easy enough to institute that would be positive for you in your involvement in the game.

Here are mine:
1. Horizontal wagers showing number of tickets remaining
* After each race, regardless of a p3, p4, p5, p6 and so on, show the number or remaining live tickets to each horse. Failure to do this is like watching a football game without a scoreboard.

2. Track surface constantly listed on the feed
* It would be nice to immediately see the current track conditions whenever glancing at the screen, not waiting for a scroll or to poke around elsewhere. Why not just list fast/firm or good/off or whatever constantly on the screen? Maybe it's done at some tracks, not sure.

3. Universal base wager payoffs
* It's annoying when one track uses a $2 payoff and another uses a .50c payoff. I would be nice if all tracks decided to show payoffs to their lowest base. This isn't a huge deal but I've been confused by this when looking at will-pays many times. I'd rather it be simple to understand.

4. Inquiry transparency
* Should be a camera and microphone showing the stewards discuss an inquiry. Not sure why this needs to be done in secret. I believe other parts of the world keep it transparent.

5. Camera shots isolating a 10 length winner down the stretch
* It shouldn't surprise anyone that a majority of the people watching a race, any race, is equally interested in who runs 2nd, 3rd, 4th as the winner. Split screen or wider pan view would be nice.

6. Entries farther in advance
* Personally, I would love it if the cards can be listed a week in advance. I know there are reasons why this might be an issue but, to my knowledge, tracks like EVD and MNR have their cards ready many days out. Would be helpful to have more time in order to isolate on a day.

7. Scratch rules listed prominently
* It may be user error here but I have tried to find out what the rules are for scratches, or off-the-turf in the middle of the card, etc and never can find what the rules are. So, when alive to a p4, and I get a gate scratch, for most tracks, I have no idea if I get the favorite or a consolation. Would like to see this displayed in an obvious area of the track website or listed on the screen whenever there is a scratch or surface change in the middle of the card.

These are just some of my own personal observations and annoyances I would like addressed. Would be very curious if others have their own things they would like changed.

1. Woodbine does it, no one else does, as far as I know. More tracks should.

2. Most tracks I've seen always have the dirt/turf conditions up, regardless of what surface the upcoming race is on.

3. I can tolerate it if it says it on the feed (i.e. "$1 pick 4 payoff"). What drives me crazy is when tracks don't say how much it is (i.e. "exacta X & Y. How much is the base you list, though?)

4. Agreed.

5. In a few cases, I've seen the camera simply cut away from the winner and go back to the horses battling for second/third. Most tracks I've seen are good about not isolating the winner, though.

6. Some tracks do put their entries out really early, but I'm not a fan. If you leave the entry box open for longer, it increases the amount of horses entered. Besides, you'd probably see a lot of trainers change their minds 4-5 days out, which would lead to a lot of late scratches.

7. Agreed.

I write a column in which I occasionally bemoan some of these problems, but one that sticks out to me is the vagueness on scratch reasonings. "Trainer" or "Stake" is so vague as to be meaningless. If a trainer wants to scratch, it should be for medical reasons only, not because the trainer doesn't feel like running his horse.

What Could Improve Your Experience
 

Here's one: Standardization of workout type assignments across the country. What reasons could there be that almost every workout is considered "breezing" at east coast tracks and "handily" at west coast tracks? Since all clocking is done by Equibase, no commissioner or committees should be needed to change this. Equibase just needs to establish the standard criteria for what each type of workout should look like and insist that all clockers adhere to those standards.

Good one. I agree. No reason this can't be a bit more descriptive.

Another good one.

Here's another one: there's too many coupled entries. Unless two horses have the same owner AND the same trainer, they should be uncoupled in the wagering. More betting interests in a race leads to better betting opportunities.

For example: in the fifth race at Monmouth Park on Saturday, Stylish Step is listed as being owned by Robert Reidy, and Dragon Queen's owner is listed as Just in Time Racing. But because both horses are trained by Mario Serey, they are coupled in the betting. Unless Reidy is part of Just in Time Racing (and that should be mentioned in the program if so), to have the horses be coupled is silly.

In the same race, Supah Jalene is owned by A. J. Bardaro and Joseph Pierce, and trained by Pierce. Grecian Queen is owned by Pierce and E.P. Lindh, but trained by Patricia Farro. Both are coupled.

as far as #7, in any pic4 I've seen, if you horse scratches after wagering starts, you get the favorite in the race.

Yes. Agree here. I think when the initial rule for coupling was created, it wasn't assumed that 60% of the horse population would be trained by 15% of the trainers.

Seeing as field size (i.e. betting options) is such a major concern, you'd think this self-imposed problem could be removed.

Semi-related to your #1, and since I exclusively play horizontals, I would love a "probable" option where I could plug in hypothetical winners of 4, 5, or 6 race sequences, and a platform would reveal how much this combo pays given the current state of the pools.

Giving the public the weight of horses.

HD for all tracks..audio to hear what jocks are saying. Like in the 98 Belmont stretch drive..

only thing i would want would be limits on how many horses a trainer and his owners can have in training and an owner can have in training during a meet.

i think the number 30 is more than enough for a trainer and 5 is more than plenty for an owner.


i am sick of watching races with 3 and 4 horses in it from the same trainer in big races all the time. it makes the race unplayable for me. since the start of corporate racing programs the game has declined and it is quite evident that it is in big trouble after watching the last 2 breeders sales.

NYRA to allow Jerseyites to bet the X. UK X bettors can bet NYRA but Jerseyites can't.

whats up with that?

Allan

This was mine. If you're looking for "youth" in the fan base who grew up on HD programming you have to get the tracks to offer HD. A 20 something or late teen will be turned off right away without HD. Additionally the horseplayers who've been supporting and following this game for many years deserve a high quality program to watch too.

this is what i was going to say. horseracing is way behind the times....as always

How About GoPro Cameras on each jock, pre and post race interviews.
also
Ending or changing the claiming game, and WE Need More Transparency in Racing, which leads me to believe a total Reorganization of racing. The HONG KONG model would Please Me , very intrigued by ShaTin and Happy Valley.

As you mention, don't have to be a late teen or twenty something to be turned off by programming in SD.

1. Louder, clearer PA systems. I don't really care about the announcer, but I know many of you do, and a lot of tracks haven't worked on their sound systems at all, as compared to other sports venues. As a result, I often can't hear the calls of races at all. Certainly a good PA system would help casual fans a lot.

2. Better food (at some tracks). Interestingly this has never been a problem at the major tracks in Southern California (though it is at Los Al). Our racetracks were way ahead of the rest of sports in offering interesting stuff to eat, whether it was carved sandwiches at Santa Anita or casseroles and international pastries at Hollywood Park. But whenever I venture outside of Southern California, I am appalled at how bad racetrack food often is. People spend all day at a racetrack. They really do need decent food.

3. Ticketless betting. Of course you can do this online. But it's ridiculous that at the track, we are still relying on easily lost, easily misread paper tickets with fading ink. It's also not good for the environment. Offer a stored value wagering card as an option. This would also help bettors prove losses and pay their taxes.

4. Easily accessible information on prior races. People sometimes get to the track late, or want to see photo finishes. Interestingly, when I was young, all this stuff was posted all over the place at tracks. Now, it's harder to find.

5. Get rid of obstructions. It's 2016. Racing is no longer a pastoral sport where people just sit and picnic, or whatever, with the horses as a pleasant backdrop running in and out from behind trees and whatever. So races shouldn't start behind a building, run behind trees and stuff in the infield, and feature horses coming down the stretch blocked by posts in the grandstand. All this stuff makes it harder to watch horses' trips, too.

6. Redesign tote boards. I'm sorry if you are the one person in America who needs to see the place and show pools. Have some dedicated monitors for that. But the tote board should use its valuable space to show as much information about exotic wagering as possible, because that is what most people bet. Imagine if, instead of the win place and show money that nobody looks at, the tote board were used to display trifecta or pick three payables. Think about it-- they could do it. Our tote boards haven't really improved very much from the ones that Santa Anita had in place when Azucar won the 1935 Big Cap. That's really sad.

Lot's of good points (and it's interesting that you and I approach it from our own typical venue, me online and you at the track). I had to laugh at the obstruction one. Every time I watch Arlington Park I think "who was their designer?" I'm serious when I say that 35% of the race is totally obscured by trees. It's a beautiful track but was it necessary to so severely impact the actual product?

Forget HD, upgrade to 4k.

This would also help prove to the government all of those non-signer winners you have. They will clearly love that.

3. Ticketless betting. Of course you can do this online. But it's ridiculous that at the track, we are still relying on easily lost, easily misread paper tickets with fading ink. It's also not good for the environment. Offer a stored value wagering card as an option. This would also help bettors prove losses and pay their taxes.
Arlington had this for a while -liked it. . You could get a receipt with all of your bets on one or two tickets or no receipt at all. This old tote system allowed you to access the funds in your Twin Spires account and use that while on track.

Get rid of obstructions. It's 2016. Racing is no longer a pastoral sport where people just sit and picnic, or whatever, with the horses as a pleasant backdrop running in and out from behind trees and whatever. So races shouldn't start behind a building, run behind trees and stuff in the infield, and feature horses coming down the stretch blocked by posts in the grandstand. All this stuff makes it harder to watch horses' trips, too.

Nothing better than when they run behind "the little woods" at Arlington.

Some tracks list the time until post as "3 minutes to race 5"...while other tracks list it as "Race 5 in 3 minutes". With so many races going on simultaneously, this causes unnecessary confusion. Why not pick one option...and use it for every track feed?

As long as we're talking about presentation....

One thing that has always bothered me when trying to watch track video streamed over the internet is that it's really hard to see the actual horses.

I know it's not the case... But it's almost as if once upon a time they locked a bunch of production engineers in a room for a week and told them: "Your objective is to design a track video feed for us that deliberately hides the horses!"

If you stop and think about it - it becomes apparent that a big part of the reason the horses are so hard to see on track video streamed over the internet is because for just about every track signal - the track's graphics get in the way and take up 60% or more of the actual viewing area (or total available screen real estate of the video feed.)

As a result the horseplayer is left with tiny little box for a viewing area that consists of (at most) 40% or less of the total available screen real estate of the video feed.

Why not design a separate track graphic that doesn't take up 60% or more of the total available screen real estate?...

One that has single line that displays the track name, date, and race number only... and takes up (at most) maybe 5% to 10% of the total available screen real estate of the video feed...

AND USE THAT during the actual running of the race, and for replays, and while showing the horses warming up!

If the excuse is we can't do that because the current track graphics are needed to show the track name, date, and race number along with odds and will pays, etc. I submit to you the following counter argument:

I'm guessing something like 98% of everybody watching track video streamed over the internet is doing so through an ADW - and therefore already knows what track and race number it is - and can easily see the odds, exacta matrices, and will pays for double, pick3, and pick4 etc. just fine with a few simple mouse clicks.

Why not create an option whereby the player can select which track graphic he or she wants to see imposed on the video?

Why not enable players to toggle back and forth between the two?:

Option #1. Watch video using the current track graphic that takes up 60% or more of the total viewing area.

-or-

Option #2. Watch video using the second (less imposing) track graphic that I mentioned above - that displays track name, date, and race number only - and takes up (at most) 5% to 10% of the total available screen real estate of the video feed.

I know this would improve my viewing experience immensely. (Hard for me to imagine I'm the only one.)


-jp

.

Put sedatives in the beer so the dumb ass that is there every day doing his best to run off at least five of the remaining eight patrons actually trying to bet will just flop over passed out after four beers AKA race three.

Great thread- Some good ideas at little or no cost that would go a long way in mitigating some of the common issues expressed here and elsewhere.

I used to love watching the raw feed to the stews booth that hadn't been spruced up with graphics from video room. Granted, if I were sitting at a table downstairs betting I may have grown annoyed at the total lack of information eventually, but it really is a nice change of pace to just get a nice full screen, unencumbered view of the proceedings where you don't have to work so hard just to focus on the subject.

Clockers don't work for Equibase.

Agree with HD as #1. Some of the feeds at these tracks are horrendous.

Well, 1, i said it should be optional, and 2, any winning horseplayer who is deliberately evading taxes and not keeping records is taking a big risk. If the IRS goes after him or her, they will simply "estimate" what is owed and the estimate may be too high.

- +1 on the horses' weights
- info on vet treating the horse
- mandatory info on ailments for horses that have a six month or longer break

Hey there Parkview! At least RTPlaya is someone else who recognizes the BEST model for quality and integrity for this game. Everything that's been mentioned here and more is offered by the HK Jockey Club. Playing there is such a refreshing change from what the norm has been in the States. My only issue is the time difference.

Here is one that could help...how about not having Walk of Fame ceremonies during the middle of a race card. I know I'm probably coming across as a grumpy old man, maybe I am! :)

And that is the problem; they should because Equibase is the "official" data provider for thoroughbred info in North America.

1. Good idea....I'd also like to see the amounts of money in each entrant's trifecta and super pools....NYRA does show trifecta totals, but just once or twice during the betting period
2. I agree. Some tracks do not do this. Or they show it on a crawl so slow it rivals that old school cable tv channel guide.....
3. Use the base amount. Good idea.
4. Not seeing this happen. No other pro sport permits the public to hear discussions among officials when a ruling is under discussion....However, a clear explanation as to the ruling should always be made public at the time the decision is made. NFL style
5. This comes down to a case of money. Camera equipment is very expensive.
6 not sure what you are referring to here. Most tracks post entries at least 72 hours in advance.
7. Having the rules available for public consumption should be priority.
Every other pro and amateur sport has a rule book available to the public. Horse racing should be no different.
You have made some very good points here.

The "X"?....

Once again......We're talking about money. Lots of money. This equipment is not inexpensive.
If you want all HD all the time and all kinds of sophisticated electronics and instant wagering pool info, someone has to pay for it.
Would you be willing to absorb 30 to 35% takeouts and no rebate ADW's?

The simple response is most races do not go off at the exact post time.
Post time is a point of reference. Nothing more.
Anyone watching live on a monitor, from the stands or at home on their computer can see the gate load.

THat did take a while. Should have been done before the day's races....Between the 12:30 and 12:50

Always good to honor deserving people and the two I saw today certainly deserving, but why in the middle of the card? Do it before or after and the people that actually want to watch / attend are free to do so.