You and everyone else. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you magically closed 50% of the tracks that revenue and field size would go up at the others---temporarily. It's also the only gambling option in town. Reopen the casinos and have the NBA playoffs and the MLB season going and check those handle numbers again.

The industry has been committing suicide for decades starting with ADWs, on to casinos etc... If the people running things were so smart, we wouldn't keep doing dumb and shortsighted things.

When the industry started taking casino money all the leaders and biggest names in the sport loved the idea. I was screaming that it was a bad idea long term even if created a windfall in the short term.

It never made sense for governments to allow casino profits to subsidize money losing tracks. That kept zombie tracks open and hurt the rest. Closing them would have been better for the rest of industry and better for the government and taxpayers in those states. They could have used that money and those land resources etc.. and put them to better economic use. Even people as dumb as politicians will eventually figure out when on a net basis the subsidies are costing them money. Most of the zombies should be closed.

Granted, the tracks have less competition now. That's one of many moving parts in the handle right now whose impact can't be isolated, but there's no doubt all the zombies should be closed and the rest would benefit.

Did racing really get a bunch of new customers betting, or is it mostly current ones with little else to do? I'd lean mostly to the latter.

I love that, going to use it in the future.

I stole that from the telecom industry back in the 2000 bust on Wall St.

A lot of new telecom companies started up during that late 90s period. They weren't profitable, but the money kept rolling in from investors hoping to eventually make a score. When the bubble burst most them went into reorganization and handed the assets over to the bondholders. They continued operating, just without all the debt they accumulated. They were bad businesses, but because they had no debt they were able to cut prices and compete with the remaining good companies. The term "zombie" telecoms was born. The companies that should have been dead were eating market share from the good ones.

I'd likewise lean towards the latter. I'm one of them. Lapsed and/or casual fans who have returned to watch and wager on horse racing with so few sports alternatives on TV. I've handicapped more races and placed more wagers in the past 2 weeks than I probably did in all of 2019!

Daily fantasy racing companies are considered closer to ADWs than you think as they need to have agreements with each track or content management company to use those races. This was made clear by the ruling a few years back. They also have agreements for electronic entry and results data.

That and $1200 in their pockets.....:p

Not mentioned here yet but CD has a nice App for Apple TV that shows all the races from CD,Arlington, and FG. And it’s all HD and free! No betting account is even necessary.

Then I'm surprised you don't like the Churchill card.

Today , races 2 through 6 were claiming races with only one betting favorite winning. Full fields , plenty of shippers, climbers, droppers, shortening-upers, stretching-outers.

Race five was an $8k claimer, field of ten, with an exacta payout of 270-1.

I am preparing to start playing CD, for pretty much the first time ever, seriously.
Tomorrow will be day 1.

It's a very good card.

I’m gonna play Churchill today. I’ve been skipping the place for years other than derby weekend. But it’s the best game in town on Memorial Day Weekend. With little going on, I almost have no choice but the card quality looks good too.

I marvel at how this sport can screw up anything and everything. At a time when horse racing and tracks have an advantage because it’s one of the few sports going and one of the few gambling opportunities around . They continue to bicker rather than maximize the gold. Sometimes I look at this country and think..... you couldn’t make this shit up. Then again, you don’t have to cause it happens for real.

The Jockey colony is as good as it gets. Still, Gulfstream has a handful of maiden races with big fields. The Turf course has been lightly used the last week.

CHURCHILL
 

Need I remind all of you abut the Ky Derby Dq of Maximum Security,
ie, the blinking on what normally would be a reason to DQ a horse
versus the famous injustice several years ago..

I have yet to bet $1 on CD since that date and closed my Twinspires
membership as well; actually enjoy the racing @GP over KY. regardless
of the "blueblood" BS