Quote:
Originally Posted by linrom1
I pulled two random charts from GP winter meet. The first one is from Feb 11(a very modest Sunshine million day for Fl breds), the pool was $14M.
The second one was from Feb 4(FOY day), the pool was $26M.
Would you care to enlighten me and point a single day during GP Summer/Fall meet when they run $15k claimers, that can attract pools like that.
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Sure Linrom. Sorry if I wasn't clear- I wasn't suggesting GP summer and championship meet are equals- they clearly are not in so many ways- nor that big days like FOY day don't draw more attention and wagering. What I was trying to say was that wagering does not seem to be overly sensitive to the class (i.e., purse) of a particular race. A few illustrations always help in making a point.
Not sure what days you were looking at- they ran the Holy Bull on Feb 4 and Feb 11 featured the GP Handicap, but I took a look at those days and there are a few useful examples:
2/4
R8 was a $25k Maiden-claimer going 1 1/16 on the grass with a $23k purse. 12 horse field. Handle on that race excluding multi-race exotics was $1.5 million. Same day R11 was the Sweetest Chant stakes for $100k going 1mi on the grass. 9 horse field. Handle on that race again excluding multi-race exotics was about $1.75 million.
2/11 R10 was the Gulfstream Park Handicap with a $350k purse with 9 runners going 1mi on dirt. Handle excluding multi-race exotics was $1.6 million. R11 was a $16k claimer with 12 runners going 7 1/2 on the turf for a $23k purse. Handle on that race again excluding multi-race exotics was about $1.3 million.
3/4/17 was FOY day and for sure the FOY handle was much higher than any other race on that card, which I think most of us would expect. But there are a few other races that help illustrate the point. Races 7-9:
R7 was the Very One Stakes going long on the grass for $150k. 6 horse field, handle $1.4 million. R8 was a MSW for $46k going 7F on dirt. 13 horse field, handle $1.8 million. R9 was the Palm Beach going long on the grass for $100k. 9 horse field, handle was $1.8 million.
So there is no question you have to have a high quality product to attract the most wagering dollars. That is one reason why the major tracks attract so much more $ than minor tracks. But within the quality offering the are more subtle ways to "cut purses". In these examples the lower-class races offer horseplayers quality in ways other than class of horse, and the handle relative to purse sizes is not appreciably affected.
