As I sit here pondering what happened to the bettor's former best friend (Keeneland), I can say with certainty that Keeneland's management team today doesn't understand me. Here is a quote from Bob Elliston, Keeneland’s vice president of racing and sales when the takeout increase was announced. The quote comes from the Daily Racing Form:
“I hope the wagering public understands that this is going to our purses to keep us competitive, it’s not going into our pockets,” Elliston said. “You have to look at it comparatively. We’re going to be on par with New York, with Oaklawn, and we think we will continue to offer bettors a good product, if you look at depth of field and the quality of the fields.”
First and foremost, I don't care at all if the best horses in the country come to Keeneland or not. All I want are races that are competitive. As opposed to watching a great horse like Wise Dan run in five Grade One races in a row at Keeneland and never go off at even money or greater in any of them. What horseplayer wants to invest anything in that?
Tomorrow they are running the Phoenix, a Grade Two with a $250,000 purse. Back in 2010 the truly-terrific Wise Dan won the race when it was a $175,000 Grade Three event. Do I care if the Phoenix is a Grade Two or Grade Three? No. I couldn't care less as a horseplayer. Furthermore, I don't want to pay more in takeout to make the Phoenix a Grade Two. If Keeneland wants the Phoenix to be a Grade Two so much, let them charge the owners more to enter their horses in the race. After all, it's an owner who is going to benefit from the higher Grade and purse - not the horseplayer.
My narrative above may not be well-stated but I hope my point is clear. I'll be watching Keeneland because it's on TVG. But I'm not betting on Keeneland no matter how much Todd begs me.
Here's the link to the DRF article quoted above:
http://www.drf.com/news/keeneland-bo...t-across-board
