Sidebar

[Jeff P]

Disappointing that Cal Racing is still trying to spin anything and everything related to the takeout increase.

Make no mistake. The takeout increase has become a complete and utter failure.

With each passing day racing customers everywhere are becoming more and more aware that racing has a high takeout problem. Changing CA state law to increase the takeout to take money from customer wallets to fund a purse increase was a horrible idea.

It didn’t work. No increase in field size or improvement in quality of the product as promised. No 25% to 30% purse increase as promised.

In plain English: Customers are speaking with their wallets. They are saying “no thanks” to a price increase on a product with weakening demand.

Year over year numbers for a few tracks running at the same time as SAX and GGX help put things in context:

*Santa Anita*
Handle-
WPS: -36.3M/-19.2%
Exotic: -86.6M/-21.6%
Total: -122.9M/-20.8%
Per Race: -108K/-12.4%
Per Day: -891K/-11.8%

Purse-
Total: +1.7M/+6.1%
Per Race: +7.5K/+17.4%
Per Day: +68K/+18.2%

Field Size-
Down from 7.81 to 7.63
-.17 horses per race/-2.2%



*Golden Gate*
Handle-
WPS: -11.3M/-18.9%
Exotic: -22.6M/-19.6%
Total: -33.9M/-19.4%
Per Race: -48K/-15.9%
Per Day: -399K/-15.7%

Purse-
Total: +792K/+9.6%
Per Race: +2K/+14.3%
Per Day: +17K/+14.6%

Field Size-
Down from 6.71 to 6.6
-.11 horses per race/-1.7%



*Tampa Bay Downs*
Handle-
WPS: +6.5M/+5.9%
Exotic: +14.8M/+6.4%
Total: +21.3M/+6.2%
Per Race: +35K/+8.6%
Per Day: +372K/+8.9%

Purse-
Total: +270K/+2%
Per Race: +$690/+4.3%
Per Day: +7.5K/+4.5%

Field Size-
Up from 8.98 to 9.14
+.17 horses per race/+1.9%



*Gulfstream *
Handle-
WPS: +4.1m/+2.3%
Exotic: +29.4m/+8.4%
Total: +33.5m/+6.4%
Per Race: +17.5k/+2.4%
Per Day: +538K/+7.8%

Purse-
Total: +4.9M/+17.6%
Per Race: +5K/+13.1%
Per Day: +70K/+19.1%

Field Size-
Up from 9.41 to 9.53
+.12 horses per race/+1.3%



Attn Cal Racing: You are losing business to out of state competitors. If you want to reverse the trend – If you want an increase in customer business like some of the other tracks out there, you are going to have to EARN that business.

Rescinding the takeout increase would be a good place to start.


-jp

.