Question on handle reported in Equibase charts at Santa Anita

[ALostTexan]

I have a question that is bugging me about the Equibase charts and I am wondering if anyone here knows the answer.

If you look at opening day at Santa Anita and you sum all of the pools they report, you get $11,812,416 in handle. But then if you add the handle totals at the end of the chart for on-track, in-state, and out-of-state handle, you get $11,707,276. Why is there a discrepancy in these totals?

It is not just opening day, either. Basically every day that I have tracked at Santa Anita has this problem. Some days the sum of the individual pools is higher than the final wagering numbers, some days it is lower. I have found that it can vary by as much as 7.6%, while other days it is only ~1%. But I have never found a day where the numbers match.

I plan on calling Equibase tomorrow, but my experiences with them have been less than fruitful in the past, so I am hoping that someone in here might know the answer.

[iwearpurple]

Originally Posted by ALostTexan

I have a question that is bugging me about the Equibase charts and I am wondering if anyone here knows the answer.

If you look at opening day at Santa Anita and you sum all of the pools they report, you get $11,812,416 in handle. But then if you add the handle totals at the end of the chart for on-track, in-state, and out-of-state handle, you get $11,707,276. Why is there a discrepancy in these totals?

It is not just opening day, either. Basically every day that I have tracked at Santa Anita has this problem. Some days the sum of the individual pools is higher than the final wagering numbers, some days it is lower. I have found that it can vary by as much as 7.6%, while other days it is only ~1%. But I have never found a day where the numbers match.

I plan on calling Equibase tomorrow, but my experiences with them have been less than fruitful in the past, so I am hoping that someone in here might know the answer.

It's the way they teach math in California Schools. But I am wondering if you have a California education also. I get $12,349,882 by totalling the pools, not $11,812,416. The difference I get is $537,466, but I cannot reconcile to your number.

[ALostTexan]

OK, I picked a bad day as an example as my spreadsheet was not adding in the first race. But that means that for opening day there is a 5.2% difference in the sum of the pool and the sum of the reported handle at the end of the day.

So now can you explain why there is the discrepancy?

[stuball]

I am not sure but Jeff P. might have insight into that situation. He had problems
getting the correct numbers when he was meeting with the CHRB. I believe he had to get permission to get accurate numbers..What is fed to the public can be far from correct. Jeff P. would have more info on that I think.

Stuball

[ALostTexan]

I just had a very productive conversation with someone from Equibase. I don't have the answers that I was looking for right now, but I honestly believe that I will have an answer in the near future.

And I do want to say that the person I spoke with already knew the particulars of my issue.

[cj]

Originally Posted by ALostTexan

I just had a very productive conversation with someone from Equibase. I don't have the answers that I was looking for right now, but I honestly believe that I will have an answer in the near future.

And I do want to say that the person I spoke with already knew the particulars of my issue.

I think Equibase has improved customer service quite a bit the last few years.

[Charli125]

Originally Posted by iwearpurple

I get $12,349,882 by totalling the pools, not $11,812,416.

I've been putting together a spreadsheet to show the trends, and came up with the same numbers as you. Please let us know once anyone finds out the answer. For now I'm doing the daily totals per the charts, and then adding a row showing the daily totals per the bottom.

Either way, total handle so far is down either $6,592,813 or $7,741,397 depending on which numbers you use.

[ALostTexan]

A representative from Equibase called today in response to my question as to the difference in the pools. What is happening is that Santa Anita, as well as the other California tracks (minus Los Alamitos) include ALL WAGERING that occurs at the track for that day.

So, what happens is that all of the money that is wagered on the live product, as well as any off-track money wagered at Santa Anita, is combined into the "Track Handle" section of the final page of the chart.

So, this means 2 things. 1) The sum of the pools should reflect the total wagered on the Santa Anita races, and 2) On-Track Handle is not reflected in the "Track-Handle" section of the chart. One would have to know the total wagered on the off-track races to accurately compute changes to on-track handle, at least if these charts are solely being used.

I commend Equibase for their quick response to this question, as well as for their further research into the matter.