Arlington Handle Craters

[Horseplayersbet.com]

I think Hawthorne will do very well in the coming meet. Just a prediction.

[andymays]

Originally Posted by Horseplayersbet.com

I think Hawthorne will do very well in the coming meet. Just a prediction.

They (Hawthorne) did Ok last meet didn't they?

[Striker]

They are counting all of the people who showed up for the Lee D concert and the July 3rd fireworks show which was almost 74,000 people between the 2 events. Not too many of these 74,000 bet obviously though. This is a reflection of a poorly run business and this usually is the result. Have you ever heard of a track not having at least one teller in their VIP room(s) on a live racing saturday? Arlington did this numerous times this year. Funny though that Churchill has 4 tellers in their VIP rooms every day of live racing. Their relationship with their heavy bettors has gone to nonexistent. Arlington used to send out vouchers and incentives to go to the track almost every weekend 1-2 years ago. Now, try 0. I assume that this has happened at multiple racetracks across the US given the state of the current economy. I find it hard to believe that their average on track handle only fell that little but I will believe those numbers given by DRF. There are "rumors" from owners around Arlington that they started to go with races that had smaller purses and less entries, as opposed to races that had more entries for them but had higher purses to be paid out by AP. That would sum up what they are all about.

[ronsmac]

Monmouth hurt Arlington .

[therussmeister]

Originally Posted by illinoisbred

Thats what surprises me about these numbers-way down despite the record number of turf races-clearly a popular move here. I'd estimate I played 25 or fewer polytrack races the entire meet. This resulted mostly due to very short fields,the presence of 2 or more of our super-duper trainers in a race, or just the quirkiness of the surface this year. It was a strange year to say the least.

I'm very peculiar. I do very well betting turf - yet, I really dislike turf-rich cards. That's why I don't play Belmont and Saratoga very often. I have decided that if Arlington cards as many turf races next year I will not play them at all.

[RXB]

Hawthorne has slashed their major stakes purses for the fall meet, trimmed overnight purses by 10% compared to last year and deleted Sunday racing.

[Horseplayersbet.com]

Originally Posted by RXB

Hawthorne has slashed their major stakes purses for the fall meet, trimmed overnight purses by 10% compared to last year and deleted Sunday racing.

I still expect to see handle up this meet. We will see.

[RXB]

Increased handle in total? Per day? Per race?

Increasing the per day or per race handle isn't a great accomplishment following a 20% cut in dates/races.

[Horseplayersbet.com]

Originally Posted by RXB

Increased handle in total? Per day? Per race?

Increasing the per day or per race handle isn't a great accomplishment following a 20% cut in dates/races.

You are right about that. I'm talking per race. I wasn't aware they cut days.

[Zman179]

Arlington’s president, Roy Arnold, claimed that the track “had a very good meet” in 2010

30 percent fall is a good meet?!

[jballscalls]

for our track and OTB network we were down 46.70% on Arlington from 2009 to 2010.

Monmouth is up an even 108%.

it seems to me where we (and we're a small operation) are down the most are in the mid level eastern tracks.

Arlington, Calder, Lousisiana Downs are all way down for us this year.

Woodbine, Monmouth are both up a lot

So cal and no cal been steady as they are our bread and butter,

NY down a smidge but pretty stable.

[Tom]

Starting to shake out - some tracks will not with us in a couple of years.
Good.

[toussaud]

Originally Posted by DeanT

Another CDI track having a tough time. They should jack their signal fee.

Bill, what was field size this meet? I am assuming down? The supertrainers certainly did not help either. If I see another 5 horse field with a [insert trainer name here off the claim] at 2-5 winning 70% of the time, I think I am going to have to listen to David Israel and switch and become a Dodger, Laker or Giant fan.

you canspout the usually batter crys but arlington is always my summer staple meet, even this year and by august i had pretty much stop playing it all together.

a particular owner taking a healthy 2nd place allowance horse and dropping him in a 25k claimer going off at 1/5... and a legit 1 to 5 at that, does not interest me.

franke calibrese did more to damage that meet than the track, and the signal combined. fields down, payouts down.

and the track.. i have NO problem playing any of the social tracks. Arlington and presque isle however are two tracks, that you can defiantly tell some type of bias. how many times i've seen a 2/5 shot jock have a hand full of horse than when he asks the horse to run he doesn't move, i have no idea.


by mid august i was playing the nocal fair circuit instead of arlington


oh and 2 of the leading trainers got busted with drug positives too.

[DeanT]

I agree Toussaud. I looked at it this meet because at times there was a neat bias, and there were a couple opps, but time after time solid 1-5 horses would be in the middle of the pick 4's. I found that second time off the claim, off the drop the horse might be 1-5 and run poorly, so going deep provided some value in the pick 4's those times, but waiting for those opportunities was an opportunity cost lost oft times. (imo).

I am not surprised in the least handle got killed this meet.

[InsideThePylons-MW]

Originally Posted by jballscalls

Monmouth is up an even 108%.

Woodbine, Monmouth are both up a lot

2 tracks that TVG are now promoting heavily.

Bettors, because of that, are now familiar with those tracks.

They can bet them before they come to the track and then resume once they get there. Also, they can bet and then know that they can go home to watch them on TV.