Interpret this article for me

[JustRalph]

Interpret this article for me

What does it say between the lines?

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...anita-declines

Fewer Runners Blamed for Santa Anita Declines

[Southieboy]

It should have said:
Santa Anita takes a bath and tries to spin it

[On Spec]

If they're not going to release dollar figures, that means their declines are actually worse than they stated. Otherwise, they'd give figures.

The writer left out the Gaines quote where he said, "Thankfully, horse owners got the payday they requested, and we were happy to have horseplayers pay for it."

[Fastracehorse]

Originally Posted by JustRalph

Interpret this article for me

What does it say between the lines?

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...anita-declines

Fewer Runners Blamed for Santa Anita Declines

........the article acknowledged horse players and their disdain for increased takeout; that rarely happens

fffastt

[thaskalos]

California Racing finally realized what the rest of the business world knew all along:

You do not raise the price of an inferior product, and expect people to break down the doors to buy it.

[CincyHorseplayer]

What can any of us say that Andy Mays hasn't said?(and that's good Andy)

Dodging the actual numbers of decline and only casually mentioning bettors in a future tense(ie they are non existent in the equation now)isn't even spin.It's denial from the point of view of contempt from the point of view of F you.

CJ said it the other day and it makes the whole point.The horsemen are content on purses for races no bettors want to touch.6 horse fields with high purses are an owner's wet dream.F the bettors.I got Beyer's 50K at the races book a few weeks ago and he was griping about this in 1978.Nothing is going to change.This is their show and if they aren't the focus they will kill it than give it up to the players.

Back up boys.It's their stuff.Love it or watch it die.

Andy,chime in brochacho.

[andymays]

They're down in excess of 100 million in handle for the meet. Equibase numbers show a decline of about 20%. I'm sure Charlie will chime in with the actual numbers. Down 9% is factually incorrect.

DRF is reporting the same thing. Spin! I'll get to the bottom of this before the day is out.

[FenceBored]

Originally Posted by andymays

They're down in excess of 100 million in handle for the meet. Equibase numbers show a decline of about 20%. I'm sure Charlie will chime in with the actual numbers. Down 9% is factually incorrect.

DRF is reporting the same thing. Spin! I'll get to the bottom of this before the day is out.

Let's play 'guess the spin.'

My guess:

"Fewer days raced mean fewer races. While total handle may appear to be down 20%, that comparison is inaccurate. Avg handle per day/race was only down 9%."

How's that?

[andymays]

Originally Posted by FenceBored

Let's play 'guess the spin.'

My guess:

"Fewer days raced mean fewer races. While total handle may appear to be down 20%, that comparison is inaccurate. Avg handle per day/race was only down 9%."

How's that?

Well, we'll see as the day goes on. I've sent out a few emails questioning the numbers.

[DeanT]

Some of them twitter things:

http://twitter.com/jnchapel/status/59936645755056128

http://twitter.com/jnchapel/status/59933581904060416

[Charli125]

Originally Posted by DeanT

Some of them twitter things:

http://twitter.com/jnchapel/status/59936645755056128

http://twitter.com/jnchapel/status/59933581904060416

Equibase numbers seem to match up with CHRIMS numbers which is great because that hasn't always been the case. Overall the 21% decrease is right, with the only difference I show being that this year I show 467M in handle as opposed to 459M.

Here's a little summary of the meet for those that are interested. Horsemen are happy. They received 1.8M more in purses than last year and ran 612 fewer horses over 65 fewer races. If only this was sustainable...

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%

[DeanT]

http://blog.horseplayersassociation....al-handle.html

Santa Anita Meet Numbers: Total Handle Down $122.9 Million, or 20.8%

[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

.

[horses4courses]

I doubt that there is a better forum to analyze this than the guys who do it right here. The overlap between PA and HANA is unique, and it has a finger on the pulse of SoCal racing. That pulse is weak, too, obviously.

I can do nothing but agree that the spin is BS - anyone can see that.
Bettors of California racing are eternally ignored - bottom line.

[toussaud]

http://blog.horseplayersassociation....al-handle.html