GAPFIRE.COM RIDERS UP TRACK CHATTER

[LAP_520]

Sunday Feb 16, 2014

From: Twitter / RajivMaragh

Good morning Belmont. No training track this morning ...

[horses4courses]

Any chance they might throw in a couple of mule races on the inner track?
Give me something I can handicap........

[Track Collector]

FYI

The most current condition book shows races still on the inner dirt track thru Monday, 03/24. IF the next condition book shows races moved to the main (outer) dirt track, our last contest day will be Sunday, 03/23.


...

[Track Collector]

Please be advised that due to the generosity of poster and contest participant 098poi, a new contest prize consisting of a $50 gift card will be open for competition starting with contest play on Sunday, 03/02.

This will be a one-time prize, and it will be won on the next contest day (starting with Sunday 03/02) where the highest player's total payout for that day is greater than $5,000. Should more than one player have equal (above $5,000 total) payouts, the prize will go to the player with the higher contest standings at that time.

Should no player have an above-$5000 payout from 03/02 to the end of the contest, the highest daily payout over that same period will win the prize. Ties to be broken by highest final contest standings.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to win this prize, a participant must be contest eligible (i.e have played on at least 10 contest days), by the end of the contest.

Please note that for contest scoring purposes, which are separate from this specific prize, the player will still be subject to the $5,000 cap limit.

098poi will clarify any of the above should our interpretation be incorrect.


THANKS 098poi!!


...

[098poi]

Originally Posted by Track Collector

Please be advised that due to the generosity of poster and contest participant 098poi, a new contest prize consisting of a $50 gift card will be open for competition starting with contest play on Sunday, 03/02.

This will be a one-time prize, and it will be won on the next contest day (starting with Sunday 03/02) where the highest player's total payout for that day is greater than $5,000. Should more than one player have equal (above $5,000 total) payouts, the prize will go to the player with the higher contest standings at that time.

Should no player have an above-$5000 payout from 03/02 to the end of the contest, the highest daily payout over that same period will win the prize. Ties to be broken by highest final contest standings.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to win this prize, a participant must be contest eligible (i.e have played on at least 10 contest days), by the end of the contest.

Please note that for contest scoring purposes, which are separate from this specific prize, the player will still be subject to the $5,000 cap limit.

098poi will clarify any of the above should our interpretation be incorrect.


THANKS 098poi!!


...

he highest daily payout over that same period

This just means if no one ever hits over $5,000 then on the last day the highest scorer for that day will win and if there is a tie the one with the highest current standings in the contest at the end of the day will decide.

[RunForTheRoses]

Terrible sequences today with some short ML horses that could be vulnerable but maybe not. Los Borrachos is an interesting one.

[LAP_520]

Wow,,, Big Bias for the inside rail today... thru 8 races the #1 has 5 WINS and 1 third.

Aqueduct needs to get another dump of SNOW

[LAP_520]

FYI....

A person I know and has ties to AQUEDUCT is thinking ...

"MAIN TRACK WILL PROB OPEN FIRST OR SECOND WEEK OF APRIL WEATHER WILL DECIDE"

[Track Collector]

The latest Condition Book shows races moving back to the outer dirt track on Thursday, March 27th.

This means that this upcoming weekend (March 22nd and 23rd) will be the final two days of this year's contest.

Please note that those who submit selections but can not reach the required 10 days of participation will not have their selections scored.


Chris


...

[Ted Craven]

Now that this Contest has concluded, I thought I would give a few thoughts and ask for any commentary on the Rules or the way the Contest was scored - so we can have these notes for next year. Always a good thing to review, improve ...

1. The $5000 cap. I thought this new Rule worked well: it prevented a few players from 'running away' with the contest, especially early on, and perhaps prevented a sense of discouragement to those who did not hit a capped score. That said, I think all the top finishers hit at least 1 capped score. Should the cap be higher, lower? Thoughts?

2. One (long-standing) Rule I have trouble with and would like some commentary on is - in the event of Scratches in a leg, a player is credited with the favourite. If the favourite wins, a player is credited with a win in that leg - even if they did NOT select the favourite and even if one of their selections was NOT one of the Scratches. For example, in the morning, the #5 horse scratches in a leg. A player selected horses #1 #2 and #3 (either before or after the morning Scratches were published). The #4 horse goes off as the favourite and wins the race. The player is credited with a Win in this leg even though his selections did not win and were not Scratched.

To me, this is indistinguishable from getting a free play in a race leg. All you have to do is wait until Scratches are published, look for a race where the favourite is likely to win, exclude that favourite from your selections knowing you will get it for free anyway. I presume that no one in this Contest consciously adopted this strategy, but it seems a weakness of the way we have framed our Rule about payouts where Scratches are attributed to the favourite. We follow the DRF/Equibase official results, which payout on the winning favourite for holders of Scratched horses. At an ADW or ontrack, you would not get paid if your horses were not scratched and did not include the winning favourite.

A suggestion for future - and simple enough to administer, IMO - would be: you only get credited with the favourite in a leg with Scratches IF one of the Scratches is a horse you actually selected. Chris - what are the logistics on this? Everyone - does this seem fair, and is it an issue? Just trying to make the Contest as much as possible based on Skill, rather than Luck (though Luck is always a part of our game).

Thanks for listening (and thinking)!

Ted

[LAP_520]

Now that this Contest has concluded, I thought I would give a few thoughts and ask for any commentary on the Rules or the way the Contest was scored - so we can have these notes for next year. Always a good thing to review, improve ...

1. The $5000 cap. I thought this new Rule worked well: it prevented a few players from 'running away' with the contest, especially early on, and perhaps prevented a sense of discouragement to those who did not hit a capped score. That said, I think all the top finishers hit at least 1 capped score. Should the cap be higher, lower? Thoughts?

Capping a Pick 4 payout for the contest is a favorable addition to the rules. I should know because in the 2012 - 2013 challenge I pushed it from 8th place I believe to the Winner's circle on the extended season weekend.

If the Cap rule was part of that year's contest, I would have just been another contestant. ,,,

This year's challenge had the SAME situation for me. Sitting way in the rear in standings, I made two Pick four tickets out .. one with base wager at $2, and the second at $1 base wager. Dilemna developed. I did not want to change the $2 or $1 base wagers as I was looking for a $3. pick - 4 payoff..... anyway,, my last leg had five horses.... but wager limit would mean I would have to eliminate two numbers . BTW the numbers were 1,4,6,7,8 ( I believe) .. anyway I tossed the 4 and the 7 ( 7 was the winner). Had I keep the 7 and eliminated any other number, I would of hit the Pick 4 at 1 1/2 times = close to $15,000 + ( no cap of course ).. thus another shot at winning this contest..... With the CAP rule this year... Using the 7 horse would of moved me into the top TEN. $1500 balance + $5000 cap = $6,500 +

So, YES to a capped payout. ( do not want PA group mad at me two years running ).
I would suggest raising the CAP to maybe $7,500. My reasoning is this.....

Last Year and this year the Winner had a total of $12,000 - $14,000 range. That is equivalent to hitting two Capped Pick - 4s in the minimum 10 race format.... kudos to the player that can do that... they deserve to win. Another point is to make the minimum number of contest games to 1/3 of the total of Aqueduct's Weekend and Holiday's Pick-4.

Just my thoughts.

Congrats to this year's Winners ... Well Done.

[JETSWIN]

Originally Posted by LAP_520

Now that this Contest has concluded, I thought I would give a few thoughts and ask for any commentary on the Rules or the way the Contest was scored - so we can have these notes for next year. Always a good thing to review, improve ...

1. The $5000 cap. I thought this new Rule worked well: it prevented a few players from 'running away' with the contest, especially early on, and perhaps prevented a sense of discouragement to those who did not hit a capped score. That said, I think all the top finishers hit at least 1 capped score. Should the cap be higher, lower? Thoughts?

Capping a Pick 4 payout for the contest is a favorable addition to the rules. I should know because in the 2012 - 2013 challenge I pushed it from 8th place I believe to the Winner's circle on the extended season weekend.

If the Cap rule was part of that year's contest, I would have just been another contestant. ,,,

This year's challenge had the SAME situation for me. Sitting way in the rear in standings, I made two Pick four tickets out .. one with base wager at $2, and the second at $1 base wager. Dilemna developed. I did not want to change the $2 or $1 base wagers as I was looking for a $3. pick - 4 payoff..... anyway,, my last leg had five horses.... but wager limit would mean I would have to eliminate two numbers . BTW the numbers were 1,4,6,7,8 ( I believe) .. anyway I tossed the 4 and the 7 ( 7 was the winner). Had I keep the 7 and eliminated any other number, I would of hit the Pick 4 at 1 1/2 times = close to $15,000 + ( no cap of course ).. thus another shot at winning this contest..... With the CAP rule this year... Using the 7 horse would of moved me into the top TEN. $1500 balance + $5000 cap = $6,500 +

So, YES to a capped payout. ( do not want PA group mad at me two years running ).
I would suggest raising the CAP to maybe $7,500. My reasoning is this.....

Last Year and this year the Winner had a total of $12,000 - $14,000 range. That is equivalent to hitting two Capped Pick - 4s in the minimum 10 race format.... kudos to the player that can do that... they deserve to win. Another point is to make the minimum number of contest games to 1/3 of the total of Aqueduct's Weekend and Holiday's Pick-4.

Just my thoughts.

Congrats to this year's Winners ... Well Done.

good post larry, my thoughts on this the rules are great & fair to all

i do question some of the other contest rules here & will post but (free is good)

[horses4courses]

I miss putting together $200 worth of Aqueduct PK4s.
Of course, I lost over 90% of them, but I was so close........