What could improve the experience?

[Racetrack Playa]

Originally Posted by EMD4ME

HD for all tracks..audio to hear what jocks are saying. Like in the 98 Belmont stretch drive..

How About GoPro Cameras on each jock, pre and post race interviews.
also
Ending or changing the claiming game, and WE Need More Transparency in Racing, which leads me to believe a total Reorganization of racing. The HONG KONG model would Please Me , very intrigued by ShaTin and Happy Valley.

[cj]

Originally Posted by Stoleitbreezing

This was mine. If you're looking for "youth" in the fan base who grew up on HD programming you have to get the tracks to offer HD. A 20 something or late teen will be turned off right away without HD. Additionally the horseplayers who've been supporting and following this game for many years deserve a high quality program to watch too.

As you mention, don't have to be a late teen or twenty something to be turned off by programming in SD.

[dilanesp]

1. Louder, clearer PA systems. I don't really care about the announcer, but I know many of you do, and a lot of tracks haven't worked on their sound systems at all, as compared to other sports venues. As a result, I often can't hear the calls of races at all. Certainly a good PA system would help casual fans a lot.

2. Better food (at some tracks). Interestingly this has never been a problem at the major tracks in Southern California (though it is at Los Al). Our racetracks were way ahead of the rest of sports in offering interesting stuff to eat, whether it was carved sandwiches at Santa Anita or casseroles and international pastries at Hollywood Park. But whenever I venture outside of Southern California, I am appalled at how bad racetrack food often is. People spend all day at a racetrack. They really do need decent food.

3. Ticketless betting. Of course you can do this online. But it's ridiculous that at the track, we are still relying on easily lost, easily misread paper tickets with fading ink. It's also not good for the environment. Offer a stored value wagering card as an option. This would also help bettors prove losses and pay their taxes.

4. Easily accessible information on prior races. People sometimes get to the track late, or want to see photo finishes. Interestingly, when I was young, all this stuff was posted all over the place at tracks. Now, it's harder to find.

5. Get rid of obstructions. It's 2016. Racing is no longer a pastoral sport where people just sit and picnic, or whatever, with the horses as a pleasant backdrop running in and out from behind trees and whatever. So races shouldn't start behind a building, run behind trees and stuff in the infield, and feature horses coming down the stretch blocked by posts in the grandstand. All this stuff makes it harder to watch horses' trips, too.

6. Redesign tote boards. I'm sorry if you are the one person in America who needs to see the place and show pools. Have some dedicated monitors for that. But the tote board should use its valuable space to show as much information about exotic wagering as possible, because that is what most people bet. Imagine if, instead of the win place and show money that nobody looks at, the tote board were used to display trifecta or pick three payables. Think about it-- they could do it. Our tote boards haven't really improved very much from the ones that Santa Anita had in place when Azucar won the 1935 Big Cap. That's really sad.

[Track Phantom]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

5. Get rid of obstructions. It's 2016. Racing is no longer a pastoral sport where people just sit and picnic, or whatever, with the horses as a pleasant backdrop running in and out from behind trees and whatever. So races shouldn't start behind a building, run behind trees and ...

Lot's of good points (and it's interesting that you and I approach it from our own typical venue, me online and you at the track). I had to laugh at the obstruction one. Every time I watch Arlington Park I think "who was their designer?" I'm serious when I say that 35% of the race is totally obscured by trees. It's a beautiful track but was it necessary to so severely impact the actual product?

[depalma113]

Forget HD, upgrade to 4k.

[depalma113]

Originally Posted by dilanesp

3. Ticketless betting. Of course you can do this online. But it's ridiculous that at the track, we are still relying on easily lost, easily misread paper tickets with fading ink. It's also not good for the environment. Offer a stored value wagering card as an option. This would also help bettors prove losses and pay their taxes.

This would also help prove to the government all of those non-signer winners you have. They will clearly love that.

[tophatmert]

3. Ticketless betting. Of course you can do this online. But it's ridiculous that at the track, we are still relying on easily lost, easily misread paper tickets with fading ink. It's also not good for the environment. Offer a stored value wagering card as an option. This would also help bettors prove losses and pay their taxes.
Arlington had this for a while -liked it. . You could get a receipt with all of your bets on one or two tickets or no receipt at all. This old tote system allowed you to access the funds in your Twin Spires account and use that while on track.

Get rid of obstructions. It's 2016. Racing is no longer a pastoral sport where people just sit and picnic, or whatever, with the horses as a pleasant backdrop running in and out from behind trees and whatever. So races shouldn't start behind a building, run behind trees and stuff in the infield, and feature horses coming down the stretch blocked by posts in the grandstand. All this stuff makes it harder to watch horses' trips, too.

Nothing better than when they run behind "the little woods" at Arlington.

[thaskalos]

Some tracks list the time until post as "3 minutes to race 5"...while other tracks list it as "Race 5 in 3 minutes". With so many races going on simultaneously, this causes unnecessary confusion. Why not pick one option...and use it for every track feed?

[Jeff P]

As long as we're talking about presentation....

One thing that has always bothered me when trying to watch track video streamed over the internet is that it's really hard to see the actual horses.

I know it's not the case... But it's almost as if once upon a time they locked a bunch of production engineers in a room for a week and told them: "Your objective is to design a track video feed for us that deliberately hides the horses!"

If you stop and think about it - it becomes apparent that a big part of the reason the horses are so hard to see on track video streamed over the internet is because for just about every track signal - the track's graphics get in the way and take up 60% or more of the actual viewing area (or total available screen real estate of the video feed.)

As a result the horseplayer is left with tiny little box for a viewing area that consists of (at most) 40% or less of the total available screen real estate of the video feed.

Why not design a separate track graphic that doesn't take up 60% or more of the total available screen real estate?...

One that has single line that displays the track name, date, and race number only... and takes up (at most) maybe 5% to 10% of the total available screen real estate of the video feed...

AND USE THAT during the actual running of the race, and for replays, and while showing the horses warming up!

If the excuse is we can't do that because the current track graphics are needed to show the track name, date, and race number along with odds and will pays, etc. I submit to you the following counter argument:

I'm guessing something like 98% of everybody watching track video streamed over the internet is doing so through an ADW - and therefore already knows what track and race number it is - and can easily see the odds, exacta matrices, and will pays for double, pick3, and pick4 etc. just fine with a few simple mouse clicks.

Why not create an option whereby the player can select which track graphic he or she wants to see imposed on the video?

Why not enable players to toggle back and forth between the two?:

Option #1. Watch video using the current track graphic that takes up 60% or more of the total viewing area.

-or-

Option #2. Watch video using the second (less imposing) track graphic that I mentioned above - that displays track name, date, and race number only - and takes up (at most) 5% to 10% of the total available screen real estate of the video feed.

I know this would improve my viewing experience immensely. (Hard for me to imagine I'm the only one.)


-jp

.

[johnhannibalsmith]

Put sedatives in the beer so the dumb ass that is there every day doing his best to run off at least five of the remaining eight patrons actually trying to bet will just flop over passed out after four beers AKA race three.

[Fred]

Great thread- Some good ideas at little or no cost that would go a long way in mitigating some of the common issues expressed here and elsewhere.

[johnhannibalsmith]

Originally Posted by Jeff P

...
I know this would improve my viewing experience immensely. (Hard for me to imagine I'm the only one.)


-jp

.

I used to love watching the raw feed to the stews booth that hadn't been spruced up with graphics from video room. Granted, if I were sitting at a table downstairs betting I may have grown annoyed at the total lack of information eventually, but it really is a nice change of pace to just get a nice full screen, unencumbered view of the proceedings where you don't have to work so hard just to focus on the subject.

[ubercapper]

Originally Posted by eqitec

Here's one: Standardization of workout type assignments across the country. What reasons could there be that almost every workout is considered "breezing" at east coast tracks and "handily" at west coast tracks? Since all clocking is done by Equibase, no commissioner or committees should be needed to change this. Equibase just needs to establish the standard criteria for what each type of workout should look like and insist that all clockers adhere to those standards.

Clockers don't work for Equibase.

[Lafecs]

Agree with HD as #1. Some of the feeds at these tracks are horrendous.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by depalma113

This would also help prove to the government all of those non-signer winners you have. They will clearly love that.

Well, 1, i said it should be optional, and 2, any winning horseplayer who is deliberately evading taxes and not keeping records is taking a big risk. If the IRS goes after him or her, they will simply "estimate" what is owed and the estimate may be too high.