No Positive Economic Indicators

[badcompany]

Originally Posted by burnsy

Here's the thing, the handle per race deal is an average and having it go up is a "positive". If there's less races like there was, the total handle can go down but the average handle per race can still go up. That's what I sort of think is going on.

That's exactly what's going on:

[Luckycreed]

No sorry you are wrong.If I make up a book on a two horse race at 105% my edge is 2.5% on each runner if that is the way I choose to frame it.Of course I may have an opinion, or have trouble taking money on one of the runners and end up with a 4% edge on one and 1% on the other or indeed get stuck with 6% edge on one and a 1% loss on the other if my betting forecast is out or I am prepared to gamble on my opinion but the 5% take is only split across the two runners

In a five horse field my edge is 1% per runner if it was still 2.5% per runner my book would be set at 112.5%.Under which circumstance am I more likely to get burned in the hurly burly of trying to balance my book, where I have an average 2,5% margin for error or a !% margin for error.

[AndyC]

Originally Posted by Luckycreed

No sorry you are wrong.If I make up a book on a two horse race at 105% my edge is 2.5% on each runner if that is the way I choose to frame it.Of course I may have an opinion, or have trouble taking money on one of the runners and end up with a 4% edge on one and 1% on the other or indeed get stuck with 6% edge on one and a 1% loss on the other if my betting forecast is out or I am prepared to gamble on my opinion but the 5% take is only split across the two runners

In a five horse field my edge is 1% per runner if it was still 2.5% per runner my book would be set at 112.5%.Under which circumstance am I more likely to get burned in the hurly burly of trying to balance my book, where I have an average 2,5% margin for error or a !% margin for error.

I don't disagree with your analysis as far as bookmaking goes but US racing is parimutuel. The house win is ALWAYS the takeout plus breakage. And the house win is always taken from the winners share.

[Irish Boy]

It seems like the differences in race days, total races, etc. can be explained almost entirely by the fact that there were nine weekend days in June 2014 and eight in June 2015. Belmont did better for the 2014 Belmont day than this year too, and that drives a lot of the June numbers. I see quite a few positives here.

That doesn't mean everything is peachy but a journey of 1,000 miles starts with a step, etc.