How To Improve Horse Racing

[Cangamble]

Short term, more transparency when it comes to medications. I also think medication rules should be the same everywhere in North America. I think Bute should be allowed...wherever Bute isn't used, I think it leads to assortments of drugs being used and more games are being played.
Also from a horse owners standpoint, vets have a cash cow where bute is illegal.
Does anyone know of a study of horse deaths on tracks that allow bute versus those that do not?

Anyway, long term racing is under big pressure. Here is the problem and my solution:
http://cangamble.blogspot.com/2007/0...uper-bowl.html

[kenwoodallpromos]

Requiring full medical records follow the horse and be available to the track and state takes care of transparency.
When 4-8% is the takeout, who pays for the tellers, assistant starters, stewards, track office workers, janitors, and others in a labor-heavy sport? If you want raing wth live audiences and high-strung animals you have to have live employees.

[Cangamble]

My theory is simple. If you lower the take outs like this, the actual money made by the track will be actually higher because it will attract other gamblers.

People have X amount of dollars disposable to lose during any specific period of time on gambling.

The way it is now, with being able to paly 100 races plus a day, the gambler gets tapped out quicker, and disillusioned overall.

Does it matter to a track if they get the gamblers $200 bucks over 10 races or over 40 races if it is bet on the same day?

[SMOO]

Originally Posted by Cangamble

My theory is simple. If you lower the take outs like this, the actual money made by the track will be actually higher because it will attract other gamblers.

People have X amount of dollars disposable to lose during any specific period of time on gambling.

The way it is now, with being able to paly 100 races plus a day, the gambler gets tapped out quicker, and disillusioned overall.

Does it matter to a track if they get the gamblers $200 bucks over 10 races or over 40 races if it is bet on the same day?

But won't that make the already surly tellers even more surly?

[Cangamble]

Many big gamblers gamble at home, and this whole idea is to get the poker bettors to become race horse gamblers. And if my way is eventually adopted, there will be no reason for a bettor to go to a rebate shop.
The worst thing for the track is that they will need more automated tellers. Automated tellers don't get surly.

[jotb]

Originally Posted by Cangamble

Short term, more transparency when it comes to medications. I also think medication rules should be the same everywhere in North America. I think Bute should be allowed...wherever Bute isn't used, I think it leads to assortments of drugs being used and more games are being played.
Also from a horse owners standpoint, vets have a cash cow where bute is illegal.
Does anyone know of a study of horse deaths on tracks that allow bute versus those that do not?

Anyway, long term racing is under big pressure. Here is the problem and my solution:
http://cangamble.blogspot.com/2007/0...uper-bowl.html

Hello Cangamble:

I believe Bute is used everywhere. Each racetrack may have different rules. I know at Charles Town bute my be administered after the horse is entered to race, but in no event less than 24 hours before post time of the race in which the horse is entered.

Joe

[Cangamble]

Originally Posted by jotb

Hello Cangamble:

I believe Bute is used everywhere. Each racetrack may have different rules. I know at Charles Town bute my be administered after the horse is entered to race, but in no event less than 24 hours before post time of the race in which the horse is entered.

Joe

I know horses train on bute, but each track has different doses they allow and different cut off times. In Canada you never see a B on a racing for for Bute, but you see it for Thistledown and Churchill for example.

I used to own horses, and vet bills are reduced dramatically at tracks where Bute rules are lax.

Knowledge that any drugs are accepted in a sport as a matter of course puts many potential gamblers off. The complexity of horseracing compared to table game gambling, sports and slots puts the remaining potential horseracing gambers off completely. UK horserace betting has dropped from 90% to 40% over the last decade and that is with horseracing officially drug free.

[Cangamble]

With bookmakers and Betfair in the UK, how do they get their numbers in the UK?
Also, has the gross amount been affected, and by how much? In other words 90% of 1 billion is less than 40% of 2.5 billion.

[alydar]

A 4% takeout is just not realistic. A card game is a lot different than running a race track. The costs require a much bigger takeout. It will never happen.
Not because the tracks are stubborn or greedy, but for the same reason that no one sells a product for a loss. It would be nice to buy below cost, but it isn't going to happen.

Originally Posted by Cangamble

With bookmakers and Betfair in the UK, how do they get their numbers in the UK?
Also, has the gross amount been affected, and by how much? In other words 90% of 1 billion is less than 40% of 2.5 billion.

In UK, figures come from various sources - company tax returns, Government publications on the Gambling Bill, University reports such as from Nottingham Trent and the international IFHA figures.

Bookmakers take around 97% of betting in UK. Betfair is a minnow.
Total betting is increasing at about £6B a year from a level of £42B pa which is projected to grow to £60B pa. So the total pot is not growing fast enough to cover the drop in racing betting interest - estimated at -35% loss in real terms.

Figures for modern internet betting are even worse for horseracing (sports £9B, poker £5B, lottery £5B and horses £2B pa). The presumed younger customer base using internet only, bet less than 10% on horses.

The racing authorities in UK only argue endlessly about dividing up the shrinking pot. They have no concept that the sport has to be actively marketed and carfll explained to potential new blood, and refuse to have any dealings with handicappers / punters or give them any representation.
Businesses that do not listen to their customers are doomed to extinction.

[Suff]

Eliminate and/or severely restrict private trainers.

People will scream to high heavens it can't be done? I say the game is dead until its done.


The game cannot operate without a subsidy. Without slots it is an unprofitable business model. The model needs to be changed. Forget new bets, and all the cosmetic bullshit. This game needs a profit center....and it needs to find a place within its structure to have margin. Cut out that layer....

Not only will it infuse cash that can be used for many things, among them, a lower take out... But it will get control of cheating completely and once and for all.


People will argue with me... But those Ladies and Gentlemen training horses have bled the game long enough. Not all....but a significant chunk.

NO MORE PRIVATE TRAINERS.

[beertapper]

i'm going to sound like a total newbie here, but how does a private trainer differ from "regular" trainers and how do they hurt the game?

[Suff]

Originally Posted by beertapper

i'm going to sound like a total newbie here, but how does a private trainer differ from "regular" trainers and how do they hurt the game?

When you go to the Hospital they have a slate of Doctors you can pick from. They all work for the Hospital....for a salary. The good ones make more than the average ones....

At the track...same thing. Eliminate Trainers from getting 10% of the purse, and from charging day rates. Further; all the services such as Vet and medication can be negoiatied at bulk rates. All that money can be infused back into the game.

Owners can still select a trainer, just like I can select a Doctor ( if he is accepting patients).

There are more direct benefits but it does'nt make any sense for me to itemize them , for two reasons.

People don't want to change the game

NY is putting in slots so that after bleeding the game into oblivion by abusing Horse players, they will now bleed the game into oblivion using slot players.


I did'nt make a bet yesterday. That's the first Sunday in a looong time I did'nt at least put in a double. I think I'm done betting horses. I've had enough.

[rastajenk]

So, like, if you have a promising 3yo, and you foresee a path to the Derby that goes from Gulfstream to Turfway to Keeneland, then to Churchill, you'd be using four different house trainers in a span of 3-4 months? Or, to make it more general than a specific Derby trail, you have to pick a trainer every time you ship?