The New Yorker: Can Horse Racing Survive?

[Mulerider]

Unusually long article touching on every real or perceived industry problem.

TNY: Can Horse Racing Survive?

[Jayhawk6191]

Interesting article. I chuckled at this....


"The most successful known whales of this type belong to the Elite Turf Club, which apparently has only twelve members and is based in Curaçao. The Stronach Group is the club’s majority owner, which suggests that the company is on both sides of the deal. Win-win."


So not only do they squeeze a vig out of you, they are also beating the pools

[Fred Mertz]

I learned many new things and the tone seemed fair. Yes, it is a long read.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by Jayhawk6191

Interesting article. I chuckled at this....


"The most successful known whales of this type belong to the Elite Turf Club, which apparently has only twelve members and is based in Curaçao. The Stronach Group is the club’s majority owner, which suggests that the company is on both sides of the deal. Win-win."


So not only do they squeeze a vig out of you, they are also beating the pools

That's a regulatory failure. Way back when, if the CHRB or another regulator had discovered a track owner's participation in a betting syndicate, they would have required them to sell the track. Owners could bet small amounts on track, but weren't supposed to be moving the pools.

So in this sense, horse racing is actually LESS policed now than it once was.

[Elkchester Road]

Would anybody argue that on it's current path...Horse Racing will not make it? The path it is on...what is being done wrong/ignored, versus what is being done right...is not good. Not to mention the number of "Regulators" who want it to remain exactly the way it is.

It sucks to say the above.

[thaskalos]

Horse racing sees sports betting as just another lifeline, but it could be the nail on the game's coffin...IMO. With the online presence and promotion that sports betting figures to keep getting going forward...who in the "new generation" would ever get attracted to horse betting as a serious gambling endeavor? I have a 22-year old son who had never previously expressed a gambling interest... even with me as his dad. But now he tells me that he and all of his friends have opened FanDuel accounts...and are taking advantage of all the "free money" promotions that FanDuel is handing out. And this at a time when our favorite game can't even pass out free past performances.

[MJC922]

It's a great game but the drug thing is just never going to work. No raceday and withdrawl times, there will always be 'accidental' overages because they will always be withdrawing at the latest possible moment. Not to mention stuff like clen was made legal, the fact that it's not on raceday is irrelevant, it doesn't need to be on raceday, which there's your heart attacks in a nutshell, it's not a surface thing either IMO but feel free to stay on that path and see where it leads, the road to nowhere.

[thaskalos]

Robert Byrne, the noted pool and billiards player and author, has written a book about Danny McGoorty...a famous billiards hustler of a bygone era. In the book he tells about how, after billiards died out in this country, McGoorty would be seen wandering from pool hall to pool hall, in search of a game of billiards that he could profit from. But pocket pool was the new game in town...and McGoorty was out of luck. "Such is the fate of the man who has mastered a dead game"... Byrne writes.

Some of the younger horseplayers out there better start studying another more popular gambling game...lest they follow in McGoorty's footsteps.

[burnsy]

Originally Posted by Jayhawk6191

Interesting article. I chuckled at this....


"The most successful known whales of this type belong to the Elite Turf Club, which apparently has only twelve members and is based in Curaçao. The Stronach Group is the club’s majority owner, which suggests that the company is on both sides of the deal. Win-win."


So not only do they squeeze a vig out of you, they are also beating the pools

I know nothing about this whatsoever. But I sort of suspected that was the game. Reading this kind of confirms my suspicions. Who else knows this game inside and out and has the money to throw around to back it? That being said..... you can make bank when they’re wrong....... and in this game no one is right all the time. It’s why I’m a contrarian, you can’t swim with those people. You’ll never get ahead enough betting the way they can. Because you just can’t and they get a huge kiss win or lose.

[The_Turf_Monster]

A year ago, I would have said no because the economics didn’t make any sense for the overwhelming majority of owners. With lasix being phased out, your horse is now going to run a lot more often than once a month and the sport will gain owners which will lead to larger fields as they’ll no longer have to pick their spot and spend hours pouring over condition books in an attempt to find a way to get your horse at least a win a year

[the little guy]

It sure feels like this story was written a couple of years ago during the issues with the track at Santa Anita and was shelved, only to be revived and modified slightly after Medina Spirit had the positive.

I really enjoyed reading about the guy with the farm.

[Onesome]

Total wagering in Australia has doubled since the turn of the century, harness/doggies 5X in the same timeframe, sports betting 10X.

Now a lot of that growth is fixed odds/exchanges/bookmakers, but to me it's clear how things seems to be better down under with a more modern system while things slowly die in the US grasping to their 25% takeout pools.

http://publishingservices.racingaust...2019-2020/100/

[KingAnon]

My thoughts are:

Technology is a lot better now. We can watch and bet on live races from anywhere in the world, which could help the sport. Even if it declines in the US, it's not going anywhere in many other places.

Gambling is opening up more in the US with more and more sports being able to be bet on. Horse racing used to be one of the few things you could bet on legally in some places, so horse racing will have more competition for those gamblers.

There seems to be less tracks each year in the US and I don't see any more tracks opening up to replace them. I don't really see that changing as if the Dems try to ban it, there will be very little resistance and real estate/upkeep is expensive. I can foresee a lot of track owners just opening up a track in a cheaper country with less regulations, since where the track is at means less and less.

[JustRalph]

Originally Posted by KingAnon

I can foresee a lot of track owners just opening up a track in a cheaper country with less regulations, since where the track is at means less and less.

What? Who would be dumb enough to open a track? Anywhere?

[therussmeister]

Originally Posted by JustRalph

What? Who would be dumb enough to open a track? Anywhere?

Last I heard there's one being built in Vietnam.