Early Bookmaking
 

Here is a 90-year-old column about the very early days of bookmaking in American racing that I read a few months ago.

It would appear as though multi-race wagering in America actually got its start at the 1877 Saratoga meet - in the form of a 100/1 fixed-odds, $10 minimum, Pick 5 wager that didn't award conso's or move you to the favorite in the case of a late scratch.

Nice call by Durkin in the 6th.

100/1 on a five horse parlay?

They should have been tarred and feathered by the betting public.

Why, have you seen the early pick 5 at Hollywood lately? :rolleyes:

Still having trouble getting top barns from the west to come to the Spa. Nothing has changed

It is pretty funny.

A lot of cool stories about new bookmakers from around the time of the early 1900's - especially in the Mid West and Far West.

They talked about how guys who were actually sharp handicappers from that region got into bookmaking - but were clueless on the ins and outs of it.

In a couple of cases - these bookmakers opened horses at odds as high as 40/1 - that twenty minutes later - would go off favored in the race.

In an overall climate like that - it would seem easy as hell to make a lot of money betting.

I think they referred to Kentucky as "the west" in the 1870's and 1880's. Brown Dick was a Kentucky horsemen.

Here is what bookmaking in American racing has been reduced to ... yesterday's last race at Presque Isle....

Early:



Late:

Show the actual American pools....I took one look at the pools on DRF a few weeks ago and kept right on going. Any decent bet is basically playing against yourself. No thanks.

$15,000 in the win pool $16,673 in the exacta pool ... but there were two late scratches in the race - including the heavy favorite.

http://www1.drf.com/drfPDFChartRaces...=20110621&RN=8


But yeah, you have to get pretty creative if you want to make big wagers at a track like that. The pools aren't any better on the weekends - in fact, they're worse.

Shame too, because super speed favoring synthetic tracks with live rails are as good as it gets for wagering conditions IMO.

There is too much racing. And it looks like a nice enough track. But you have to be an idiot to bet into those pools. I would consider playing them offshore if they didn't dump into the pools but guess what, that doesn't exactly help the racing industry.

No worries, money up front, and I'll book your action.

LOL...You will be at some strip joint across the border before dawn....But please don't tell people to bet PID when it is a terrible investment option for one's depression era dollars

That's HANA's job last I checked.

I believe they surged from 66th out of 69 tracks all the way to 61st out of 69.

Big year.

I'm surprised so much was bet on a Presque Isle race. who is betting on it???

Probably Euro college kids.

yeah maybe - I need to get in on this action - Drugs send me your tips :) :) :) - I am sure your tips would defo generate a positive ROI especially with betfair odds!!!

Will do. This is about as specialized a race track as any I've ever seen. Would be wonderful if the Betfair competition really was a bunch of dopey Euro College kids like Randall thinks - but I don't think that's the case.