Idea for Parx
 

Parx has 2 things going for it, an early start of 12:25 on Sunday and basically one of the only games in town on Monday. I think the following will be a hit.

Move start time on Sunday to 11:30 and have a .50 P5 on the first 5 races with a reduced 10% takeout. I know for certain that I will be a player as I await the start of the NFL games at 1:00 and I think a good number of others on this board will also be. They can push it in Vegas as the breakfast Pick-5, it will be the only game in town on TVG for the hour and a half before racing kicks off elsewhere. I think if advertised it could be a hit. I would also run the same bet on Mondays but not change the normal start time. Will this be done? No because those in the racing industry will come up with 50 reasons not to change the status quo.

The biggest problem with this idea is that Parx handles very little money overall. Yesterday, they had 123 betting interests on a 12 race card and handled just over $1.4 million. That's absolutely dreadful, considering they paid out 948k in purses.

Starting so early would basically wreck any chance of west coast money, and Vegas sportsbooks are awfully football-focused from 8:00 - 10:00 AM on Sundays in the fall. TVG would probably also barely handle enough to cover the cost of having an analyst or production personnel there.

There's also the issue of the management at Parx having little to no interest in racing, so they'd probably never dream of installing a low takeout wager, regardless of whether it would be popular.

Now, Monday is a different issue, as they do particularly well. Last week, they handled $1.48 million on a 10 race card. Doing some type of gimmicky thing on Mondays is a much better idea.

I think if promoted correctly it could be a success and a major increase in handle. Having said that the second part of your post about management is the issue and the reason nothing will change.

The overall purses yesterday, however, were gimmicky on their own as it was Owners' Day - and almost all purses were roughly doubled, hence the field size, etc.

I have 30 reasons not to play Parx.

30% take out on exotics. And that's with Casino fueled purses.

Big fail!

I would imagine the Vegas handle would be pretty solid for those of us waiting for kickoff. Good concept.

TVG also no longer takes bets or shows races from Parx.

Al Queda does more to promote US tourism in the middle east than Parx does to promote racing.

:tro::tro: