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Originally Posted by SentToStud
I don't think racing has improved at slots tracks. You may get a horse or two for upper class races you wouldn't have got but no overall. And when a Thursday Philly Park race with an overinflated purse draws one or two runners out of NY, what good does that do? None, really. The Phil Park pools are too small and the takeout too usurious to wager seriously into so all you get in the end iis a watered down NY race.
I don't think slot machines compete for horse players. I doubt you can go to a slot room at a racino and see three people with a racing form. I do not believe they are the same people, no.
Should some tracks die because they cannot compete? Absolutely. I don't see anything wrong with people, businesses or industries who cannot compete failing. The favorable treatment you speak of I don't understand. It's not right to say that in one sentence without following it in the next by saying that the slot tracks are created, at least in great part, by the horse racing industry itself.
Your on your own with the McDonalds analogy. I don't get it. That's like saying US Steel should have gotten saved in the end despite the fact the economy changed and they couldn't compete. Who should have paid? Microsoft?
I'm not a takeout/regulations expert, so I concede there. But how can Ellis do what they did? It's possible, apparently.
It's not as if every single track that is succesful has slots. Tampa, Oaklawn, Arlington, Santa Anita, Keeneland all had or are having good meets this year. It's possible, apparently.
I understand that a new race track with high purses is a good thing for people who earn their money racing and like I said, people should certainly earn whatever they can.
If you try to explain to a non-racing fan what Presque is and why the purses there are as high as DelMAr and Saratoga but pools are going to be so low that a $100 wager will bang it up so much that you cannot bet the track, you'll get a confused response.
Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think tracks should exist if wagering does not support them.
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If you dont think that Praire Meadows, Charlestown, Mountaineer, and Woodbine dont have better racing than before slots you must have a short memory.
The McDonalds analogy was saying that a restaurant should be able to offer more items on its menu as the market changes just as the tracks should be able to offer more gambling options as the market changes. As partners with the track the horsemen should be able to share in the proceeds of the new menu.
Ellis had to petition the horseracing authority to get permission to drop the takeout in the pick 4. KY has one of the few racing commissions that allows the tracks to lower takeout rather easily
Why would there ever be a need to explain Presque Isles purses to a nonracing fan? Why would anyone care? Why do you care?