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Originally Posted by pgardn
And you think the patrons enjoy this. And dont say the patrons dont matter because they do in the long run. The patrons would want your horse to go into a competitive race, not one your horse rolls. And of course you find and easy spot. But what if every spot was competitive. Your patrons, the bettors will bet your race. And purses will rise.
WTH do they need slots at tracks Rupert? Why cant the industry stand on its own? Such sort sided views. Of course I understand your position. It is totally reasonable. But... Is it possible to look at it from a broader perspective with the future of the industry in mind? Nah. You dont need to save racing. You cant save racing. The decline continues. You play with the cards you are dealt and dont worry about what you cannot control. Better racing with larger purses.
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I think there are a number of reasons that the sport is not doing well. I don't think the reason you gave is one of them. If an owner wants his horse's value to go up, he has to run the horse in big races. There's no such thing as a really easy spot in a graded race. You might find a relatively easy spot but overall the graded stakes races are very competetive beacuse that's where all the money is.
I'm not even sure what you are talking about. Which horses this year were run in weak races to the detriment of the sport? Name me some of the horses and tell me which races they should have run in.
One of the things that I think is killing the sport is all the exotic wagers. The take is bigger and it causes people to lose at a much faster rate. In addition, it takes all the money out of the win, place and show pools so these pool are not very big. A big bettor can't even make a big bet into these pools unless it's a really big race. The pools are simply too small. A big bet will kill your odds. For example, I was just watching a Maiden Special weight race at Laurel. There was a horse that went off at 8-1 in the race. This horse only had $6,500 on him to win. If you were a big bettor, you could not have bet $5,000 to win on that horse. A $5,000 bet would have knocked that horse down to 9-2. The pools are so small that it chases all the big bettors away. The win pools would be much bigger if we didn't have all these trifectas, superfectas, pick-3s, pick-4s, etc. when I used to go to the track back in the 1980s, all they had was 3 exacta races a day. There were no trifectas, pick-3s, superfectas, etc. , yet the track was jammed. You would get over 25,000 people out there every Saturday and the win pools were huge. Even on a Wednesday there would be over 15,000 people out there.