The Show Bet

[blackthroatedwind]

I'm confused how offering opportunities to large bettors to make gigantic show wagers is an investment in the future.

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

I'm confused how offering opportunities to large bettors to make gigantic show wagers is an investment in the future.

from the OP's article:

“Songbird is the draw,” Morris said. “And then to take the big draw and tell newcomers they can’t make a bet on her is not a good decision. … We’re in the wagering business, so it should be difficult to a make a decision to not take a wager.”

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by Dunbar

from the OP's article:

“Songbird is the draw,” Morris said. “And then to take the big draw and tell newcomers they can’t make a bet on her is not a good decision. … We’re in the wagering business, so it should be difficult to a make a decision to not take a wager.”

She was in eight to ten horse fields as I recall. Probably not much risk, plus I am guessing that if they did their homework and made this choice, it was because they found that bridge jumping was not being done at their home track. I highly doubt they are risking tens of thousands of dollars, and possibly more, so that perhaps a few stray people can make a two dollar show bet. At least I would hope not.

[philcski]

6, 9, 6, 5 horse fields when she ran at Santa Anita, and was 1/20 in three of them. It was a virtual certainty there was going to be a minus show pool.

It's an interesting argument on what the impact of cancelling show wagering is. My take is any time you have a severely heavy favorite like this it hurts handle- the average OTB/home online player is going to see a 1/5 or 1/9 shot and pass.

Los Al cancelled show AND place wagering on the CC "race" with the tomato cans- there was a negative win pool instead. Were they rooting for him to lose to avoid the negative pool? Of course not.

(Note: on this example, while it was a minus pool, the track did not "lose" money- total takeout was roughly $110k vs a minus pool of $60k, so it merely made less.)