BEYER: Crown thriving but tinkering could be in order

[slotdirt]

Originally Posted by NTamm1215

Did you read what he wrote? If MID is willing to pay the insurance premiums on a potential $5.5 million bonus they could divert those funds to the purses on Preakness day.

There's always going to be a "red headed step child" factor to the Preakness undercard because there's more to winning the Churchill Downs than the Maryland Sprint Handicap. The problem that the Preakness undercard has is that the races are rarely competitive and lead to the parade of favorites that has occurred each of the last two years.

What do you really think the insurance premiums on a $5.5 million bonus are? Certainly not enough to make a big dent in purse prices on any given day.

[NTamm1215]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

What do you really think the insurance premiums on a $5.5 million bonus are? Certainly not enough to make a big dent in purse prices on any given day.

I didn't write the column. I merely stated what Beyer was saying that seemed to be getting missed.

I can tell you that it's more than 100k. Generally the insurance premiums on a bonus like the Preakness 5.5, at its current three-tiered structure are in the neighborhood of 5%. If MID is willing to put any kind of money towards a bonus then they just might have the capital to put towards purse structure on the biggest day of a given meet.

All Beyer was attempting to do was amplify the point that when your customers are hungriest for your product, you might as well make it as good as you possibly can. While the Preakness day handle was good, with that type of attention being paid to your signal it can always be better.

MID has never done much with cross-promoting their races. Incentivizing horses running in the GP Sprint or Potrero Grande and Maryland Sprint Handicap with some type of bonus is a good idea. If the Preakness 5.5 and Black Eyed Susan 2.2 are the start of them getting towards that goal then that's a good thing.