A great day for the sport.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by PatCummings

Every other track on this continent is up against it when creating an experience, but many tracks do it well for a day or three, and that's it. That's the hurdle.

You need thing like Exchange betting, in-race betting, and low takeouts and you won't have any hurdles.

The true hurdle is that the public views horse racing as a "sucker" game -- and they view fans and bettors as old men with disposable time and disposable income -- a mix of degenerate gamblers and uncool well-off snobs.

The general public doesn't believe they could make any money betting horses -- and they probably don't know anyone who makes a living betting horses either.

The festive atmospheres on big racing days will always attract people who want to hang out, socialize, and drink. Serious bettors will always bet a lot more money on big racing days because overlays are easier to find.

Unstoppable U was 11/1. No horse in the entire Belmont field went off at odds higher than 27/1 -- and five horses in that field were clearly over 100/1 true odds. The people who showed up and threw money away on hopeless longshots aren't the people to go for. It's the people who don't ever show up -- but who would become very useful fans and bettors who follow the sport 7 days a week if the climate was right for them.

I did a fantasy football draft last year with 13 other guys...all in their 20's or 30's. It was just $100 to get in -- and the prize money was stinking $1,400. Everyone had laptops with them, everyone came with strategies, people bought books and made sheets for this stupid thing. I was BY FAR the least informed person in that basement. After about 12 rounds -- I didn't even know the names of any players left.

These are 13 guys that all live within about five minutes of me -- that could be serious and USEFUL horse racing fans and bettors. They're not the ones just showing up and betting $20 on Guyana Star Dweej at 23/1 odds and having a few drinks. Who cares about those people? You're simply not going to get them to follow the sport and keep coming back to the racetrack.

You can spend 50 dollars on past performances in a day...yet the overall tone by fans like us is hey if you can't afford 7 dollars for a racing form then pi.ss on ya.

Well it's not about affordability. It's about catering and marketing to consumers. And quite frankly there isn't an industry much worse than American horse racing.

Just look at Australia. Plenty of information available for free, on the web, from major handicapping sites in that country.

South Africa doesn't do a shabby job either.

It's silly to charge for past performances for a sport that has such a high takeout. This was avoidable years ago. During the time Doug wishes he lived in.

[PatCummings]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

You need thing like Exchange betting, in-race betting, and low takeouts and you won't have any hurdles.

The true hurdle is that the public views horse racing as a "sucker" game -- and they view fans and bettors as old men with disposable time and disposable income -- a mix of degenerate gamblers and uncool well-off snobs.

The general public doesn't believe they could make any money betting horses -- and they probably don't know anyone who makes a living betting horses either.

The festive atmospheres on big racing days will always attract people who want to hang out, socialize, and drink. Serious bettors will always bet a lot more money on big racing days because overlays are easier to find.

Unstoppable U was 11/1. No horse in the entire Belmont field went off at odds higher than 27/1 -- and five horses in that field were clearly over 100/1 true odds. The people who showed up and threw money away on hopeless longshots aren't the people to go for. It's the people who don't ever show up -- but who would become very useful fans and bettors who follow the sport 7 days a week if the climate was right for them.

I did a fantasy football draft last year with 13 other guys...all in their 20's or 30's. It was just $100 to get in -- and the prize money was stinking $1,400. Everyone had laptops with them, everyone came with strategies, people bought books and made sheets for this stupid thing. I was BY FAR the least informed person in that basement. After about 12 rounds -- I didn't even know the names of any players left.

These are 13 guys that all live within about five minutes of me -- that could be serious and USEFUL horse racing fans and bettors. They're not the ones just showing up and betting $20 on Guyana Star Dweej at 23/1 odds and having a few drinks. Who cares about those people? You're simply not going to get them to follow the sport and keep coming back to the racetrack.

I was on the escalator during the mid-part of the card, heading up to 3rd floor, and guy in front me says..."you look like you know what you're doing, any suggestions where to watch the race from?"

He was one of four siblings who came out to the races, two guys, two girls, probably from ages 20 to 30. The one girl lived in NYC, the brothers lived in Jacksonville, and the other sister lived in Dallas, they were all in town for oldest sister's 30th birthday. The one who lived in Dallas had been to Lone Star Park once, and suggested it would be a fun day out.

I gave them some recommendations on where to watch the big race, then asked if they had bet yet. They said they hadn't, and wanted some recommendations. Asked how much they wanted to bet, and suggested pooling their money and trying to get a small trifecta together.

The thing that was unavoidable to me, however, is that the person who spurred them all to the track was the only one in the group who had ever been to the track before, and it was just a single visit at Lone Star on a non-descript night, according to her at least.

Bring some friends, get em involved...see what happens.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by PatCummings

Bring some friends, get em involved...see what happens.

Given a climate of betting exchanges, in-race betting, and low takeout -- it wouldn't be long until the sport would become absolutely infested with people like this:

Fantasy Sports geeks that number in the millions:






Young people who have been lured to Poker:








Wanna-be Day Traders who watch Jim Cramer on Mad Money and on and on.

[3kings]

On Friday night I went to the Meadowlands with Heels and BT. We were outside and they had a band, $2 beer special and betting promotion. They had a jockey come over and he and a track handicapper rounded up people to throw in $5 each. They were helping people handicap and betting a group P4 with the money collected. Fifty-one people participated and the group hit the P4 for over $17,000. Many of these people were very excited about winning $244. Some of these people will tell others and come back.

This type of promotion can be easily run at every track and it drums up interest in the game and more importantly interest in gambling on it.

[richard]

Tioga Downs has a flea market and inside antique sales every Sat/Sun 9-5pm.

[Dahoss]

Originally Posted by richard

Tioga Downs has a flea market and inside antique sales every Sat/Sun 9-5pm.

Good to know.

[Rudeboyelvis]

Originally Posted by Dahoss

Good to know.

Hey, come for the flea market, stay for the