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  #61  
Old 12-24-2009, 05:57 PM
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2Hot4TV 2Hot4TV is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by randallscott35
Exactly right.

"all people who gamble have become more sophisticated."

They don't feel like pouring money down a drain.
What is sophisticated about the slot players? they out number horse players and they dont seen to have a problem with throwing money down the slot, which could be the same as a drain.

Horse racing will never be the same game it was in the 70's and early 80's, it was the only game in town for California.
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  #62  
Old 12-24-2009, 07:39 PM
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randallscott35 randallscott35 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Hot4TV
What is sophisticated about the slot players? they out number horse players and they dont seen to have a problem with throwing money down the slot, which could be the same as a drain.

Horse racing will never be the same game it was in the 70's and early 80's, it was the only game in town for California.
You answer your own question. Nothing is sophisticated about a slot player, that is a constant addiction. Not 25 minutes betweeen races. Mind you slots mostly pay out about 90% which makes them a better bet for a gambler...idiotic to play slots IMO, nothing sporting about it.
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  #63  
Old 12-25-2009, 04:02 PM
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Get rid of the small tracks, Get rid of cheap races.
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  #64  
Old 12-25-2009, 10:54 PM
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I'm not sure anyone mentioned that our Stars Burn Out too quickly in this game.. The Crowds came out to SA for Zeyatta's BC Classic win and to the Haskell and Woodward for Rachel.... There has to be a star for the public to latch onto... Far too many horses are retired for the breeding shed too early.. It's the people with vision such as the Mosses and Allen Paulson who kept their stars in the game and gave the game something in return. I know that owners and breeders have rights but without the fans, the game is not viable...Make a rule that no horse under 5 yrs of age can be bred and reinvigorate the game with older stars that people have a chance to follow for more than a year and a half...The marketing comes naturally when we have something to market in this great game...

Last edited by free25 : 12-26-2009 at 01:44 AM.
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  #65  
Old 12-25-2009, 11:35 PM
chucklestheclown chucklestheclown is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Riot
Lack of one overall industry organization = Fractured fifdoms with no national coordination of major issues: drugs-perception, wagering, calendar-scheduling-excess racing/disposable horses
Ditto.
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  #66  
Old 12-25-2009, 11:44 PM
chucklestheclown chucklestheclown is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasept
The 'sticking around' schtick makes for a nice argument, but it's a canard in this conversation. Stars may matter to 'fans', but they don't matter to gamblers. CJ has always been right on this subject, and was banging that drum before anyone. People who will make the difference at the windows contributing to handle in a meaningful way couldn't care less how long some high profile horse is around... (unless they are a money-burning favorite type of course).
Wow . What do you mean by this? As a gambler AND a fan, I would rather watch Go for Gin against Curlin 10x (for example) and bet each and every time then wait until I knew one of them had tied up the week before and then scoring.
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  #67  
Old 12-26-2009, 08:20 AM
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Betting and watching stars race are two different entities to me. I'll be interested in watching a 6 horse GI with a "star", but that's not going to make me want to bet another 6 horse field.

Give me more 9-10 horse Aoc $50000 or even 10 horses running for a $20000 tag if you want more $$ from me. The sport needs more gamblers, and do a better job of keeping gamblers. Gamblers want an opportunity to make $$, which happens with less takeout and some tracks falling by the wayside(or maybe less racing days per week for some).
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  #68  
Old 12-26-2009, 11:05 AM
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Each state that wants to keep Horse racing needs to to give tax incentives to the owners and find some way to subsidize the purses to the point that you have a chance to make some money as an owner.

Reduce the take out.

Make it a level playing field for all gaming within the state. The Indian Casinos in California have it all over Horse racing.

Workmans comp insurance alone will run you out of business in this state.
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  #69  
Old 12-27-2009, 11:44 PM
chucklestheclown chucklestheclown is offline
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I had time to think about this today. Track marketing departments need to buy the mailing lists and whatever else they can get from the nearest defunct dogtracks and sports teams, along with whatever data they can bribe away from their state and local health departments, and BLAST those people with as many promos and junk mail and phone calls as they can. This is the demographic you are trying to reach if you want GAMBLERS. In a perfect world, there WOULD be a lottery tie-in also.
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  #70  
Old 12-28-2009, 10:07 AM
johnny pinwheel johnny pinwheel is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasept
So 6-8 sophomores per year that may retire arguably early are responsible for stakes not filling to the brim? I don't buy that. While an overall lack of 'good' horses contributes to the problem, Stakes races with narrow fields are due to the inane overabundance of opportunities. There's too many stakes for the amount of horses. Cut down the stakes and boost the purses and you'll see what happens.
i agree, but how do you cut down on races when every bull ring track has a racino with higher purses? if anything they keep adding races that are not even needed. mine that bird runs at mountaineer during haskell and travers time. the penn derby is a million with 2 good horses and 6 or 7 pigs. you are right they don't want fans they want gamblers. fans know what crap is. there needs to be a reasonable mix of fans and gamblers. as a gambler i'm glad when theres fields where only two horses have a chance. in many cases one horse and its a 1-5 shot, then even gambling is a lost cause thats why pic's are so popular. you can't make cracker crumbs on that unless you play pic's. as a fan i know its all garbage. the half dozen or so true grade 1 horse can run at 4 or 5 different tracks year round, on their perferred surface. yeah, that makes for great competition and thats what creates the "buzz". tickets are cashed and torn up right after the race. great races between the best horses gets you on tv. phony controversies between what coulda ,shoulda, might of because horses don't race(each other) is just another bad sign for the game.

Last edited by johnny pinwheel : 12-29-2009 at 07:56 AM.
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  #71  
Old 01-03-2010, 09:48 AM
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MaTH716 MaTH716 is offline
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The most important that tracks/the sport needs is bettors. And the fact that they can't even get this right, reguarding the whole signal fiasco is amazing.

I've been looking foward to today all week, my first free day in a while just to sit relax and bet. I bought todays form and it covers:
Aqueduct Cancled
Gulfstream Signal dispute
Tampa Bay
Philadelphia Canceled
Fair Grounds Signal dispute
Santa Anita Signal dispute

Obviously the cancelations are bad luck. But we always discuss if there are to many races/tracks. But on this Sunday many people on the east coast only have access to about 2 tracks, Turfway and Tampa (not including Charestown and Hialeah). You would think that if racing can't fix this problem (where they are probably losing tons of money), how are they going to fix the other things that will supposedly make the game better. Bottom line is once again it's the bettors/fans that take it right in the shorts.
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  #72  
Old 01-05-2010, 10:19 AM
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http://www.r2collective.com/content/...he-first-time/

I found this article to be a good read...

"In the late 1970s, the groundbreaking book “Positioning; the Battle for Your Mind” was published. To this very day, it is often quoted by marketers. The authors contend that you, your business, or your organization must define who you are and market that definition into your customers’ minds. You “position” yourself, and hope that the position you have carved out is a good one. If it is, you succeed; if it is not, you fail."

Last edited by smuthg : 01-05-2010 at 11:09 AM.
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  #73  
Old 09-18-2010, 05:41 AM
chucklestheclown chucklestheclown is offline
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“Horses actually are tested for more drugs at a lower level than in any other sport,” Arthur said.

When horsemen are notified of altered testing regimens, they tend to alter their use of drugs. Anabolic steroids weren’t illegal in the U.S. until a couple of years ago, but once racing decided to ban their presence on race day, horsemen almost universally complied. Dr. Adam Negrusz, the director of the Illinois laboratory, said his lab had found just four anabolic steroid overages in the course of its testing.

There does exist the belief that committed cheaters will stay one step ahead of lab chemists. Really, only a blunderer would try to cheat with a medication on the ARCI Class 1 list. There clearly is a better chance of getting away with using a medication that is not well known, though the best testing equipment is supposed to detect anything unusual, identifiable or not.

“I guess I scratch my head at why six or seven guys can be 75 percent win off the claim,” New York trainer John Kimmel said. “That’s a hard thing to figure out. There are some medications we seem to be ignorant about that are obviously getting through.”

In this regard, Kimmel praised the new trend toward unannounced, out-of-competition testing at private farms or sometime in the middle of a training cycle when a race isn’t at hand. Out-of-competition testing has gained popularity in the U.S., with Kentucky recently approving the practice, and it is already widely employed in England, according to Dr. Tim Morris, director of equine science and welfare for the British Horseracing Authority. Morris said England has moved away from the blind screening of one winner and one randomly selected horse from a given race – the way things are usually done in this country – and toward intelligence-led target testing.

“We’ve moved away from post-race testing,” Morris said. “Still the majority is post-race, but we have much wider criteria: Betting patterns, performance on the day, stewards watching the race, vets with information. It’s no longer the only way, no longer formulaic. We also do pre-race testing and out-of-competition testing, and all that is driven by intelligence. We use the structures that law enforcement uses to gather information. We rely on patterns building up. It’s good use of racing’s resources, but it’s also more effective.”

England has one centralized laboratory where all testing is performed. So does Canada. In the United States, however, testing is done at many laboratories, some with different types of equipment, making uniform testing procedures impossible. Moreover, guidance on withdrawal times for therapeutic medications in the U.S. is a hodgepodge: A single drug, such as the common tranquilizer acepromazine, has a bevy of recommended withdrawal times listed, depending on the state in which a horse is racing. In Canada, it’s one lab and one national book of therapeutic medications with recommended withdrawal times.


“It’s a universal desire to have a national regulatory scheme so there aren’t different rules in different jurisdictions,” said Dr. Scollay. “It’s tough on horsemen, horses, vets, and presents concerns for the wagering public. Every aspect of the industry is working toward that.”
One aspect in particular is engaged in heavy lifting – the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium. The RMTC had its genesis about 10 years ago. A board of directors comprising 25 racing-industry stakeholders governs the organization, based in Lexington, Ky., and headed by Dr. Scot Waterman.
...


The RMTC is establishing threshold levels for commonly used therapeutic drugs. First, the group funds and administers scientific studies. After analysis, the RMTC can approve a threshold level, at which point a recommendation is passed onto the ARCI. If the ARCI also approves it, the threshold is sent out in the form of a model rule to the 37 states that follow ARCI guidelines. Note the term, “model rule.” Neither the ARCI nor any other national organization has the power to enforce drug standards: They can only establish guidelines and hope that the various state regulatory agencies follow them.

Global cooperation, however, could help reduce the future cost of doing the science that can strengthen medication policy.

“The neat thing for us is we’ve been able to make some nice connections with our European counterparts,” Waterman said. “It looks like we’re going to start sharing information.”

What might be more difficult to obtain is public support. Both the general public and a great number of racing fans continue to vociferously question the role of drugs – therapeutic or otherwise – in Thoroughbred racing.

“What in God’s name has happened to the sport of kings?” wrote a commenter on an article detailing the Canterbury drug positives on the Thoroughbred Times website. “It has turned to the sport of narcotics.”

The Internet is awash with such comments. And it is also true that racing is awash in therapeutic medications.

“There definitely is a culture of medication in this country,” Waterman said. “There’s no question about it. We lose on that comparison. That’s the way it is. This has been 30 years in the making.”

“Hay, oats, water? Where is hay, oats, and water?” Pletcher said. “Is it 24 hours out? Forty-eight hours out? Seventy-two hours out? Six months out? What is it? It’s foolish to think that horses are not going to have problems. We’re going to have to treat those in some way. Again – where’s the guideline? If hay, oats, and water means nothing can be given seven days out, then let everybody know that. Fourteen days out, whatever you want it to be. I don’t think it’s very practical. I think it’s in the horse’s best interest not to do that, but if they want to do it, everyone will adhere as long as they know where it is.”

Right now, few seem to know while many are being caught up in the chaos. And that is a situation for which there should be zero tolerance.
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