A week has gone by since the race was run and declared official but we have yet to hear back from the offshore books that refused to pay until an investigation by the track was completed. It was later learned that no such investigation took place and the books have been silent since. The players in question did absolutely nothing wrong in my opinion. As I stated in another thread, the Racing Stewards at Finger Lakes declared the race official and say there was no wrongdoing and have never thought of initiating an investigation. The players in question obviously were aware of the fact He’s Vivid was a standout in the race, be it through information from the owner(s), trainer or someone else in the barn they knew they were sitting on an opportunity to make money.
Now the numbers and I will try and make this clear as to not lose anyone along the way. The horse in question was listed as a morning line 20-1 shot in the first race on the 16th in a low level maiden race and was a first time starter with a recent very good 3 Furlong work in 36 sec. The workout combined with being a first time starter in a race filled with subpar horses probably contributed to some of the action the horse received as it dropped from 20-1 to 11-1
The next step is why go offshore? The answer is simple, given the fact that Finger Lakes is a small track, any substantially sized bet is going to greatly reduce the odds on a horse so a better option is to go offshore and spread the money around to different books all the while insuring that none of the money will ever see the pools. Look at it this way, a book gets 300-500 in action on a race so they book it and move on. Now a book with higher limits that has a few thousand worth of action is more likely to unload it into the pools. So opening multiple accounts at different books is again the smart thing to do for the players in question, there is no rule saying you can’t have accounts at 15 different books. Looking at the some raw numbers illustrated below you can easily see why the bets were made offshore.
Inside The Numbers.
1st Race April 16TH @ Finger Lakes
$22,000 Total Win Pool
$3,960 Track Take (18%)
$18,040 Net Win Pool
$1480 (Approx) Win Money on #1 He’s Vivid
By taking the Win Pool money and subtracting 18% which is the tracks takeout you are left with 18,040 now you divide that by the 1480 that was wagered on the winner and you have odds of approx 11-1. (He’s Vivid paid $24 to win)
If the money wagered by the players had been put into the pools
Given that the amount wagered is unknown at present we can assume it was in the range of $10K given their were at least 3 people with multiple accounts. So for the sake of numbers I will use 10K
$32,000 Total Win Pool
$5,760 Track Take (18%)
$26,240 Net Win Pool
$11,480 Win Money on #1 He’s Vivid
Now by again taking the Win Pool and subtracting the track take you are left this time with 26,240 which when divided by the win money on He’s Vivid (11,480) would give you odds of 2.25-1 or a $4.50 winner.
If the bets had been put into the pools they would have basically doubled their money, but by taking the offshore route they have made (should they get paid by all books of course) approx 10 times more then they would have ontrack.
The numbers from Finger Lakes were provided by the Tote Manager at Finger Lakes and the Calculation of win odds courtesy of WEG (Woodbine Entertainment Corp) and a very friendly and helpful Employee (W.L.)
The is it in a nutshell, the time has come for the book(s) that were so vocal initially to come in and tell us that they have released the funds and paid the players. Chalk it up to being asleep at the wheel or getting caught with your pants down but pay the players and learn a lesson from this experience.
HTRC
Now the numbers and I will try and make this clear as to not lose anyone along the way. The horse in question was listed as a morning line 20-1 shot in the first race on the 16th in a low level maiden race and was a first time starter with a recent very good 3 Furlong work in 36 sec. The workout combined with being a first time starter in a race filled with subpar horses probably contributed to some of the action the horse received as it dropped from 20-1 to 11-1
The next step is why go offshore? The answer is simple, given the fact that Finger Lakes is a small track, any substantially sized bet is going to greatly reduce the odds on a horse so a better option is to go offshore and spread the money around to different books all the while insuring that none of the money will ever see the pools. Look at it this way, a book gets 300-500 in action on a race so they book it and move on. Now a book with higher limits that has a few thousand worth of action is more likely to unload it into the pools. So opening multiple accounts at different books is again the smart thing to do for the players in question, there is no rule saying you can’t have accounts at 15 different books. Looking at the some raw numbers illustrated below you can easily see why the bets were made offshore.
Inside The Numbers.
1st Race April 16TH @ Finger Lakes
$22,000 Total Win Pool
$3,960 Track Take (18%)
$18,040 Net Win Pool
$1480 (Approx) Win Money on #1 He’s Vivid
By taking the Win Pool money and subtracting 18% which is the tracks takeout you are left with 18,040 now you divide that by the 1480 that was wagered on the winner and you have odds of approx 11-1. (He’s Vivid paid $24 to win)
If the money wagered by the players had been put into the pools
Given that the amount wagered is unknown at present we can assume it was in the range of $10K given their were at least 3 people with multiple accounts. So for the sake of numbers I will use 10K
$32,000 Total Win Pool
$5,760 Track Take (18%)
$26,240 Net Win Pool
$11,480 Win Money on #1 He’s Vivid
Now by again taking the Win Pool and subtracting the track take you are left this time with 26,240 which when divided by the win money on He’s Vivid (11,480) would give you odds of 2.25-1 or a $4.50 winner.
If the bets had been put into the pools they would have basically doubled their money, but by taking the offshore route they have made (should they get paid by all books of course) approx 10 times more then they would have ontrack.
The numbers from Finger Lakes were provided by the Tote Manager at Finger Lakes and the Calculation of win odds courtesy of WEG (Woodbine Entertainment Corp) and a very friendly and helpful Employee (W.L.)
The is it in a nutshell, the time has come for the book(s) that were so vocal initially to come in and tell us that they have released the funds and paid the players. Chalk it up to being asleep at the wheel or getting caught with your pants down but pay the players and learn a lesson from this experience.
HTRC
