Live Horse racing & betting weakening even more

Bets on simulcast horse races now account for most of the dollars wagered on horses.

Riverboats in the midwest are hurting the tracks. Seems most tracks are lobbying for Video gambling to try and attract wagerers back to the track.

That would not sell me. I think it's a shame, but hopefully it will full cycle and the tracks will get back to be what they were 20 years ago.

I agree General, would be nice to see the tracks get back to 20+ years ago. Most of the time the tracks are only packed is when some form of cheap beer/concessions are offered. More of these nights need to be planned to attract the younger crowd, works for me.

I can agree with you, General. Up here in the New England area, the horse racetracks seem to be struggling a lot.

Rockingham Park in NH has switched back to harness racing this year because of the lower purses and overhead involved. And it was supposed to close altogether within a couple of years anyway.

Suffolk Downs in Boston seems to not be drawing as big a crowd as they use to - really just the hardcore horse players at this point. Even their biggest marketed race of the year back in June - the Mosely Handicap - only drew about 8,000 people.

The greyhound racetracks in this area probably aren't doing much better either. Aside of the few throwing money away on the "Twin Trifectas", most people at those places just go for the simulcasting.

They have talked about adding video gambling but it is not likely to happen. And even if it did, I think it would really just draw in the deadbeet slot/lottery sort of players. It will prevent a handful of people from taking buses to casinos, but that's about it.

I think that a lot of tracks just need to market people a little better. The tracks in New Jersey (Meadowlands and Monmouth) for example have set a huge standard for that sort of thing. Saratoga's meet for NYRA has stakes races almost every day but it's the marketing ideas that get people out there and interested.

Give out a free hat or t-shirt once in a while, draw in a big name horse, do stuff to get the families out, etc., give tours of the paddock, have an autograph session with some people, etc. A few little things done right here and there can keep the lifeblood of the sport going.

The casinos have taken over the gambling crowd. Never will get back to what it once was. Sad that people will just sit in a chair pour their money into an empty pit known as a slot machine. A brainless activity.

Slots will one day be what tracks are today, mark my words. People will only waste so much of their money and then give up on them. Hard to imagine that now but I am as sure of this as anything. After all the mentality of slots is so much different than any casino before. Slot casinos basically are built to take your money today, take if fast. Gambling used to be come have a good time and get some entertainment whether it be playing cards or dice and getting that social interaction or going and spending a day at the track rooting on some horses. Now its sit in front of a machine and push buttons. My God how did it come to this???

It is not pleasurable for many of us to watch the tracks fall to struggling times. As a child, I spent much of my time at the tracks with elders. Horse racing was way bigger than sports betting.

in my area 25 or 30 years ago horseracing was the biggest game in town by far....the old saying was "write it up and throw it in the box"......sports gambling trailed a distant second to the ponies........back then you had "horse players" people that would bet every race.
the minimum bet at the track was 2 dollars, but most bookmakers would take .50cent daily doubles...
when the casinos came, it was like someone turned off the lights....not only have the casinos hurt the pony business but to some degree sports gambling...

i can go to the horshoe casino and see guys that used to bet 10dimes a position on a football game sitting in the "high roller pit" doing the same on bj........

the casual bettor is the one person that is easily swayed the most...he used to bet horses, then football, now he bets bj and gets comped.......cant really blame him either i guess...

i cant answer for other areas, but im afraid horseracing will never again be what it once was here........the only people that keep the track afloat now are the hard-core racefans......the casual "you wanna go to the track this weekend" person goes to the casinos....

The one thing they thought could save horse racing is the one thing that helped bury it.. Simulcasting. The only joints making money are OTB shops or the few tracks that can get away with charging you $7.50 for a beer and 3.50 for a hotdog(Del Mar, saratoga, Churchill)

Horse racing will not die in the forseeable future because it fills a niche in the gamblig economy. That simple. It will NEVER go back to preeminence either. It will most definately change, probably becoming a unified field with simulcast all over the place. Instead of dozens of tracks competing for customers you will have a few large companies that own various tracks. This is similar to what is happening to skiing, another non-growth industry.

I find it funny that you talk about horse racing like it is a game of skill and differs from slots in that it doesn't just take a players money. It does. A book will hold the theoetical 5% of the handle in sports. Variations of 1-3% off of this are not uncommon. Horses beats this hold % senseless.

Bookies hold around 20% of the handle in horses. This figure is not a fluke or a lucky hit. It is day in and day out. They pay track odds without the track expenses of a purse, upkeep and such things as salaries and promotions. If the maximum payout is capped then the hold increases dramatically. The parimutuel system is awesome for off shore since it takes track expenses into account when coming up with the payouts. Horses is a cash machine. The biggest problem is that there are not enough players to go around.

Most horse players are old guys who remember horses from their youth. They are junkies to put any sports player to shame. They will bet every race for one or two tracks. That means that a horse player will call his bookie 8-17 times a day just to place his bets. Most of these are small by sports standards, somewhere below $50, but if you get enough of them together 10-20 times a day it adds up quickly. I know of one guy that lost $32,000 to his bookie in a period of 8 months in 15 dollar bets.

The change in horse racing is driven by televised races and internet betting, not casinos with slot machines. A lot of people just sit at home, watching the races over the tube or through livecasts on the net. They will place their wagers and take care of all transactions from the comforts of home. The ones that go to OTB or to the track are looking for the same thing that sports-players look for when going to a stadium or to the local bar in order to watch a game... the company of their peers. Be it twenty guys screaming at a TV, forty thousand cursing out a ref or five thousand screaming "Run!" it is all the same.

Horse racing has at it's core a problem for todays' media machine: No heroes. Joe Schmuck doesn't identify with a four legged animal. And even when he can recognize the name of one of racings' stars he will only get to see him for a couple of years before the lucky bastard is put out to stud. Would Michael Jordan be as famous if he only played for three seasons? Would you know of Elway if he only threw for two? Longevity of career and success is a necesity for building heroes, an heroes is why we watch the game.

As for me, the christmas present I'm asking for is a large package full of guys who bet horses. I can retire off of them at my tender 25 years of age.

We all know horses take our money. I have fed a many horse in my time.

As for casinos not doing the damage. In the midwest, particularly Turfway Park, most all of the horse bettors have become addicted to the fast action casinos along the ohio river.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> The negative effects of riverboat gaming are felt beyond southeastern Indiana. While the boats have flourished, their popularity has cut revenue at gaming outlets in Kentucky and Ohio.

The amount of money bet on horse racing at Turfway Park in Florence has dropped 43 percent since the casinos opened, said track president Bob Elliston.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

43% since the boats hit the water and knowing many past horse bettors, they are mainly river boating now and I cant think of one of them who wagers online. They can please the wife at the same time where the track was a boring venture to the ladies.

In the midwest along the ohio River, it is majorily river boats that have hurt the tracks, not the online industry.

Fueled by a mammoth wagering increase on its off-track and out-of-state simulcast signal, Ellis Park pulled the curtain on its 41-day meeting Monday. According to statistics kept by The Evansville Courier & Press, off-track wagering on Ellis Park increased by 27.2 percent. A few dollars remain to be counted, but about $145 million was wagered, compared to $114,877,763 in 2002 during the corresponding period of days. There were 412 races carded this year compared to 411 a season ago. "That gigantic increase enabled us to maintain our purse structure through the live meeting and for next season," said Paul Kuerzi, Ellis' vice-president/general manager. "The purse structure is always a primary concern."

Despite an increase of about 20 groups sponsoring races and a plethora of free passes, on-track attendance fell for the first time in four years by .36 of one percent.

The attendance never fully recovered after the July 9 opener was canceled after four races were run. On track handle dipped about 11 percent. A total of $14,125,088 was bet compared to $15,936,288 during 2002.

The most noticeable drop was in per capita betting. Monday's crowd of 5,658 was the largest of the season. However, they only bet $378,334. The average daily per capita is $100 per person. So, the people came out but didn't play as much. Kuerzi believes the drop in per capita reflects the uncertain state of the country's economy. "Many of our older patrons are on fixed incomes. They didn't bet as much as in the past," he said. "Nor did the groups. We had more large parties than in the past. But a lot of them spent less. Considering all things, though, it was a solid meeting."

http://www.myinky.com/ecp/racing/article/0,1626,ECP_9257_2226711,00.html

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>According to statistics kept by The Evansville Courier & Press, off-track wagering on Ellis Park increased by 27.2 percent. A few dollars remain to be counted, but about $145 million was wagered, compared to $114,877,763 in 2002 during the corresponding period of days. There were 412 races carded this year compared to 411 a season ago. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Glad to hear it. Simulcast, OTB, Online Wagering into the pools here and from offshore will save some of the smaller tracks.

They have effectively priced themselves right out of the market.


BTW still $15Bill USD bet into the pools in USA last year, probably an equal amount bet and not commingled. Still one of the largest players in the gambling scene.