Veteran Santa Anita paddock guard John Shear was injured March 12 as he threw himself in front of a young girl in order to protect her from a loose horse.
Posted via email from Michael Pizzolla On ValueCapping™, Horse Racing, And Technology
Say what you will about Apple, they really know what the customer wants.
Posted via email from Michael Pizzolla On ValueCapping™, Horse Racing, And Technology
From Bloodstock, an article reporting increased purses, but decreased handle on thoroughbred racing. What’s interesting is that they reference the California boycott as part of the reason for decreased handle. Whatever your feeling about the boycott, it apparently is getting noticed, and may be having some effect:United States purses increased slightly in January year-over-year despite a reduction in racing days, but pari-mutuel handle on U.S. races dropped almost 10%, according to the Thoroughbred Racing Economic Indicators.
The handle drop can be attributed to many things, including weather, a California racing boycott, and closure of New York City Off-Track Betting Corp., which operated in January 2010. Still, it appears a turnaround is likely in 2011. For the rest of the article: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/61164/purses-up-bit-in-january-but-handle-off-97
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Another snowstorm scheduled to hit the Northeast Jan. 26 has prompted the New York Racing Association to accelerate post times for live racing at Aqueduct. Meanwhile, Laurel Park in Maryland has canceled live racing.
Posted via email from Michael Pizzolla On ValueCapping™, Horse Racing, And Technology
From bloodhorse, an article on making betting simpler for the player.
Posted via email from Michael Pizzolla On ValueCapping™, Horse Racing, And Technology
From The Desk Of Michael Pizzolla
Las Vegas, Nevada
January 16, 2011
6:47 AM
Dear ValueCapper and Friend:
Wanted to drop you a line to thank you all for the support and great feedback to the improvements we’ve been making to the Post Time Solutions data.
And I want to tell you about some improvements that are coming down the line.
But first, I want to get on my soapbox. It’s about something very near and dear to my heart: Exotic betting.
A short while ago, the geniuses in California decided to up the takeout on exotic bets from around 20 percent to 23 percent.
That’s not bad enough, but the CHRB actually claimed that this was a better product for the horseplayer.
I’m sorry, but that’s an unmitigated lie.
And it comes from not understanding the game, how much diligence it takes to beat the take, and who is picking up the tab for horse racing.
News flash, California, it’s us-the bettors.
So, you can’t expect to up the take and not get some reaction, even if you deceptively claim that it’s good for the horseplayer.
I don’t get involved in organized anything these days, but I did take notice that the Horseplayers’ Association of North America (HANA) is boycotting the Santa Anita product.
Now, I neither support or oppose a boycott. I simply look for value bets factoring in the takeout. Of course, by definition, because of the increased takeout, there will be fewer value bets in that jurisdiction, so I am de facto not playing the Santa Anita races. I’ve heard from some of you that a boycott hurts those who are least able to withstand the loss of revenue and who had nothing to do with the decision: Track staff, backstretch staff, and so on.
This morning, there was an article about the boycott and the handle at Santa Anita.
HANA claimed a 15% decrease in handle yesterday at Santa Anita. Santa Anita countered by saying that the handle was actually up 5%.
Saying in effect, there you go horseplayers, you have no voice, you are so stupid we are going to tell you that increasing the take will be better for you, sit down, shut up, and give us your money.
George Orwell was an optimist.
What Santa Anita had to do, of course, to come up with that 5% increase is to once again prevaricate. They included the simulcast handle to come up with an increase.
Don’t you get it? The boycott is against YOUR product, Santa Anita, and the handle on YOUR product is the only relevant number.
Get honest, and lower the take, or lead the parade of racing’s demise.
Whew. Thanks for listening. I’m just really tired of we horseplayers getting treated like idiots.
Back to Post Time. I’m delighted to tell you that Operation Data 2011 is going well so far.
There have been upgrades to our adjustments in our numbers that will show up automatically when you update Post Time Daily 2.0 or Black Magic: The Ultimate Handicapper Software™. I’m very pleased with the numbers, they’re a significant improvement.
We’ve been generating all our files from a new server which will bring a number of separate processing steps together in one place. It’s taken a few years to do this, because it’s a really complex job.
What’s in it for you is increased reliability and speed.
For example, you’ll notice that the Results Charts are now available shortly after the races are official. In the past, we would have to wait until ALL charts were official, so until the last race at Delta or Charlestown or Los Alamitos was official, we couldn’t post the charts from Aqueduct or Laurel which were finished 8 hours earlier.
No more: They’re up as soon as the track’s results are official, and those of you using Black Magic: The Ultimate Handicapper Software™ can import them the same day, no waiting until the next day.
Luckily, the upgrade process on Black Magic: The Ultimate Handicapper Software™ and Post Time Daily 2.0 has gone very smoothly, and I’m really grateful for your kind feedback and support.
Besides the numbers being improved, there were a whole bunch of little improvements. For example, the ‘Reset All Preferences’ matches the preferences I use on the example races on the Wizards’ Forum and DVDs. Can’t tell you what a timesaver that is, because BLAM has so many little tweaks so the user can set it the way he likes.
We’re working on a number of database improvements that will mean a better, easier, faster, more enjoyable experience for you. Stay tuned.
Well, that’s it for now.
I did a blog post this morning about the California handle issue, and you can read it here:
http://www.handicappinghorseraces.com/uncategorized/they-just-dont-get-it
or here:
http://michaelpizzolla.posterous.com/they-just-dont-get-it
Remember to always look for the value in the race, and let the bet make you!
My sincere thanks to all of you who have sent me emails telling me of your progress. I enjoy hearing from you, and you can always get me at michael@posttimedaily.com
All the best,
Michael
Posted via email from Michael Pizzolla On ValueCapping™, Horse Racing, And Technology
From the paulickreport.com, a report on the results of the Boycott of the Santa Anita races because of the increased takeout on the exotic bets. HANA reported a 15 percent drop in handle, while the suits at Santa Anita say it's a 5% increase.
Posted via email from Michael Pizzolla On ValueCapping™, Horse Racing, And Technology
Equibase, the industry’s statistical database, on Wednesday said the 2010 total was $11.4 billion. The 2009 total was $12.3 billion, down from the nearly $15 billion that was typical in previous years.
The amount of purses awarded dropped 6.07 percent to $1 billion and the number of race days dropped 7.75 percent to 5,473.
In the final month of 2010, wagering of nearly $679 million represented a drop of 9.31 percent from December 2009.
Posted via email from Michael Pizzolla On ValueCapping™, Horse Racing, And Technology
When Santa Anita opened Sunday, the numbers were not pretty. They bet $11,707,276 on the first day of the 2010-2011 meet, a 21.5 percent decline from the previous year and the lowest opening-day handle since 1992. Yet, there were some excuses — primarily a blizzard in the East Coast that shut down a lot of simulcasting outlets — enough excuses to conclude that the dismal handle figure was perhaps an aberration. The following day, $5,529,285 was bet on the Santa Anita card, but there was nothing to compare it to. There was not a comparable Monday, second-day-of-the-meet card in 2009.
But on the third day of the meet, there was a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, a Wednesday card in 2010 versus the same sort of Wednesday card a year earlier. The results were almost exactly the same as they were on opening day. Again, Santa Anita got slaughtered. They bet just $4,038,175, a $1,578,842 decline from 2009. That's a 28.1 percent drop off from a year earlier and less than Tampa Bay Downs handled on the same day.
There can be only one reason why Santa Anita has gotten off to such a wretched start — the takeout increase. It looks like horseplayers actually can be pushed too far. For the rest of the article: http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/columns/story?columnist=finley_bill&id=5968859
Posted via email from Michael Pizzolla On ValueCapping™, Horse Racing, And Technology
A VERY sobering article on the realities of the 'Racino' and how the racing part of the equation is not keeping up with the casino end of the business. I suppose that with so much info on racing and so many potential races to bet it is much more overwhelming and confusing that just shoving a twenty dollar bill into a slot machine and being in action in seconds. I wonder every day how racing might once again be restored to its glory days…
Here are excerpts from the article from the Miami Herald: For the complete article, go to http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/26/1989538/horses-losing-to-slots.html
They will never catch up, said Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University and an expert on gambling and sports. Horse racing had its heyday, as did knights and milkmen, but will probably be extinct within 20 years.
Jarvis posits that horse racing, dog racing and jai alai were created for the purpose of gambling. As gambling options proliferated over the past two decades with Indian gaming palaces, poker rooms, lotteries, online betting-you can even bet on when an NFL quarterback will throw an interception — people lost interest in Florida's traditional parimutuels…
The shotgun marriage means owners such as Churchill Downs, the corporation that runs Calder, have no incentive to invest money in racing. The gleaming new casino is the main act; the racetrack is an afterthought. Calder also has its Studz Poker Room. Churchill Downs even makes a bigger profit off an online bettor than one who comes to the track.
Posted via email from Michael Pizzolla On ValueCapping™, Horse Racing, And Technology
