Not only are Santa Anita's year over year handle numbers for the 14% takeout pick five up $5.35 million and 46.9 percent respectively - but, apparently, the low takeout bet is sparking handle growth in the pools of the other wagers on the wagering menu for the races in the pick five sequence.
With 1 fewer race day this year vs. last year - and looking strictly at the races in the Pick5 sequence - or races 1-5 only:
Dollar Change in Total Handle Q1 2013 vs. Q1 2012:.......... UP $16.45 million
Percentage Change in Total Handle Q1 2013 vs. Q1 2012:.. UP 10.14 percent
However, looking only at the races outside the Pick5 sequence:
Dollar Change in Total Handle Q1 2013 vs. Q1 2012:.......... UP $2.13 million
Percentage Change in Total Handle Q1 2013 vs. Q1 2012:.. UP 0.94 percent
(March 29 2013) - The Horseplayers Association of North America's (HANA) harness racing division in association with the Hambletonian Society, Chicago Harness (Balmoral and Maywood Parks), The Meadowlands, Tioga Downs, and Vernon Downs is pleased to announce "The 2013 Grand Circuit Handicapping Challenge".
The format of this year's competition is a change from past Pen vs. Chip competitions as it doesn't matter which type of handicapping method a handicapper uses as long as it is their own. In addition, instead of handicapping complete race cards, the contest focuses only on Grand Circuit races. Using the Grand Circuit schedule, excluding most elimination races, handicappers will be given $30 to wager as they will on race finals or in the case of races being contested in divisions, on one or more of the divisions. Each gambler must invest the full $30 or they will be penalized. The handicapper with the highest net profit after the last Grand Circuit race of the year will be the champion. The contest begins and concludes at Northfield Park; beginning on April 26 with the Courageous Lady and concluding on December 14 with the Cleveland Classic and includes 74 contest dates and 230 individual races. Rules and the Schedule of Races may be found at the contest website.
For more info contact Allan Schott at: allan@hanaweb.org
(March 26 2013) - The Horseplayers Association of North America is pleased to announce that once again this year, the membership is invited to participate in an online handicapping tournament on Saturday April 13th. This unique event will feature high quality races (including the Blue Grass Stakes and Arkansas Derby!) from tracks with advantageous takeout rates.
The handicapping contest is in partnership with derbywars.com, the preeminent online tournament site committed to providing players ample contest opportunities at industry leading takeout rates. Through the Derby Wars chat environment, members will be able to interact in real time with one another as well as HANA leadership. Please feel free to ask questions about our charter and find out more about our commitment to improving the game while enjoying the challenge of competing for a $10,000 prize pool.
Live racing returns at Hastings Race Course. Opening Day is Saturday April 13, 2013. First post is at 1:50 pm pacific.
Quote from Raj Mutti, Regional General Manager for BC Racing:
"Hastings will offer low takeout of 15% on their WIN/PLACE/SHOW, Daily Double, Pick 3,4,5 wagering pools once again this year.
"Also this year after upgrades to our tote we will be able to offer our US players fractional wagering on Superfecta and Pick 4 Pools at $.20 and Pick 5 Pool at $.60.
In the US players can play us thru TVG, Twinspires, Xpressbet and various tracks and offtrack locations through the country.
Over the last couple of years as part of our reduced takeout strategy we have seen significant handle gains, 5% in 2011 and 12% in 2012, and in 2013 we hope to continue that trend with further market penetration."
It's been nearly two months since veterinarian Orlando Paraliticci was banned from the Tampa Bay Downs premises by track management because of an incident that took place at the barn of trainer Jane Cibelli. Paraliticci, known as Dr. O on the backside of the Oldsmar, Fla., racetrack, allegedly was observed injecting a horse's knee on the morning it was scheduled to race - a practice that is strictly prohibited.
Racing Commissioners International (RCI) today gave final approval to the "RCI Controlled Therapeutic Medication Schedule", setting the stage for uniform implementation of racing medication rules in the United States and beyond.
The RCI schedule is intended to be a guide for testing laboratories in determining the level at which the presence of a substance would violate the rules and become a violation. It also creates restrictions on administering medications within times certain prior to a race, creating a clear line that horsemen and veterinarians should not cross.
Horses competing in Saturday's Santa Anita Derby have been put under surveillance for the 72 hours before the race for the first time after an owner with a horse in the race offered to pay for the enhanced security to ensure the race was run fairly and provide transparency to the betting public.
HANA Newsletter Editor's Note:
As much as increased security for Graded Stakes Races seems like such a no brainer, multiple sources in California have told me final approval for this was no slam dunk. Apparently, the idea was met with significant resistance by the higher ups at both the TOC and CHRB. In my opinion, Santa Anita President George Haines deserves a tip of the hat from horseplayers everywhere for standing firm and getting this done.
Jeff Platt
President, HANA
HANA Advertising Policy
Be advised: We are a horseplayer advocacy group first and foremost.
The mere fact that you purchase banner ad space on our site or in our newsletter in no way makes it "okay" for you or your company to do things that are anti-player such as: working to increase takeout, restricting or blacking out track signals from ADW lineups, working to change state law in an effort to ban ADW wagering, working to change state law to implement source market fee, etc.
EXPECT us (at all times) to remain true to our mission: Giving horseplayers a voice.
In the event you or your company acts in an anti-player manner: EXPECT to be called out for your actions.
That said, be advised of the following: HANA was formed in 2008 and we currently have more than 2500 horseplayer members. HANA members are hard core horseplayers. Most of us bet 5 or more days each week. HANA membership collectively bets more than $100 million (US) per annum. To the best of our knowledge there is no other single place on the web where you can so cost effectively target that demographic.
For more information write to: info@hanaweb.org
Help Wanted
We at HANA are constantly looking for help to further our charter of giving you, the horseplayer a voice.
This section of the newsletter will become a regular feature and will list the jobs/tasks in which we are most in need of help.
Any member who feels they have the skill and a bit of free time to help out, you are encouraged to write to: gimmeajob@hanaweb.org
We will gladly accept and answer all inquiries even if just to ask what a given job entails.
Job of the month. The job of the month is that of Newsletter Editor:
• Newsletter editor - person to gather news items of interest to the membership and write short pieces to be formatted into the monthly newsletter.
Other jobs, no less important that we are looking to fill:
• State/Province Representatives - In order to keep better track of the activities in racing at the state/province level we are building a state/province representative organization. Successful candidates will be asked to perform multiple duties including monitoring activity at the state commission, recruiting, and general promotion to increase awareness of HANA goals at the local level. As we envision each state organization being made up of multiple individuals we don't expect any one individual to perform all the tasks above. So if you feel interested in any one or more of the tasks above, let us know.
• Periodic website updates - We are considering adding 2 features to our player resource section. The first is an area to announce periodic good deals for the horseplayer (zero takeout daily doubles, guaranteed pools etc.). The second being an advisory section to alert players to timing/chart flaws. We are looking for a person that is familiar with HTML and is willing to take on the task of performing these updates to our site. The text will be supplied, this job entails only adding it to the player resource section of our site.
• Marketing - requires a person with the ability to generate artwork and templates for items such as the newsletter and ads to be placed into various racing publications.
• Web Development/Design - we are interested in moving forward with a project to upgrade our website.
• Think you can write? - We are always looking for authors of original horselpayer related content.
Again, you are encouraged to write to: gimmeajob@hanaweb.org
