Notes and Quotes: Mixed Early Retruns on New Formats (03/11/10)

Posted Thursday, March 11, 2010

                                                      By Mike Paradise

  The early returns are in on the reduced minimum wagering formats at both Balmoral and Maywood Parks with at the best mixed results.

  The first Wednesday card at Balmoral with minimum .50 cents Trifectas and .10 cents Superfectas was a success. However the first Saturday card with the new wagering formats was disappointing.

  At Maywood Park the initial Thursday and Friday programs with reduced Trifectas and Supers betting showed a declined in mutuel handle for both cards. Keep in mind its only been one week, nevertheless its from the first week of the month, normally a good week for wagering since most people receiving Social Security checks obtain theirs on or near the first of the month.

 Balmoral’s 11-race Wednesday card, which was short on horses (only two 10-horse fields and two others with five betting interests) nevertheless handled $961,094. The Wednesday card the last week of February with the old betting format saw only $622,568 bet and a week earlier $841,760 was handled, over $120,000 less than Wednesday, March 4.

  In fact, more money was bet on Balmoral’s Wednesday card with 11 races than Maywood’s Friday program with 14 events. Only $941,583 was wagered on Friday, March, compared to the previous two Fridays of $1,003, 682 and $1,059,851 with the old format. And last Friday races were stretched out by the track with race No. 14 going off at 11:56 p.m.

  Balmoral’s Saturday handle was $1,019,839, taking a hit of $217,269 less than the previous Saturday when there was one more race (No. 14) and $89,678 less than Saturday, February 20 with 13 races.

 Nonetheless last weekend Balmoral still did $58,745 more than Maywood with one less race, and Balmoral had one five-horse field with no Tri or Super and three other six-horse betting interest events without “Supers.” And there wasn’t a single 10-horse field at the far south suburban track.

  Maywood’s first Thursday with its reduced gimmick wagering was $770,199, about $13,000 less than the previous Thursday with the same number (11) of races. The average Trifecta pool with .50 cent wagering (when there was also a .10 cent Superfecta offered on the race) was $22,946, compared to $24,245 the previous Thursday with a $1.00 minimum Trifecta bet. The Superfecta pools were about the same for the last two Thursdays—an $11,241 average with the new and an $11,059 average the previous week with the old.

  Maywood’s average Trifecta pool last Thursday was $21,833 with 50 cent bets and $23,198 a week earlier with $1 wagers. The Super pools averaged $10,553 last Friday, compared to $11,627 the previous Friday.

  It’ll be interesting to see how much the new gimmick wagering pool numbers climb when the horse population does the same . . . however there’s no telling when that will occur.

 
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