Big M Carryover and Lower Handle Really Means Less Purse Money?!

Hello racing fans!

@itsthejho says "Come bet the pick 5."

Tonight there's a Big M carryover in the pick 5 pool, beginning in race one. I'm on a betting hiatus, so my dead money won't be in the pools lowering your takeout, but that should be a good pool (probably well over $100k) and a good sequence.
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Great question (page three, pdf)

"Why would any sport, any business, for that matter, any society, stand by and do next to nothing when its rules are routinely violated?"

The kicking stuff is truly one of the more bizarre situations you will see in any regulated sport. How it has not been addressed is a scourge on the business, and it gives no one any hope virtually anything positive can ever get done.

There's also a good update on the horrific harness racing accident at Freehold yesterday. You don't wish this on anyone, but what a shame for a class driver, Cat Manzi.
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I got a poignant email from a seasoned every day player yesterday about why he has not been playing racing so far in 2014.

"I'm tired of the ADW debacle and other barriers to entry"

I really think this is a bigger problem, and will continue to be a bigger problem than several other self-inflicted issues (in a business of self-inflicted issues over the years). As I'm sure you know if you read the blog, I have not been bullish since I began writing it, because of so many customer problems, and have called the reductions in handle we have seen, but I have never been a total doom and gloomer like some. The past several months have pushed me further into the doom and gloom category, though. Customers are not taking it on the chin like they used to; they're leaving.

My handle in 2014 so far is $0. The first time I have not played in a one month period was well over ten years ago.

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Far be it for me to defend Churchill Downs Inc, but boy they are really getting slammed on social media the last 48 hours or so. At Fairgrounds, handle has fallen so purses are being cut. Remember three or four years ago when the signal fee problems were happening there, with protectionist and horseman-track nonsense that pissed off customers? And the shorter fields, and higher takeout? And bad distribution to ADW's so they had to jump through hoops to bet FG, with tracknet, or monarch or troutnet, or haddocknet or whatever the hell was pushed upon them? Apparently customers do, because they aren't betting the place like they used to. That's everyone's fault, not just Bob Evans'
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I'm not sure who I would be betting in this weekend's football action, but I am leaning to the Colts, Broncos and Carolina, ATS. I think the Broncos (despite that completely horrible Dallas-like D that usually sucks in the playoffs) will solve the problem they had last time with the Chargers run game. New England seems to be running on a few smoke and mirrors, with close game "Fooled By Randomness" wins that should've been losses. Carolina's D is flat out awesome, and CK, to me, last week looked about as accurate as an inaccurate Robert Griffin. If I had to bet the Saints-Seahawks game, I would take the Saints with the points. Good luck if you are betting.
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Ed DeRosa has not been tweeting much. Too much hot wing sauce on the fingers? No one seems to know.
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Joe Drape might be no longer enemy number one. It probably goes to this writer of this hit piece on Bob Baffert.  You can argue back and forth about details and who said what and who did what, but man oh man, that article seems grossly unfair, in my opinion.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.