Fake Racing News? Talk to People

Yesterday we had an article about how great sports betting was at Monmouth, and how it was probably helping racing because handles were increasing. Crunktathol sent a tweet with some facts.

I ran the numbers *wrong*. Corrected numbers (it's a little confusing since MTH ran on Fridays in June last year). 6/16,17,23,24 of 2018 vs 6/17,18,23,25 of 2017. Handle +16% (+$368K) on 6 *more* races. Per race +2.6% (+$1.3K) on 96 *more* interests. Per interest -10.8% (-$769).

— o_crunk (@o_crunk) June 26, 2018

It's good to get facts, if you're not so entrenched to accept them. Monmouth has been stuffing the entry box and not having a great result; before or after sports betting.

And notice he didn't make some cemented conclusion about the numbers, he just presented them. No one knows exactly what's going to happen with sports betting over the next few years.

That's the way open discussion is supposed to work.

Meanwhile, we saw a tweet today with someone sharing an opinion (since deleted).

"Betting will ruin the sport because racing is not about betting, it is about the jockeys and horses... "

That tweet might've been about gun control or abortion, because the reaction was about the same as we see on twitter most days. The responses weren't Crunkian..... for the most part.

But someone set a high bar - our very own POTUS.

Claudia, with all due respect, we all love the sport and it’s all funded through pari mutuel handle. Without betting there is no sport. Period.

— Potu$ Capper (@POTUSCapper) June 27, 2018

POTUS speaks truth (I can't believe I typed that), and he did it in pure un-Potus like fashion.

Everyone knows that racing is tiny and small without betting. Those of us who enjoy watching horses race would not be able to see it very often without the couple of billion dollars in revenues to the sport from betting. Even overseas, the future of the Dubai World Cup probably depends on us not buying solar panels and electric cars.

Answering with facts with an absence of pure vitriol is so uncommon nowadays it sticks out, and in racing we had a couple examples of that. I think it's why most of us stay around the medium - a nugget or two of decency and truth make navigating the noise tolerable.

Have a great day everyone!