There Ain't No "Public" in Harness

We'll often hear, "the public made the 7 horse 2-1", and historically I suppose it's meant something, but today it tends to feel more and more ancient. 

Case in point - the last two evenings at Woodbine Mohawk Park. 

As most know, there are stale dated horses racing because of the COVID mandated break, so "the public" can't bet on any form. As well, harness racing, unlike the Thoroughbred cousins, don't have fancy trainer stats to lean on. To add to the mix of uncertainty, Thursday's card was held in a snowstorm, where chaos often reigns. 

How did "the public" do, with no information, bad weather, no lines, and no stats? 

Favorites won at 61%. The average win price was 2-1. 6-1 was the highest priced winner. 

This is, of course, completely counter intuitive. Tim and Jane and Bill in their basements are not making horses with no lines and no form 1-9 (there were two of them in Ontario since the comeback); they're not shooting fish in a barrel at 61% rates. 

This, I believe, is an excellent exercise for those of us who play the game, and an equally good lesson for those running it. 

For us, the customers, we learn that we have to pivot in our play. 15 years ago we were watching the Big M, we'd see ten races of full fields where 6 of ten horses a race had a shot. We'd get to work on the puzzle, wanting to sniff out longest odds and most overlooked one to hammer. As WEG the last two nights show us, we have to totally rethink that. In today's racing there are one or maybe two horses going a race, and the insiders set those lines for us. Many times, the longest horse we like tends to not be value, but drawing dead. 

For those of you in and running it. Well, shame on you. This sport - the anti-Amazon - has chased so many of the "public" away, you're sitting there playing a game amongst yourselves. 

It will get better as the year goes on, and yes, we'll make a score or two in a competitive race here and there. But in my view it's very important to remember episodes like this. In the harness racing game there is no "public". They've hit the exits for years. The last two nights at Mohawk are just a completely transparent reminder of it. 

Have a nice Saturday everyone. 

Racing Resumes & Betdown Betting Notes

Good Day everyone. 

It was announced yesterday that racing at most of Ontario racetracks will resume beginning this week. The conditioned sheets will be posted, and once again, just like the last time they did this, there won't be any qualifiers needed to race. 

So, good news and much needed purse money for participants, not so good for us as bettors. But it is what it is. 

This time, to me, it does feel different; mainly it seems like the last time we'll see such shut downs. I suspect racing will be back on a normal calendar, and stakes season *should* go off without a hitch in the tundra. Down south, vaccinations are moving forward at a high speed, so stakes payments made by U.S. trainers should be realized in a start, and unlike last year, U.S. drivers and trainers and jockeys should be good to go. For those of you lamenting local drivers driving in all the stakes races, you'll have a reprieve. 

For us, say you and me in the tundra, perhaps we won't be visiting a U.S. racetrack quite so easily. The vaccination roll-out plan is really quite the clown show, even embarrassingly raiding a vaccine set-aside for poor countries. There's no timeline on when we'll be able to drive down for a race or visit (assuming a vaccination is the litmus test). But, at least some normalcy seems to be in the cards. 

For next week however, bettor beware. Watch your wallets!

Betdowns, ROI Positive?

With lack of form racing soon upon us once again, revisiting a gambling topic seems appropriate - bet downs. There are generally two truisms if you go through betting data. i) the chalk end of the spectrum has more ROI than the other end and ii) Bet downs (horses hammered below the morning line, for one definition) are not very good for the bankroll. #theydontknow

I wonder, however, if that's as true today in harness racing with its small pools and inside money.  The fact, is, bet downs are seen with more regularity in this sport, primarily at the Meadowlands, and they aren't pitches. 

You'll have a horse like Tellitsassymae at the Big M last evening, with a 6th by 8 last race 6 weeks ago in a nw5750 in a nw4500 off a qualifier of 6th by 11 the charter labelled as a "dull effort". That horse, bet down to 3-5 off a 7-2ML, was a horse we may think about pitching. She of course won easily. 

You'll see a Whittiker in tonight, which me and Chip were on last time in a nw2500, get second over, hang a bit in the wind and come 5th at a juicy 6-1. He was a betback for me and I was a little excited to use as a pick 6 or pick 4 key. He was moving up in class to a nw4500, was 9-2 morning line, and right in the wheelhouse. He was bet down to even money, took all the money in the sweeps, and he won by 6 under a hammerlock. 

We, as bettors, are conditioned to avoid these low prices, unless the horse has no holes. What we see at the M and elsewhere are tons of holes, but if they're bet down (sometimes to bizarrely low prices), the holes we think we see aren't holes at all. 

The question is: should we keep avoiding these horses as they cross the wire winning not like a 4-5 shot, or an even money shot, but like a 1-5 or 1-9 shot? I honestly don't know. This is one tough game. 

Enjoy your weekend everyone. 

"We Can Make Some Money Here"

 We'll often hear a lot about marketing (mainly of the push variety) in horse racing. Although I find that sometimes interesting, I think it often  misses a big point about our gambling game, or any game really. 

A couple of weeks ago on a Monday I flipped on the interweb stock screener and noticed a mining penny stock I was following was popping. Volume was up and it was trading about 50% higher. What in the heck was going on? Did they find a new mine?

It turns out the evening before silver futures were moving on rumors of the Reddit Kids pulling a Hunt brothers and trying to run the silver market. That trickled down to my little stock and off it went. 

If we flowchart this for a moment it tells a pretty bizarre story. 

Kids on some chat board talk about something. The wires pick it up, silver moves. Then, six hours later a small stock in Canada (a stock with the word "silver" in its name), with a float of 5 million shares and a market cap of $4 million moves up on huge volume. 

Honestly, it really doesn't make sense. But that's what happened. 

When people feel they can make money they search out avenues - even those as ridiculous as this - in a matter of hours and act. It never ceases to amaze me just how fast it happens, and how it happens. It just does. 

In horse racing we're often led to believe we need billboards or commercials or marketing to promote the wagering aspect of the sport. But in reality, we just need to show people that they can make some money. That's what carryovers do - the ones where we scratch our heads and wonder where in the hell all this money is coming from for this Fonner Park or Century Downs Pick 5. Most of these people couldn't even find these tracks on a map. 

If the sport does more to help users "make some money here" it'd be the best marketing plan of all. 

Have a nice Wednesday everyone. 

Ontario Please Open the Racetracks

Ontario remains locked down after another lockdown. This one is was 28 days, which was extended on January 23rd, and its on the heels of the previous lockdown, which was on the heels of the previous one. Infections are still high, worse than early last year, no matter what they seem to do. 

One thing that makes this lockdown a little different than some of the previous lockdowns is that harness racing people can't race their horses. The main track was closed on December 26th. 

Premier Ford has been rather refreshing, in my view, seeing as he is kind of a Trump Lite guy but hasn't acted like one. He is surprisingly very self-effacing in terms of this and has left all decision making to "experts". But damn, these experts don't seem to follow much experting when it comes to harness racing. From day one this sport has been one of the safest activities and businesses in terms of the lack of COVID spread. I feel safer in the paddock at Woodbine than I do at Costco. I'm sure most of you agree. 

This decision does not make much common sense; none that I can find anyway. And there's no sign of it abating. So, another industry - one that has been proven safe - is shuttered. Horses need to be fed, walked, cared for, bathed, shod and jogged. That takes money. And there is no money to race for, because there is no racing. 

About nine months ago a few of us shared a story about a woman who drove to a large coastal park to walk her dog. Her car was noticed by the police, it was tagged and towed and the K9 unit was called. After 45 minutes of extensive searching they found her and her dog playing fetch in the ocean with no one for miles around. They escorted her back and fined her $700. The joke at the time was when it takes a police trained canine 45 minutes to find you, you should not get a fine, but a social distancing gold medal. 

Most of us gave them a break for this rather comical episode. Things were new, there were rules that she was breaking; in general, we give them the benefit of the doubt. 

But it's February of 2021 now. We expect better. We expect them to make decisions based on fact, because we now have facts to lean on. If we do that, there's only one logical conclusion: Let these people race their horses. Let them make a living. 

Have a nice Tuesday everyone.