Thursday, October 30, 2008

Quick Notes: Infighting, Judging and a Bunch More

Our weekly, bi-weekly, or when I am too lazy to type anything, quick look at racing.

I bet a horse at Flamboro Downs Monday night. I was at Woodbine on Monday watching the tractor tear a hole out of the track, so I needed something to do. I bet the one horse in the 9th. I thought it was an overlay. Apparently everyone else did as well. I bet him with 15 seconds to post at 5-2. The horse ended up 1-5. I spoke to a small track guy recently and he said he hopes that betting exchanges are passed sometime in the future, because we need something to combat this. Also another insider I spoke to says our pari-mutuel system is just not working any longer. I agree.

Plenty of feedback on the Western Fair non-DQ on Monday, with comments here. Moreso, the chat boards are humming. Several people are calling for people to be fired over this. I personally do not know what to think. Plus, as stated, I am pretty lazy tonight, so I will let all those bettors and people like Andrew Cohen fire way.

The Breeders Cup handle was apparently up. But it seems they are looking at 14 races instead of 11 races. Not to mention, the $3M guaranteed pick 6 did not meet the guarantee. It was a major event and the horses had to circle a few times before the first leg, hoping to get to $3M. Not good.

Hollywood Park is in some sort of fight between the horseman and the ADW people who offer the bet. Surprise, surprise. A poster at Paceadvantage.com pointed out that on TVG today one of the commentators was speaking of the $150k guarantee in the pick 4 today and Todd Schrrup’s response was “I wonder how long they will have to circle”. Double not good.

Another bettor on the mess: "Today I cant bet on CD, HOL, GG [Churchill Downs, Hollywood Park and Golden Gate Fields]............seems like there are more disputes that hurt the bettor. You cant count on getting a bet down anywhere anymore. Why study all night just to find our your not eligible to wager somewhere." Triple not good.

Was I the only one who found this funny, in a sad sort of way? The USTA is running a poll on one side of their page this week. It asks where Somebeachsomewhere ranks in the all time greats. Around 60% of people think he is in the top three and 96% of the people rank him in the top ten. On the other side of the page is the Hambo Top Ten poll where he is ranked second for 2008. Only in racing.

Harnesslink is reporting that John Campbell has signed with America Bets, an ADW in the Dakotas.

Last but not least, Dave Palone. I saw he won 7 a few days ago. The man is so dominant at the Meadows it is not funny.

Drivers by Wins - 2008
Name Starts 1st 2nd 3rd Earnings UDRS
David M Palone 2398 754 417 283 $ 8,270,696 0.450


He will finish the year with less than 3000 starts and he has a shot to win 1000 races. It is mind-boggling.

As per usual, the dude who drives the most will take the title. Anthony Morgan will most likely get to the 1000-1100 win area in about 4400 trips behind the gate. To think, 1000 wins ten years ago was considered almost impossible, and a record that would never be broken. Now it happens every year. How times change in racing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mondays 9th at Flamboro. A perfect example of why I wouldn't bet the track. The winner got all the late money. Paid more to place and way more to show than win. Only horse that even attempted to get position was a 75-1 shot from the outside post. The 75-1 shot and a 53-1 shot appeared to be the only ones interested in trying to win. When the chalk was safely at the finish the second and third choices made their runs but still couldn't get 2nd or 3rd. To me it smells like a boat race.
Why does racing at Cal-Expo look so different? They know someone is watching.
RG

Anonymous said...

The funny thing about Palone is that the people who don't like him here were salivating at the thought of Brett Miller coming here and taking some of his power...it hasn't mattered one bit.

You could bring Brian Sears back here too, and he'd go back to losing to Palone by 250 wins like he did every year.

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