Beyer goes online

[asfufh]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/25/AR2006012501961.html

[Silver Charm]

What Beyer failed to mention was the Player also had to pay $10 at Gulfstream to get in to get that $10 TV accessible seat. So he is out $20 before he has made a wager.

Saturday on Millions day that will be around $40 or $50 to sit in a TV filled commode stall for eight hours and bet on races with no volume. I will not be caught dead near the place.

I will be at home, betting online with the TG Sheets I downloaded online, of course.

[Thehoarsehorseplayer]

How the hoarsehorseplayer became hoarse is by trying to get the racing establishment to listen to me.

So I got a big kick out of Andy Beyer\'s observation that if racetracks want to compete with the internet they better get their technology act together, if only because it reminded me of something I once wrote.
As background let me just say that my philosophy concerning tracks is that the horseplayer should not be treated as a gambler but as an investor.  The gamblers and the two dollar bettors will always come but if the parimutual end of the racing industry can plug into the monopoly money crowd in the same way the breeding end has, you got a thriving enterprise again.  But to do that you\'re going to have to make people who are sharp with money feel like they are making legitimate investments, or at least bets where they feel they have all the information they need to suceed.   And therefore, it seems to me that tracks should celebrate information, to have at least one area of the track that is akin to a security trading pit, where a horseplayer can look at the crawl board encircling him, or at any of a series of monitors surrounding him, to find out the particular information he is looking for.

Anyway in the letter I am quoting from, I offer a series of ideas on how to turn tracks into information centers and then offer this summation:

      \"More importantly, we\'ve brought the track into the twenty-first century, for the benefit of the next generation of Horseplayers.  In the preceding paragraph I\'ve stated that the casino atmosphere appeals to the modern gambler, but I guarantee you the next generation, who should already be pushing their entry level money through the windows, are never going to become smitten unless their techno-entertainment needs are satisfied.  You talk of how television coverage legitimizes horse racing as an activity, well forevermore, for the children of baby boomers onward, its dancing lights, interactive keyboards, and instant access to information that is going to determine the legitmacy of any pursuit.  You want the young to plug into horseplaying you\'ve got to plug them in.  Consider this an inevitablity, as inevitable as it was for your predecessors to put in parking lots once the automobile was invented.\"

        My letter is dated January 1996.  And I can only hope it doesn\'t take the track managers of America another ten years to hear what Andy Beyer is saying.  For I think he speaks the truth. Me?  I\'m too hoarse to talk.

 

[xichibanx]

I\'ll be playing online also SC.  However I\'m sure our friend Brooklyn Steve will be at the track.  For some reason I have a feeling he\'ll be betting Race 4 at Gulfstream.

I\'m I right.

I don\'t really like him but I could be completely wrong.

xichibanx

[johndrj]

one thing that andy and the other posters failed to mention is the actual pre-race inspection and warmup that can only TRULY take place live at the track.

my personal experience is that i have a significantly better ROI when i am at the races and looking at the animals.  you can see things that both put you onto a horse that may not be as appealing at first blush and more importantly it can turn you off from an animal that you may otherwise be high on.

there was one day in particular this past summer at MTH where a horse shipped in from chicago that looked superb on paper and was entered in a small overnight stake.  i watched with amazement as chuck lopez didn\'t break from a walk after the post parade while all the other runners warmed up appropriately.  i just eilinated him out of hand following that episode and went back top the drawing board.  

he ran next to last and never threatened at any point.  it happens all the time
AND even more so in claiming races.  a claimer that doesn\'t warm up even a small amount is sore (with the exception of all out speed horses and bad weather days where horses can warm up slightly in the shed row prior to coming over).


john

[Silver Charm]

Beyer has detailed this same thing in his books and guess what you needed a place to see the track and a set of binoculars to do what you are talking about. However when an irresponsible \"visionary\" builds a racetrack where he positions you inside a box for a full day the size of a Phone Booth with no physical view of the racetrack this has been totally eliminated from your handicapping repretroire. Hence stay at home in your recliner.

X-Box I will not be betting him either. When he loses choose from the following excuses:

A.)Lost shoe
B.)Flipped Pallet
C.)Bled
D.)Full of run then Saddle slipped
e.)Swallowed dirt
f.)None of the above will receive full post race scope, scan at cost of $500+ to see if anything is there.

[Thehoarsehorseplayer]

I think you\'re absolutely correct in pointing out that being at the track and seeing the horses live always offers one the possibility of an information edge.

What has happened over time though is the advantage of this edge has been offset (in the minds of the betttors) by both the inconvenience of going to the track and being treated like dirt when you get there.

Still, if tracks are truly interested in bolstering their live handles (and they very well might not care) then they have to make it obvious to bettors there is an advantage to being at the track.

There are a few ways of doing this, of course.  You could have lower takeout, or higher rebates, for people who bet at the track.  And/or you could invest in information delivery systmes that create a tone that something serious, for serious people, is going on here.

The truth is that for tracks, the informed bettor is their best customer. So why not provide as much information as possible.  For, when it becomes convential wisdom that serious bettors get an edge by being at the track, serious bettors are going to have to be at the track.

Now some people might point out that a computer or televsion feed could provide the same information the track could, but I\'m not sure they ccould do it as fluently.  The thing is, when you watch a broadcast you\'re pretty much dependent upon the feed, on receiving the information when they want to share it with you.  But at the track I envision, you can find the information you want when you want it.  An arrangement that seems a little bit more empowering to me.

And then we come back to your point, that watching the horses warm up live is always going to be superior to watching a post parade on a TV screen. Which makes one realize how poorly horseplayers have been treated, if they are willing to give up this advantage.

[Boscar Obarra]

  Parade and Paddock watching is all well and good, but if it was the huge edge some suppose, then the whales would be making a lot of mistakes, and the game would be easy.

  They aren\'t.

   Yes, some may actually employ spotters to do this, but I doubt most do, Maybe I\'m wrong about that, no way to tell.

   And the Beyer story is at least 2-3 years late, guess age is catching up to him.

   

[richiebee]

Without doubt, live attendance at the races allows a view of paddock demeanor, warm ups, pull ups and gallop outs not available when viewing the races off track.

And since someone mentioned paddock, when is t-bred racing going to catch up to the \"trotters\" in terms of providing equipment information other than shoes, blinkers and bandages? It is unwise to underestimate the effect of more subtle equipment changes-- such as going from a noseband to a shadow roll, adding a tongue tie, adding a figure 8, adding a \"sure win\"(haven\'t seen many horses racing with the sure win, a piece of equipment worn most notably by Seattle Slew). These changes are especially important regarding young inexperienced runners and new claims.

In terms of the watching of the actual race, give me my binoculars and a good \"crows nest\". Watching a race on a monitor, no matter how large or highly defined, is a distant second. There is one chance to watch the race live; the same race can be watched unlimited times on the monitor. Apparently, this is a notion lost on Mr. Stronach.

Speaking of Frank Stro, it was nice of him to address the masses during NBC\'s DEPLORABLE truncated 70 or so minute broadcast of the Sunshine Millions. It was a display of ego not at all unexpected from this not so smooth talking snake oil salesman. Hey, Frank, its not about YOU. Its about the animals, who give it all to entertain, and about US, the horseplayers who are basically paying the  freight.

Now to NBC. The original TV listings I saw early in the week said that NBC was to have 2 hours of coverage of Sunshine Millions, 4PM - 6PM. This 2 hour broadcast would have allowed all the Sunshine Races to be shown live. On Saturday morning, the TV listings said that NBC horse racing coverage would follow NHL coverage of the Ranger/ Penquin game at 4:30.

I switched to NBC at 4:30. The Rangers had already finished their rout of the Pens. I was ready for a heaping helping of hot Magna racing, but NBC switched to the conclusion of a Dallas Stars hockey game which was going into overtime and eventually a sellout, I mean shootout. Man am I rambling...

Let me get to my main criticism of the NBC coverage: Numerous times we were shown the point standings between the Florida and California runners, I do not think the mutuel payoffs for the individual races were ever shown.

Points deleted for the sake of brevity:

1)Query? How many participants in the Fla/ Cal rivalry were actually conceived in Kentucky, the way NY bred stalwart Funny Cide (please give him to Frankel or Dutrow) was?

2) NHL shootout is bogus. Ties are OK. Imagine if an NBA game was tied after 2 OTs and they started shooting free throws to determine a winner.

3)NHL PLAYOFF hockey is one of the great spectator sports. NHL REGULAR SEASON hockey comes nowhere close.

4) The State of the Union Address should be carried live, in its entirety, on Comedy Central tonight.

[Silver Charm]

>Speaking of Frank Stro, it was nice of him to address the masses during NBC\'s >DEPLORABLE truncated 70 or so minute broadcast of the Sunshine Millions. It was >a display of ego not at all unexpected from this not so smooth talking snake >oil salesman. Hey, Frank, its not about YOU. Its about the animals, who give it >all to entertain, and about US, the horseplayers who are basically paying the >freight.

The three most despised people in Sports right now are:

1.) Frank
2.) Ron Artest
3.) T.O.

And in that order.

[bobphilo]

I agree, the NBC coverage stunk. I\'m as big an admirerer of Jerry Bailey\'s accomplishements as anybody, but to cut the coverage of the actual racing to only his race and the Classic while only showing half the stretch runs of all the other races in order to get in all the \"soft and fuzzy stuff\" and repeated replays of his stretch run and endless comparisons with Gary Steven\'s final race was a disgrace.
To be honest, I suspect the fact that the Million\'s included Bailey\'s final race was the only reason the whole thing was televised. I think the media has come to the conclussion that racing itself is not as important or interesting as all the \"human interest stuff\" they can come up with. Remember the Breeder\'s Cup coverage - it could have been subtitled \"Garet Gomez\'s Return from Drug Addiction\". Yes, there are a lot of human interest stories in the game but the name of the sport is horse racing - emphasis on HORSE and RACING.

Bob