Given the size of Saturday’s mutuel pools at Laurel, it’s safe to assume most of, well, everyone in racing wasn’t paying it much attention. I mean — less than $30,000 in the WPS pool for the fourth? On a Saturday? Yeesh.
Still, racing, as it always does, took place. Here’s whatcha missed:
- Peen on the green, and also the brown – Old local saying: Peen on the green. Meaning, bet on Mario Pino when he rides turf races. Also, lesser-known corollary: bet on Pino when he rides in dirt races. Pino rode the talented stakes-winning filly Red’s Round Table to victory in a stakes-caliber (despite the short field) money allowance in Saturday’s eighth. The win gave Pino, now 50, 6,389 triumphs for his career and sole possession of 12th place all-time for wins by a jockey. He needs 82 more to move into the top 10. Pino, best known for piloting Hard Spun during that horse’s stellar three year-old campaign, is a good rider and an astute handicapper, skills which have served him well during his career — including his one win for That’s Amore Stable, aboard Twisted Mister back in 2006.
- Oh, brother! At one level, racing is nothing more than a vast experiment in eugenics. (At another level, it’s the world’s largest insane asylum, but that’s a story for a different day). Breeders employ an array of tools and theories and, yes, superstitions all in pursuit of the big horse. When it all comes together nicely on, say, the first Saturday in May, you end up with a wisely crafted breeding that catches the world by surprise; you end up with Mine That Bird. When it works less well, you might end up with a modest but still useful horse toiling at the bottom of Maryland’s racing hierarchy; you might, for example, end up with Mine That Bird’s half-brother, aptly named Brother Bird. In Saturday’s second, Brother Bird, in for the tag of $4,500, zoomed to the early lead and never looked back, posting a two-length win. He was claimed out of the race.
- Your point is? What drives handle? Outside of a few big races and days, here’s what doesn’t drive handle: the quality of the horses in a race. Here’s what does: large fields of competitive horses. Saturday’s eighth, previously noted, was a stakes-caliber money allowance that, after a scratch, had just four starters; it generated a little over $48,000 in the WPS pool, which was only a bit more than the $41,000 for which the horses were racing. The ninth, on the other hand, drew 11 horses, with a lukewarm favorite going off at 2.2-1. The top four finishers were separated by just a head, a neck, and a nose; and the race generated more than $77,000 in the WPS pool — nearly eight times the purse of $10,000! Might be time to think about connecting purses to field size, eh?
- And finally… The head separating first from second in the ninth also –sigh — separated me from hitting the pick-four. It’d have been pretty chalky, but since I’d only invested nine bucks, that wouldn’t have bugged me much at all. But as the second and third-place finishers — both of which I had — hooked up in the final sixteenth and leaned on each other, 51-1 Ted’s Vision found a gap at the fence and shot past both of them to put his head in front. The chalky P4 I looked to have in the last jumps ended up being somebody else’s $3700 payday. As a friend said the other day after a tough beat, what you love about this game is the character-building aspect. Or something like that.
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3 comments
John S.
January 26, 2012 at 12:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What really drives handle is large fields of talented horses, otherwise Turfway would get better action because a lot of their races fill. The dynamic needs balance. The racing program must have an identity. Example: The quality of racing at PRX has improved dramatically in the past couple years, yet the program is not distinguished. It is a steady diet of races without form or function. There is no story to the meet; it just goes on and on. A good race book tells a story — most recognizable with 3-year-olds — as the horses progress through a series of races to reach a climax of some sort. The Saratoga meet is the one with the best story on the East Coast, but there are others. Pimlico is one, of course. The GP meet used to have a great story until it was extended beyond the Florida Derby and into a strange Calder-like diet. Tracks need to understand this. Stakes mean something and are calling cards to fans. Tampa understands this because they have great progressions through their sprint stakes and after awhile, fans can get their minds around the Pelican and the Pasco and all the rest. Laurel is reeling, but I think the MJC understands the issue and with slots money coming in will work toward restoring identity, and, if the field sizes meet the challenge, handle might – might go back up.
Bill Daly
January 26, 2012 at 3:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Speaking of progression, Aqueduct used to have a good sequence beginning with the Swift and culminating with the Wood. Dropping the Swift was no big deal since it was only a 6F sprint, but the Bay Shore and Gotham no longer serve as a progression to the Wood. There doesn’t seem to be much purpose for the Bay Shore in particular. Gulfstream also had a logical progression of 3 yr old stakes, but I’m not sure that’s still true either. A sequence of races at increasingly long distances draw interest among racing fans. That concept needs to be revisited.
admin
January 26, 2012 at 6:38 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thanks for checking in, John and Bill.
Obviously, there’s a much, much bigger story than simple field size that drives handle — I get that. There’s takeout, f’rinstance. But it is a crucial variable; take a look at Tampa’s Saturday card: it’s large fields of mostly bad horses running in eminently forgettable races for shockingly low purses — and they handled over $5 million, and the one stake (the Manatee, which doesn’t make many hearts go pitter-patter) had the lowest handle on the card. Of course, balance is important, and it would be nice if most race meets made more sense, and most stakes books made more sense.
And while tracks need to think about the progression of their races, they also need to think about how to make the 99 percent of races that have nothing to do with their biggest events, and the 99 percent of race days that aren’t connected, meaningful.
Thanks again.