Monday, February 28, 2005
Dime store wagering
By Bill Finley
Special to ESPN.com
Score one for the innovative minds at Sam Houston Race Park.
Starting Feb. 17, the Texas track became the first thoroughbred operation in the country to offer 10 cent wagers on superfectas. This is the same track that came up with Pick Threes with a takeout of just 12 percent.
Predictably, the 10-cent supers have been a big hit. Fans who once couldn't afford five or six-horses boxes or keying one horse on top of six or seven others can now play around with large boxes, keys or part wheels without investing a boat load of money and can go deep enough on their tickets that they can include some attractive longshots. That gives the small player a reasonable chance of hitting a superfecta, perhaps for a couple of hundred dollars or more.
Using dime wagers, a four-horse box costs just $2.40, a five-horse box $12 and a six-horse box $36. That's the same six-horse box that would cost a better $360 with a $2 base wager. The payoffs, of course, are one-twentieth what they would be had someone hit with a $2 ticket.
"We wanted to offer something to beginners or people who don't known much about the game," said track spokesperson Martha Claussen. "With this, you can put together a ticket with a lot of combination for $5 or less. We didn't think our regulars would like it, but they wound up loving it. We will no doubt continue to run throughout the thoroughbred meet. It has exceeded our expectations."
Claussen said that the handle on superfectas has doubled during the meet, and the handle is not coming from other pools like trifectas or Pick Threes. No other pools have showed declines while the superfecta pools have increased dramatically.
Sam Houston's experiment has been on-going for less than three weeks, but there's no need for further review. This is a good idea and every track in the country should implement 10-cent wagers as soon as possible. And they don't have to be only on superfectas. Tracks should look at having a 10-cent bets available on Pick Nines, or in the case of tracks that card 10 or 11 races, Pick Tens and Pick Elevens. That will be one more way to get the little guy involved in the type of bet where they can actually nail a big payoff without taking out a second mortgage.
The Future of the Future Wager
The future wagers Churchill Downs offers on the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks were another good idea when introduced, but it's time for them to take the next step. In this day and age when computers and the internet have made everything so easy, there's no longer any reason to restrict the wager to 23 horses plus a field. It's not unreasonable to offer a bet that consist of every horse nominated to the Triple Crown. Imagine the possibilities if you are one of the few who, in February, comes up with an unknown who wins the Derby. You might be able to get 2,000-1 on the horse.
And even if the wager remains restricted to 24 betting possibilities, why not offer a future book exacta or even a trifecta? The payoffs could be astronomical if a player could come up with the derby exacta months before the race is run.
Playing with fire
For a guy who got caught cheating, trainer Adam Kitchingman sure is an honest guy. Kitchingman was the latest Southern Californis based trainer to get nabbed for running a horse that had been milkshaked. But in what could actually be a first in racing, he didn't come up with any lame excuses, like virtually every other trainer does when they get caught breaking the rules. He didn't blame it on some poor groom or say they mistakenly gave the stuff to the wrong horse or just say he had no idea how the junk got into one of his charges. Rather, Kitchingman fessed up to the offense and said he was prepared to accept his punishment.
"I got caught playing with fire, and I'll have to reconsider what I was doing," Kitchingman told the Daily Racing Form. "I'm not going to deny it like everybody else who got caught. It's not going to happen again. Unfortunately, because this is a competitive business, you do stuff you've got to try to do to win races."
For a 30-day period, all of Kitchingman's horses must go into a quarantine barn 24 hours before they are scheduled to race. His barn will then be subject to additional surveillance for 15 days following the initial 30-day quarantine period.
