For about the past 25 years I've been a horse player. Not every day mind you, not even every week. I'm what you might call a 'social horse bettor'. I like to bet the Kentucky Derby Prep races, including the 2YO races the year prior, the Triple Crown, the Royal Ascot, Meydan Carnival and the bigger races in the Fall.
It's not much, and I'm not a huge player, but I've enjoyed it and horse racing has always been something that I've been drawn to, despite only riding a horse two times in my life.
I'm not great, but I'm not that bad either. I can handicap slightly above-average and it's a rare card that I don't at least hit something on which allows me to break even, or sometimes better. Are their exceptions? Sure. This year I whiffed on the Kentucky Derby Day card, doing a good job picking two out of the top three horses to finish in every race. This would have been great but I was betting mainly trifectas.
I pulled an O-fer on the Derby, which is not unusual, but with the disqualification this year even my wife missed, which is unusual for her. (She had Maximum Security of course, so she's not happy).
So we go forward to the Preakness, traditionally my 'get back' race, the card where I have historically recouped my losses from Derby Day, and then some.
And I'm not betting it this year.
In fact, I'm not betting any race on a track that's owned and operated by the Stronach Group. This includes anything ran at Gulfstream Park, Gulfstream Park West, Pimlico, Laurel Park, Golden Gate or Santa Anita.
Which means that, this year and for the foreseeable future, I will not be placing a wager on the Preakness. I will be a spectator.
I'm doing this for three reasons:
First: I am unhappy with the way TSG handled the horrific breakdown situation at Santa Anita, how they dithered while the horse racing industry took a black eye, and how they tried to appease PeTA before realizing that that group of crazies don't want safe horse racing, they want no horse racing at all. They also want all horses to be relegated to sanctuaries, thinking that "horse deaths will stop happening" if they are. That alone shows you how silly these groups are and that they should never be engaged in matters such as this.
But TSG CEO Belinda Stronach reached out, provided them credibility, and now we're looking at the very real possibility of horse racing being eventually banned in California.
Second: The betting structure at TSG tracks is among the worst in the Nation. Take-out, the portion of the betting pools that tracks keep, is incredibly high at most of their tracks. Quite often at the maximum rates that States will allow.
But it goes further than that. TSG has introduced the scourge of betting that are so-called "jackpot" vertical wagers, where a pick six pays only a tiny portion of the pool if their are multiple winners, and only pays out the entire pool (less the high takeout) if there is one single winning ticket.
Except on mandatory payout days, these wagering structures are punitive toward players, as they lower the expected return and allow the tracks to earn interest on money instead of returning it to horse players. Most jurisdictions have regulations that aren't current enough to contemplate wagering of this type, so the tracks are given carte blanche to payout whenever they want. In some cases they might carry a pool past the end of the meet, waiting until the next meet to hold a mandatory payout day.
Third: TSG is becoming more and more aggressive toward Off-Track-Betting pari-mutual sites such as BetAmerica that they do not control. If you're not familiar with this situation, TSG went to BetAmerica at the 11th hour and proposed onerous financial terms for BA to continue offering wagering at their track. The result of this is that anyone with a BetAmerica account, will not be able to use it to bet the Preakness card.
That's short-sighted, dumb, and ultimately will benefit TSG, but will further damage horse racing as a whole. It's as dumb as Twin Spires and their argument with TVG, fortunately cooler heads prevailed on the latter issue.
So, while I've analyzed the field and I've provided a sure-to-not-win Superfecta for the Preakness I will not be putting any of my hard-earned money into a Stronach ran pool.
That feels wrong, but I know it is the right thing to do.
Enjoy the races, good luck to your if you're betting.
