March, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Between The Hedges: Handicapping Challenges Go Virtual

The following is the third edition of a bi-weekly series entitled Between The Hedges. The series will revolve around the business of betting focusing on trending wagering topics and statistics. Each installment will include a column penned by Joe Longo, NYRA General Manager of Content Services, examining certain areas of interest within the landscape of the thoroughbred racing industry. Send your questions for Between The Hedges to betweenthehedges@nyrainc.com.

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) has worked with our customer base to modernize our handicapping challenge format to feature online play at a variety of price points throughout the year.

In the past, most NYRA handicapping challenges were centered around marquee events like the Wood Memorial or the Belmont Stakes. In most cases, these events were also held on track which made it more of a localized event.

In 2019, NYRA launched its current online challenge format and participation significantly increased. In order to enter and play online, contestants must be registered NYRA Bets account holders. To learn more, visit www.NYRA.com/challenge.

The online challenges were modified based on feedback from our customer base, with requests including a varied price point of entry; more prize money distribution; and many customers expressed interest in seats for the National Handicapping Championship (NHC) or Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC) in lieu of cash or a combination of both.

The NHC seats are highly sought after. Last year, Thomas Goldsmith captured the 21st edition of the NTRA National Horseplayers Championship at Bally's Las Vegas, and took home an $800,000 top prize as well as an Eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year. The most recent NHC offered prize money and awards totaling more than $2.9 million.

The 2020 contest results were encouraging. A total of 25 contests were held with 2,500 players wagering $1.3 million while competing for a prize pool of approximately $700,000. A total of 23 seats were provided to players – 11 for the 2021 NHC; three for the 2021 Belmont Stakes Challenge; two for the 2020 BCBC; and the remaining six seats for other NYRA challenges throughout the year.

While the challenge series format and prize distribution continue to evolve, the live money format remains. The players keep their winnings played through their bank roll plus any prize money.

One thing that needs to be stressed is that 100 percent of the prize pool is returned to the customers. NYRA does not charge entry fees or service fees.

So, If NYRA does not charge fees for the contest, why are we doing them and how is it that we benefit?

Challenge play involves a different type of strategy and with it a different type of player, which adds diversity to our platform and appeals to different customers. The races in the challenge series contests are all from our tracks, so it helps promote our content and NYRA earns revenue from the takeout from the bets placed. The numbers have also shown that when playing in contests the customers are wagering other tracks through NYRA Bets as well.

Handicapping challenges play an important role for NYRA across the larger wagering landscape. In 2020, we started hosting challenges weekly and in 2021 we will be offering contests for about 11 months of the year. Consistency, as with other types of wagering opportunities such as the weekly Cross Country Pick 5, is important. We want our customers to know that for just about every week of the year, we are offering a contest.

In addition, with the increased amount of broadcast hours for live racing on America's Day at the Races, the national telecast produced by NYRA in partnership with FOX Sports, we can further leverage our reach and influence to drive people to our contests and wagering platform. The leaderboard for all of these contests are posted throughout the day on America's Day at the Races.

Send your questions for Between The Hedges to betweenthehedges@nyrainc.com.

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Embattled Trainer Elliott: ‘I Have Let The Whole Racing Industry Down’

Trainer Gordon Elliott spoke to the Racing Post on Tuesday about the fallout from an image that went viral on social media this weekend. The three-time Grand National-winning trainer has been banned from racing in Britain, and is under investigation by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board due to the nature of the photograph, in which Elliott appears astride a stricken horse on the ground while making a peace sign. Some versions of the image have the caption “New work rider.”

The trainer said he deeply regrets the actions depicted in the photograph, which the Paulick Report has elected not to publish.

“It is indefensible,” Elliott told the Racing Post. “Whether alive or dead, the horse was entitled to dignity. A moment of madness that I am going to have to spend the rest of my life paying for and that my staff are suffering for.

“My heart goes out to all my staff. I know how hard they work. I know that I have not only let them down but that I have let the whole racing industry down too. That is down to my stupidity and I am truly, truly sorry.”

Op/Ed: It’s Time to Challenge Monomoy Girl

Don't get me wrong. I respect Monomoy Girl (Tapizar). She's right up there among the best fillies and mares to compete in any of our lifetimes. But there was something routine about her victory in Sunday's GIII Bayakoa S. at Oaklawn Park.

It was the 16th chapter in what has essentially been the same story from the start. In 15 of her 16 races, she has crossed the wire first, always against fillies and mares while winning in a manner better described as professional rather than breathtaking. There were some decent fillies, including Grade II winner Finite (Munnings) in there, but there was never any doubt who would win the Bayakoa. Monomoy Girl is just a lot better than those horses. She's just a lot better than any filly in training.

The Bayakoa was a tuneup for the April 27 Apple Blossom H. Though it's a $1-million, Grade I race, the Apple Blossom will likely be another one-horse race. So far as what will come after that, her new owners haven't said. But where she goes after the Apple Blossom will tell us a lot about their intentions going forward.

Will the kid gloves come off? It's time for that to happen.

Through her 5-year-old year, Monomoy Girl was owned by the partnership of Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, Stuart Grant and Bethlehem Stables, and the group did a masterful job of managing her. They won the two races that matter most for a 3-year-old filly, the GI Kentucky Oaks and the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. Due to a variety of setbacks, she missed her entire 4-year-old year and, then, the owners were understandably cautious when bringing her back last year as a 5-year-old. She didn't return until May, ran just four times and completed her year with another win in the Distaff and another Eclipse Award.

A few days after the Breeders' Cup, she was sold for $9.5 million at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale, and her new owners, Spendthrift Farm, My Racehorse Stable and Madaket Stable, gave the sport a gift when announcing they would run her this year as a 6-year-old. Presumably, she will be retired at the end of this year after the Breeders' Cup and will settle in at Spendthrift, where she will be among the most valuable broodmares on the planet.

That likely means that there are eight months left before she is done and eight months left to define her career.

The safe route would be to stay in her own division and run in races like the Apple Blossom, the GI La Troienne S., the GI Ogden Phipps S., the GI Personal Ensign S. and the GI Spinster S. before attempting to win the Distaff for a third time.

But what would that prove? She would be heavily favored in each race against overmatched rivals and it's unlikely that anyone would beat her.

Even with an unprecedented third win in the Distaff, should Monomoy Girl stick to running against fillies and mares, she will have retired without an all-important race against males. And that would set her apart from the two greatest fillies of her era. Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d'Oro) defeated males in the GI Preakness S., the GI Haskell Invitational and in the GI Woodward S. Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}) won the richest race on the U.S. calendar, beating males in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

Should Monomoy Girl stay in her division and run the table, she'd earn about $2 million on the racetrack. Considering how much they paid for her, how much she is worth as a broodmare and that Spendthrift has very deep pockets, it's doubtful that $2 million really matters to them one way or the other. And if they were in any hurry to retire her, at age six, they had every reason to do so rather than bringing her back to race this year.

The hope is that Spendthrift bought her and brought her back to the races this year, at least in part, so that they could enjoy what could be a terrific ride from an outstanding mare. Winning the La Troienne at 1-5 for the second straight year is not going to accomplish that. Or do anything for her legacy.

It would have been nice to see Monomoy Girl do what her rival Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) did when she took on males last year in the $20-million Saudi Cup. Or they might have pointed her for the G1 Dubai World Cup. It's too late for that, but not too late to schedule a post-Apple Blossom campaign that includes races against the boys. I'd like to see her run in a bunch of them, maybe the GI Whitney S., the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup and then the Classic. But I won't complain if they pick only the Classic. That's the race she belongs in.

Spendthrift owner B. Wayne Hughes is a smart businessman and he has every right to try to make as much money off of Monomoy Girl as possible. But he also comes across as someone who understands the history of the sport and is a sportsman. He gave the other great mare he campaigned, Beholder (Henny Hughes), a chance against males and she came through with a dominant win in the 2015 GI Pacific Classic. Let's hope he does the same with Monomoy Girl. Win or lose, she deserves the chance to show the sport just how great she really is.

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Tuesday Throwback: Watch Cigar Post Thrilling Victory In Inaugural Dubai World Cup

The Dubai World Cup meeting celebrates its' historic 25th anniversary on March 27, 2021, with six Group 1 races and three Group 2s, including one of the world's premier races -its namesake feature-the $12million Dubai World Cup sponsored by Emirates Airline.

Over the next three weeks, the Dubai Racing Club will pay tribute to each of the previous Dubai World Cup winners. We rewind back to 1996, and the very first winner of the Dubai World Cup race – worth $4 million at the time, won in thrilling fashion by America's Cigar.

They say first impressions count for everything, and if that adage rings true then Cigar provided the perfect beginning to the Dubai World Cup. It was essential that the inaugural Dubai World Cup attracted the best from around the world and first and foremost on the list was Cigar, the phenomenon from America who was in the middle of a sequence of races that included a runaway victory in the previous year's Breeders' Cup Classic.

From Europe came that continent's champion Halling and from Oceania came the best from that part of the world in Danewin. However, all of the other continents combined, held no match for the American challenge.

Cigar sat behind the leaders in the early part of the race, stalking L'Carriere and Tamayaz, however from halfway Cigar stepped up the tempo, jockey Jerry Bailey making his move approaching the home turn. As Cigar straightened in front it appeared a repeat of the Breeders' Cup Classic was in store for those at Nad Al Sheba.

However, emerging from the back was Soul Of The Matter who began to cut into Cigar's lead. At the 200m it appeared Cigar was in trouble, but the great champion dug deeper, found extra reserves, and he eventually defied Soul Of The Matter to beat that horse by a half-length.

It was the first of a quartet of Dubai World Cup successes for Cigar's rider Jerry Bailey, who was to later prove successful on Singspiel (1997), Captain Steve (2001) and Godolphin's Street Cry (2002). The Dubai World Cup was the 14th win in Cigar's magnificent sequence stretching from October 1994 through until August 1996 when he was beaten in the Pacific Classic by Dare and Go.

Cigar's presence and his gallant defeat of Soul Of The Matter and a host of international stars provided the ideal launching pad for the latest addition to global racing's calendar. Cigar would retire at the end of the year following his third behind Alphabet Soup in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Woodbine. The racing superstar passed on in 2014 at the age of 24.

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