Equibase | Horse Racing Free Tips

Quality Control Requirements For North American Non-Listed Black-Type Races Will Increase In 2025

Effective Jan. 1, 2025, the North American International Cataloguing Standards Committee (NAICSC) will increase the minimum Race Quality Scores (RQS) for non-Listed black-type races in SITA catalogues due to the gradual growth in the ratio of those races to the total number of races run, the organization said via a release by The Jockey Club News Service.

The RQS is a composite number compiled by using speed figures for the first four finishers in each race over three years. Four speed figures are used to compile the RQS and are provided by Bloodstock Research Information Systems (BRIS), Daily Racing Form (Beyer), Equibase and Thoro-Graph.

The non-Listed black-type races are divided into six age/sex categories for the purpose of determining black type using the RQS. They are 2-year-old males, 2-year-old females, 3-year-old males, 3-year-old females, 3/up males, and 3/up females. Each age/sex category has a minimum RQS that must be achieved for a stakes race to be awarded the black type designation.

The current minimum and revised RQS for each age/sex category is listed below:

Age/Sex                           Min. RQS         Revised RQS (2025)
2-year-old males                 35.0                        36.8
2-year-old females 29.0 30.5
3-year-old males                 54.0                        56.7
3-year-old females 45.3 47.6
3/up males 63.7 66.9
3/up females 55.8 58.6

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Roberts Communications Network Acquires OGN Racing Kiosk Business

Roberts Communications Network, LLC (RCN) has acquired OGN Racing, LLC, and OGN Racing–Canada ULC, which will greatly expand the network's racing information kiosk business and bring innovation to the industry, the distributor said in a Wednesday release.

OGN Racing has more than 100 program printing kiosks deployed across the United States and Canada, which RCN intends to replace with its state-of-the-art newly designed kiosk featuring added functionality and enhancements.

“We see a great opportunity to significantly improve this aspect of the racing industry,” said RCN President & CEO Todd Roberts. “We intend to offer race and sports wagering information, including racing past performance information from Equibase and the Daily Racing Form, supplemented by video replays where requested.”

The flexible kiosk solutions that this acquisition allows RCN to offer will take the risk out of printing programs for the venue and enhance the flow of information to the consumer.

RCN intends to replace all current OGN equipment in the field with its newly designed kiosks as soon as possible. In addition, the network will make the digital display of all information available to those consumers preferring to view it on smartphones, tablets and PCs.

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Handle Drops by 3.7% in 2023 as Purses Also Take a Slight Dip

According to data released Friday by Equibase, handle in 2023 fell by $447,759,362 for a decline of 3.7 percent. Had handle not rebounded in December, which saw a 6.62% increase, the figures would have looked much worse.

Outside of the COVID year of 2020, this was the steepest decline based on percentage of handle since 2011. A total of $11,658,624,859 was wagered in 2023.

“I think we got quite a blip coming out of the pandemic when we were the only game in town,” said Marshall Gramm, an economics professor, horseplayer and the managing partner of Ten Strike Stable. “Now, I think we are feeling the real competition from sports betting. It's proliferated everywhere and at such a cheaper price point. Then we have small field sizes and the quality of the product is deteriorating. A lot of things have come together. The game is getting ever tougher for the real hardcore weekend warriors who would handle a couple hundred thousand to a million a year. They're finding this market to be a lot tougher. It's shark eats shark out there.”

In a surprising development, U.S. purses fell from $1,309,888,791 to $1,305,772,102, for a decline of .31 percent. With so much money being funneled into purses accounts from alternative forms of gambling, purses rose by 35.8% in 2021, the year after COVID. They were up 10.9 percent in 2022. With the casino market pretty saturated in this country, massive year-over-year increases in purses may be a thing of the past.

There was a reduction of 5.48% in the category of U.S. Race Days and a dip of 3.34 percent in U.S. starts.

In a somewhat encouraging development, the average field size actually showed a slight increase from 7.3 to 7.43.

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With Saratoga Slumping, National Handle off 7.3% in August

Betting on U.S. horse racing had its worst month so far this year in August as handle fell by $87,216,418 when compared to August 2022 figures. The decline was 7.3%, the sharpest drop in a month since December 2022.

A total of $1,107,146,014 was bet on the sport during this August, while the 2022 handle figure was $1,194,362,432. In month-over-month figures, it was the sharpest drop since December when handle fell by 7.52%.

While the Saratoga meet spills over in to July and September, the majority of it is run in August. That handle fell so sharply, by 9.0%, during the meet at Saratoga, no doubt impacted the national figures. While national handle was off by $87 million in August, handle for the Saratoga meet alone fell by $78,982,675.

The monthly Thoroughbred Racing Economic Indicators report issued each month by Equibase continues to offer bad news when it comes to the handle front. Through August, handle is off 4.09% for the year. It has also fallen for six straight months after posting a slight increase in March.

As is often the case when the monthly reports come out, there was good news on the purse front. While the total amount of purse money paid out was virtually identical to August, 2022 numbers, the average available purses per race day figure was $324,561, a 12.62% increase from last year. For the year, $819,846,264 in purses have been paid out. In the category of average available purses per race day, that number has risen by 10%.

Average field size has actually shown a slight increase this year, going from 7.18 starters per race to 7.30.

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