Recent trends continued in the month of June, as wagering on U.S. Thoroughbred racing decreased slightly year over year while purses continued to rise, according to the Thoroughbred Racing Economic Indicators released Tuesday by Equibase. Q2 of 2022 also reflected the same trends compared to last year's second quarter.
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Numerous horseplayers received an email Thursday from a touting service promising pari-mutuel riches that purported to be authored by trainer Wayne Potts. But Potts told the TDN that he was in no way affiliated with the service, which includes the website wayne-potts.com.
“It's not me,” he said. “It's not my phone number. I have already reached out to somebody. I don't want to get into it anymore. I have already made phone calls.”
The email includes a number in the 410 area code and the website lists a number in the 323 area code. The call to the 410 area code goes to voice mail and says that the customer's mail box is full. The call to the 323 number also went to voice mail with the person on the other end saying the caller has reached “RVN.” A message was left at that number but no one returned the call. The same 323 number is listed on the website eastcoastcappers.club, which sells sports picks from “professional handicappers” Bobby “The Bank” Thomas and Joey “Line Master” Cash and on another website for a touting service, officialpicks.com. The 410 number shows up on a tweet from a Mark Hoffman which includes a video in which he is peddling picks on the NCAA tournament.
The TDN also sent an email to the address listed on the website but, as of the deadline for this story, had no received a reply.
Whoever is behind the email and the website went to a lot of trouble in an attempt to use Potts's name to sell picks. The website is professionally designed and includes accurate biographical information about Potts, including the fact that he had previously worked for trainer David Rose.
“I want to say this again….I am a real trainer with real horses and an edge,” the email reads. “You can look me up anytime on Google. March alone I've had two winners, Honey Money, Baby I'm Perfect, and 2nd Supreme Aura. No one has a edge more than me in this business. I combine knowledge and years of contacts to give my clients the best position.”
Trained by Potts, Honey Money (Central Banker) won a March 26 starter stakes at Aqueduct and paid $7.90. Baby I'm Perfect (Flower Alley) won another starter stakes that same day at Aqueduct, paying $14.60.
“After 20 years in the business and behind doors picking I decided to open my mind and experience and all the winners to the public,” it reads.
It continues: “I've been ranked and documented in top 100 for 6 years straight, it's now time to open up my knowledge and business to the public.
The mail touts an undisclosed pick on the Friday card at Gulfstream that is a “stunner” and can be purchased for $21. Packages are also available for prices ranging from $79 to $749. The $749 packages promises “1 quality play a day” for a month. There is also a link to a section selling picks on sporting events.
Potts's name has been in the news frequently of late, including an announcement from NYRA last week that he was among six trainers being denied stalls. He also received a 30-day suspension last year at Monmouth after being charged that he failed to follow orders from a state veterinarian to have a horse vanned off the track. Potts was the leading trainer last year at Monmouth with 38 wins.
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A four-month investigation into the dysfunction at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club that led to the winner of last year's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf having to race for purse money only will not result in any complaints being filed against anyone in the chain of command now that “inconsistent radio communication” has been identified as a key contributing factor.
“Various witnesses indicated that they made calls over the radio that were not heard or received by the intended recipients,” stated a California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) summary report issued Thursday that cited findings from supervising investigator Michael Barker. “At some points witnesses resorted to cell phone communication to ensure their messages were relayed.”
The stylish win by Modern Games (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the Juvenile Turf was overshadowed by the 12-minute fiasco at the starting gate that preceded the running of the race. Modern Games had to compete for purse money only because of a series of miscommunications that involved the Del Mar stewards, the veterinary team at the gate, and the track's mutuels and tote departments.
It was a disconcerting optic to witness on-track patrons letting loose a chorus of boos as Modern Games crossed the finish wire first. But it was apparent that no one at Del Mar that day was deriding the horse, but rather the bewildering series of blunders that led to the colt being removed from the wagering pools, reinstated in the betting, and then finally being deemed good to start while running as a non-betting entity.
The error was costly in terms of lost betting handle, customer ill will, needless confusion, and the erosion of confidence in the officials responsible for overseeing and regulating the Breeders' Cup races at Del Mar.
Yet the CHRB report did not directly address any of those broader issues in its three-page summary of the report.
Here's how the CHRB described what transpired in the Mar. 3 report summary (the timeline does not differ substantially from how the CHRB explained it back on Nov. 6, 2021):
“Albahr (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) was in the number two stall. Albahr reared up over the starting gate, then fell back on to his side, with his legs caught under the number three stall. During this time, the horse in the number one stall, Modern Games, went through the front gate after the gate was opened by starting gate personnel and was uninjured. The veterinarians on scene initially believed that Modern Games had forced his way through the starting gate, and they made the decision to scratch him.
“When informed by gate personnel that Modern Games did not force the gate doors open, the veterinarians inspected him and advised the stewards that Modern Games was fit to run.
“Concurrently, the stewards were advised of the scratch of both Albahr and Modern Games by the veterinarians. The stewards called the scratch into the tote room and both Modern Games and Albahr were removed from wagering. The stewards were then informed that Modern Games was not injured and was fit to race. The stewards called the tote room to inform them what was occurring and requested that the tote room hold off on the scratch of Modern Games, who has already been removed from the wagering pools.
“Modern Games was then placed back into the pari-mutuel pool. Subsequently, the stewards determined that pursuant to CHRB Rule 1974, Modern Games would be required to run for purse money only. The tote room was then informed of the decision and Modern Games was again removed from the pari-mutuel pool.”
The investigation noted that “the regulatory veterinarians' hurried recommendation to scratch Modern Games could potentially have been avoided if a protocol requiring one person on the veterinary staff and one person in the pari-mutuel department be in charge of scratches had been in place.”
The CHRB report stated that the board “considered the merit of applying CHRB Rule 1697 to the recommended scratch by the regulatory veterinarians.”
That rule reads in its entirety, “After entering the racecourse track for the post, a horse shall only be declared by the stewards when they consider such horse unfit to run in the race. No horse determined to be a starter shall be excused or declared from the race. Any horse which breaks through the gate or runs off without effective control shall be examined by the racing veterinarian and determined to befit to compete before being permitted to start.
But, the report noted, the CHRB didn't apply that rule because: “1) The difficulty of proving a violation given that a condition precedent to a violation of this rule is that a horse actually broke through the gate; and (2) more importantly, animal welfare is of paramount importance in the CHRB's application of rules and creation of protocols.”
So instead of penalties or sanctions, the CHRB report came up with the following recommendations:
1) There is one designated Racing Veterinarian and he or she is the only person who can recommend a scratch to the Stewards and the only person who can communicate a scratch to the Stewards.
2) The tote company and the pari-mutuel department must each designate one person who can effectuate a scratch or purse money only designation by the Stewards. Both must agree before either action can take place.
3) A horse cannot be placed back into the mutuel pools after it has been scratched without approval of all three Stewards.
4) A Pari-mutuel Committee meeting should be held to consider changes to pari-mutuel regulations. Issues that may be considered include but are not limited to: (a) advisability of a purse-money-only designation and (b) requiring ADW companies to follow the example of brick-and-mortar wagering facilities in California by providing bettors with the opportunity to name alternate selections for scratched horses in Pick “n” wagers involving four or more races.
5) Associations, particularly on days when there are large crowds and competing bandwidth, must provide an adequate communication system for racing officials.”
The report stated that, “While the CHRB does not typically release an investigation report, especially when it does not result in a complaint, given the widespread public interest, a summary of the investigation is provided.”
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Despite COVID shutdowns, a total of $21.52 billion was wagered legally on sports in the U.S. in 2020, about twice what was bet on horse racing, and the gap will be even greater this year and for years to come. Sports betting is growing exponentially and an argument can be made that some of its success is coming at horse racing's expense. It's surely siphoning off dollars that otherwise might be available to racing's pari-mutuel pools and it has to be drawing existing and potential customers away from racing.
Yet, at last week's Racing & Gaming Conference in Saratoga, NYRA CEO and President David O'Rourke made the surprising statement that sports betting represented a “once-in-a-generational opportunity for our sport.”
He may just have a point.
The primary difference between betting on sports and racing is that sports bets are based on fixed odds and racing uses a pari-mutuel system. That's not a problem when it comes to on-track bets or bets made through an ADW. But the pari-mutuel system doesn't work for the bookmakers now taking sports bets legally, most of them online. That's why popular gambling websites such as bet365.com offer bets on every sport imaginable, that is, other than horse racing. There's the four major sports, soccer, golf, tennis, even darts and handball.
If these same online websites were to begin taking bets on racing, O'Rourke said racing would have an unprecedented opportunity to grow its customer base.
“With sports betting you have, literally, every other sport on these platforms,” he said. “To put racing side by side with those sports, we think that is a winning combination. It just opens up our customer base, 10 times, 20 times. It's an incredible opportunity and we look forward to that.”
The first step toward solving the problem is for horse racing to adopt the fixed odds system. That doesn't mean the end of pari-mutuels, which will always be necessary for exotic bets. It does mean creating an alternative pool where the odds are set and they do not change after a gambler has placed their bets. Without fixed odds, racing will never benefit from the growth of sports wagering.
Were there fixed odds bets available for Saturday's GI Alabama S. at Saratoga, a player may have been able to bet on Malathaat (Curlin) to win at odds of, say, minus 180. That means someone would have to wager $180 on her to win $100. Maracuja (Honor Code) would have been something like plus 650.
Fixed odds are what the sports bettor knows. They'll never understand or embrace a system where they might bet on a horse at 8-1 only to see it go down to 6-1 at post time and then plummet to 7-2 in the middle of a race. But the players, looking for action, may very well be happy to make a fixed odds bet on a Belmont or Santa Anita race during halftime of an NFL game or throw a bet on the GI Runhappy Travers S. into a parlay that includes a bet on the Yankees to win and the over-under on a Dodgers-Giants game.
This is why the legalization for fixed odds betting in New Jersey is an important first step. There are a lot of details that remain unclear, particularly when it comes to who will be allowed to offer the bets. We do know that there will be on-track fixed odds betting and it may also be available through TVG's 4njbets.com, the only ADW allowed to take wagers in the state. But bets through those two platforms don't figure to do anything more than shift existing pari-mutuel bets from one pool to another.
It will likely take some time and there are plenty of hurdles to clear, but look for BetMakers, the company hired by Monmouth to operate its fixed odds system, to cut deals with large bookmaking firms like bet365.com, FanDuel and DraftKings.
Dennis Drazin, who heads the management team that runs Monmouth Park and who has been instrumental in pushing through fixed odds bets in New Jersey, sees a future where every conceivable website and betting app will include the option to bet on racing. But he also fears that the sport may shoot itself in the foot. New Jersey has already had an experiment with a form of fixed odds wagering with the Betfair betting exchange. It never caught on and the plug was pulled in September of 2020. One of Betfair's problems was its inability to secure agreements with the top-tier tracks to add their races to its betting menu.
“If not everybody gets on board, that would be bad for racing,” Drazin said. “It will be like exchange wagering, where we were able to get some B signals or C signals but not the A tracks, like NYRA, the Stronach tracks, the Kentucky signals. We need to have those signals. If we are not able to offer the top tracks, I'm not sure how successful this will be. We can't have everybody scared to do this because they think fixed odds wagering will cannibalize the other pools. That's going to be a problem.”
One can only hope that the industry will give fixed odds wagering a chance to make it. This is a sport where betting has been stagnant for years and, when factoring in inflation, has dropped significantly since handle hit its peak in 2003 at $15.1 billion. That's a huge problem. Whether they work or not, it's time to try new things to improve handle on the sport. Can we get the sport bettor to start placing bets on Monmouth, Saratoga, Del Mar? If done right, if embraced by the entire industry and marketed, sports betting could well be the way out of our sport's wagering malaise.
Honoring Secretariat
There is no more GI Secretariat S. at Arlington Park. The name of this year's running was changed to the Bruce D. S., a race that is unlikely to be run again because of the inevitable closing of the Chicago track. That means that the sport no longer has a major race named in honor of the GOAT. That can't be.
My idea is to rename the GI Belmont S. the Secretariat and to do so for the 2023 running, the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's historic 31-length romp in the Belmont. Ok, that's never going to happen, but NYRA should still fill the void and name a race in honor of Secretariat. He was a New York horse and there should be a New York race named for him.
Limiting the list to races he won in New York, the best candidate is the GI Hopeful S. Secretariat won that in 1972, so next year's running is the 50th anniversary of that win. Naming the race after the greatest horse ever to step foot on a New York track would be a fitting honor.
The post The Week in Review: Sports Betting May Not Be the Enemy After All appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
