Wagering | Horse Racing Free Tips

Saturday’s Cigar Mile Card Features Mandatory Payout Of Empire 6 Wager

Cigar Mile Day on Saturday at Aqueduct will feature a mandatory payout of the New York Racing Association's Empire 6 wager, which carried a jackpot of $48,311 heading into Friday's card at the Big A.

The Empire 6 will start with Race 5 [1:30 p.m. Eastern post time] for Saturday's 10-race card, with the sequence encompassing three graded stakes, including the Grade 3, $100,000 Go for Wand in Race 6 and the two concluding races with the Grade 2, $150,000 Demoiselle for juvenile fillies in Race 9 and the Grade 1, $250,000 Cigar Mile for 3-year-olds and up in the finale.

The Empire 6 requires the bettor to select the first-place finisher of the final six races of the day's card. On non-mandatory payout days, if one unique ticket exists, then 100 percent of the net pool, plus the jackpot carryover if applicable, will be paid to the winner. If there is no unique wager selecting the first-place finisher in all six races, then 75 percent of the day's net pool will be distributed to those who selected the first-place finisher in the greatest number of races. The remainder will be added into the jackpot and carried to the next day's Empire 6.

The Big A fall meet will conclude on Sunday, December 6 with a stakes-laden card that offers a pair of rich New York Stallion Stakes Series races, including the Great White Way for 2-year-olds and the Fifth Avenue for juvenile fillies, with purses of $250,000 each. Also featured on Closing Day is the $100,000 Garland of Roses at six furlongs for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up.

Live racing action will then continue with the 56-day Aqueduct winter meet which kicks off Thursday, Dec. 10 and runs through Sunday, March 28, offering 42 stakes races worth $4.57 million in purses.

For more information, please visit NYRABets.com.

The post Saturday’s Cigar Mile Card Features Mandatory Payout Of Empire 6 Wager appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Economic Indicators: Average Daily Handle Continues To Show Increases

Equibase, LLC released its monthly report on Economic Indicators in Thoroughbred Racing this Friday, Dec. 4.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Equibase is currently providing monthly reporting of its Economic Indicators Advisories. The Advisory is typically disseminated on a quarterly basis to provide key metrics used to measure racing's performance throughout the year.

The Breeders' Cup was held during the first weekend of November at Keeneland, but handle was down eight percent from the record set in 2019. The total handle for the month of November was down 6.33 percent in 2020 versus the same month in 2019.

Overall, wagering in 2020 is down 1.48 percent through November, and average daily wagering continues to show a positive trend as well, up 33.78 percent through the first 11 months of 2020 compared to the first 11 months of 2019.

Average field size is up to 7.91 starters per race in 2020, compared to 7.49 in 2019, while the total number of races run is down 24.52 percent through November.

November 2020 vs. November 2019
Indicator	November 2020	November 2019	% Change
Wagering on U.S. Races*	$895,325,220	$955,843,009	-6.33%
U.S. Purses	$92,058,080	$115,756,315	-20.47%
U.S. Race Days	224	324	-30.86%
U.S. Races	1,945	2,730	-28.75%
U.S. Starts	16,236	21,839	-25.66%
Average Field Size	8.35	8.00	+4.35%
Average Wagering Per Race Day	$3,996,988	$2,950,133	+35.49%
Average Purses Per Race Day	$410,974	$357,273	+15.03%

YTD 2020 vs. YTD 2019
Indicator	YTD 2020	YTD 2019	% Change
Wagering on U.S. Races*	$10,173,203,539	$10,326,096,192	-1.48%
U.S. Purses	$812,146,506	$1,101,605,086	-26.28%
U.S. Race Days	3,073	4,173	-26.36%
U.S. Races	25,692	34,038	-24.52%
U.S. Starts	203,122	254,992	-20.34%
Average Field Size	7.91	7.49	+5.54%
Average Wagering Per Race Day	$3,310,512	$2,474,502	+33.78%
Average Purses Per Race Day	$264,285	$263,984	+0.11%

* Includes worldwide commingled wagering on U.S. races.

The post Economic Indicators: Average Daily Handle Continues To Show Increases appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

America’s Day At The Races Wraps Up 2020 Coverage With Cigar Mile Broadcast

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) announced Friday that America's Day at the Races will broadcast its final edition of 2020 with coverage and analysis of Saturday's Grade 1, $250,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Presented by America's Best Racing and Claiborne Farm, America's Day at the Races will air Saturday from 3-4:30 p.m., ET on MSG+ and 3:30-4:30 p.m., ET on FS2. The Cigar Mile is slated as the finale of Saturday's 10-race program, with an approximate post time of 4:13 p.m.

Expanded coverage of America's Day at the Races and Saratoga Live, both of which are produced by NYRA, provided nearly 800 hours of live racing broadcast on FOX Sports in 2020, more than double the 385 hours that aired in 2019. The expansion was most dramatic on FS1, which showed 206 hours of horse racing in 2020, compared to one hour in 2019.

“Despite the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, we regularly presented our viewers with the best racing and analysis in the country,” said Eric Donovan, NYRA Director of Broadcast Operations. “Our sincere thanks go to our viewers, sponsors, the NYRA TV production team, talent, and racing stakeholders for their extraordinary dedication, and to FOX Sports and MSG for their continued partnership and commitment to airing more thoroughbred racing than ever before.”

Following the suspension of live racing in New York on March 19, America's Day at the Races continued to feature racing from tracks around the country and provided horseplayers unable to attend the races with the opportunity to watch and wager from home.

Live racing in New York resumed at Belmont Park on June 3 with Opening Day of the spring/summer meet generating all-sources handle of $10,972,254, breaking the previous Opening Day record of $10.7 million set in 2010 – while marking the welcome return of professional sports in New York.

During a racing season conducted without spectators, fans turned to Saratoga Live, NYRA's highly-acclaimed and award-winning television program, in greater numbers than ever before. Average viewership of Saratoga Live on FS1 totaled approximately 120,000, while just under 1.3 million viewers watched the Runhappy Travers on FOX. Overall time spent viewing Saratoga Live increased by 300 percent, with more than 210 hours of live programming broadcast on FOX Sports throughout the meet.

For the second consecutive year, the Grade 1, $1 million Runhappy Travers was televised live on the FOX broadcast network as part of an expanded Runhappy Travers Day edition of Saratoga Live. For the first time at Saratoga, the broadcast included the introduction of the “WinStar Cam” which provided viewers with in-race aerial coverage throughout the day.

Strong viewership continued through the 27-day Belmont Park fall meet and was instrumental in helping to generate a 33.6-percent increase in average daily handle from last year. As at Saratoga and this fall at Aqueduct, the Belmont fall meet was conducted without spectators and with only a limited number of essential personnel, horsemen and owners on-site due to the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

America's Day at the Races was also broadcast throughout the year on NYRA's YouTube channel, which boasts more than 61,000 subscribers. NYRA's YouTube channel host race replays, special features, America's Day at the Races replays and more.

NYRA Bets is the official online wagering platform of Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course. Available to horseplayers nationwide, NYRA Bets is currently offering a $200 new member bonus in addition to a host of special weekly offers. The NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

The 2020 fall meet at Aqueduct Racetrack continues through Sunday, Dec. 6. The 56-day winter meet kicks off on Thursday, December 10 and will continue through Sunday, March 21.

For additional information, visit NYRA.com.

The post America’s Day At The Races Wraps Up 2020 Coverage With Cigar Mile Broadcast appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

TIF: Federal Bill Funding Cannot Come From Horseplayers

by Thoroughbred Idea Foundation

Editor’s note: The following open letter to the industry was submitted by the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, a think tank and advocacy group which aims to improve the sport of Thoroughbred racing for all stakeholders.

The passage of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) would signal a prominent turning point for Thoroughbred racing in America.

Regardless of where one has stood on the merits of the legislation over the years, its passage will bring to an end a generation of discord between industry participants, enabling our greater industry the opportunity to focus on long-ignored advancements to better secure the sustainability of horse racing.

At its heart, racing exists because of horse owners and breeders investing in Thoroughbreds and horseplayers wagering on them. Policies which hinder participation, of horseplayers or through ownership, stunt industry growth, and are in opposition to the mission of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, which seeks to grow participation through these two key groups. We want racing’s overall “pie” to grow, but without horse owners and horseplayers voluntarily choosing to participate in the sport, racing would be would be a shell of itself.

The HISA will yield a federally recognized organization to facilitate doping control within the sport while bringing more constituencies under the regulatory fold. Upon its passage, substantial planning and execution will still be required, including identifying the funding mechanism for individual states’ participation in HISA-created programs. The path forward to paying for these programs remains unclear.

In some states, wagering is a main source of funding for racing commissions to regulate the sport. Should HISA programs increase costs to states–a reasonable expectation–it is possible they, in concert with other stakeholder groups, could turn to wagering channels to increase revenues.

This would be a gross miscalculation.

While HISA has earned support because of the undoubted need for racing to be proactive in maintaining its social license to operate, the programs associated with the bill should not be built on the backs of horseplayers.

The Thoroughbred Idea Foundation advocates for sound policies which encourage wagering, racing’s most sustainable source of funding. These policies include reducing bet pricing, modernizing wagering technology and integrity measures, increased transparency and reporting standards as well as introducing fixed-odds betting to complement pari-mutuel wagering.

Increasing costs to horseplayers is a counterproductive measure for the industry, and thus, any increases in bet pricing to pay for the programs associated with the HISA should be a non-starter.

The post TIF: Federal Bill Funding Cannot Come From Horseplayers appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post