In the recently concluded HANA survey you told us in huge numbers that you were concerned about late odds drops and the security of the tote. We were not overly surprised. However, when we checked a recent post at the Paulick Report where Ray and Brad counted down their highest traffic stories of 2009 we were surprised what was number one.
And so were they.
1. Hollywood Park Past-Posting Incident Under Investigation
At first blush, we were a little shocked that this story was number one. A past-posting incident, while surely problematic, is not the sexiest of topics. But when you consider it potentially hurt the pocketbooks of thousands of horseplayers across the country and the fact that we were first out of the gate with the story, it makes a whole lot more sense. Wouldn’t it be nice if the propeller heads at the tote companies were able to figure out how to stop betting when a race begins?
As you know from reading the blog, HANA VP Mike Maloney broke the story here in May, and Ray (with lightning speed) took it from there and did a whole bunch of digging.
We have heard a lot about past posting from those inside and outside the industry this past year. The insiders believe it is not much of a problem, despite the odd exception. Horseplayers seem to take it seriously, despite the odd exception. It is a dichotomous issue.
However, seeing it the number one traffic story on Paulick this past year should tell us at least a couple of things: Horseplayers have power (after all, you were energized to read and follow the story from here and elsewhere to Ray's site) and it is an issue that the business can not run away from, or gloss over.
In 2010 horseplayers are asking the industry to put forth a plan to overhaul and modernize the tote system. We hope they are listening.
To read the very interesting list at Paulick please click here.
2 comments:
i am a horse player. i like past posting. if i am last at the window near the start, i want them to take my bet. additionally, if this is what HANA is about, petty and requesting the sport to spend huge amounts of existent cash for a largely non-existent problem, they should disband. please find some constructive issues to deal with, or, just go away.
Horseplayers sure are odd. Paulicks number one story is a past posting incident - of the hundreds if not thousands of stories this past year. Horseplayers polled say that they have no faith in the tote system and/or want it updated for the 21st century, yet we have someone mad at a horseplayer group for making it an issue?
I wonder if people who do not think it should be a big issue would play the stock market if people playing against them could buy a stock by knowing what a company's earnings are before the general public does?
Until horseplayers speak with one voice about something so simple as a secure and rapidly updating tote system, expect nothing to be done for them.
Phil (a horseplayer who actually cares if the tote updates properly, and his money is respected)
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