Harness Pick 4 Program An Early Success

"Northfield Park—which dropped the takeout rate on its Pick 4s from 22.5 percent to 14 percent as of April 1—was first out of the box on Friday (April 1) and saw its Pick-4 pool jump from $4,554 the previous Friday to $14,999, well past the $10,000 guarantee. Saturday’s Pick-4 pool was $12,901 compared to $6,295 the previous Saturday.

Balmoral Park offered a $15,000 guarantee on Saturday night and a $25,000 guarantee on Sunday night (15 percent takeout), and track general manager Jim Hannon told harnessracing.com Monday that he is already considering increasing the guarantees based on the first two nights. On Saturday, Balmoral went from a $15,694 Pick-4 pool on March 26 to $34,072, and then on Sunday the track’s Pick-4 pool was $43,577 compared to $23,070 the previous Sunday."

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Further to this, Illinois based trainer Robin Schadt emailed we at HANA more figures from the weekend at Balmoral.

Balmoral Park also showed an increase in total handle over the weekend. On Saturday, March 26, an 11-race card produced $822,719 in handle, while on Saturday, April 2, a 12-race card produced $1,235,290 in handle. The handle on Sunday, March 27, was $936,781 on a 10-race card while on Sunday, April 3, handle on a 10-race card generated $1,235,293 in handle.

Saturday, March 27 $ 74,792 per race

Saturday, April 3 $ 102,940 per race

Sunday, March 27 $ 93,671 per race

Sunday, April 4 $ 123,529 per race