HANA Track Advisory Warnings

July is the time of year for great summer racing. Both Del Mar and Saratoga open this month, and meets at Arlington Park, Calder, and Woodbine are all currently underway.

However, we at HANA have a duty to our horseplayer members and are issuing advisory warnings about the following thoroughbred race tracks: Arlington Park, Del Mar, and the California Fair Circuit.

Pay attention. The information below has the ability to impact your bankroll.

Arlington Park

Players are hereby advised that published times for (far too many) races run at Arlington Park during the 2012 meet are missing, incomplete, or just completely inaccurate. This includes times for fractional (internal) points of call as well as final times for races run on both the turf course and Arlington’s Polytrack surface. Arlington Park management is aware of the problem, has been working on it (since opening day) – but as of this writing, the problem continues and has not been corrected. This (potentially) impacts any and all running lines in the past performance records of horses that have raced at Arlington Park to date during the 2012 meet.

In turn, this potentially (and negatively) impacts various proprietary ratings such as Beyers as well as the speed and pace figs published by all of the licensed horse racing data vendors. Also potentially (and negatively) impacted are custom numbers generated by handicapping software. It needs to be emphasized here that if you spot an errant speed or pace fig for a 2012 Arlington running line, both your data vendor and Equibase are probably not to blame. The truth is they are doing the best they can with the inaccurate published times disseminated to them.

Figure makers are at the mercy of the track where the races are run. Each track is responsible for accurately timing their own races and disseminating that information to Equibase who in turn disseminates it to licensed data resellers such as Brisnet, Daily Racing Form, Equibase, Handicappers Data Warehouse, and Track Master.

Until such time as the problem is corrected, we suggest taking the published internal fractions, final times, and speed and pace figs for Arlington Park 2012 running lines with a grain of salt.

Del Mar

Players are hereby advised that takeout at Del Mar for two horse bets (exacta and double) is out of line compared to the takeout for the same two horse bets at Saratoga. (See the chart below.)

Exacta

Takeout Track

18.50%....SAR (Saratoga)

22.68%....DMR (Del Mar)

California Fair Circuit

Players are hereby advised that takeout for two horse bets (exacta and double) at the California Racing Fairs circuit is out of line compared to takeout for the same two horse bets at other North American Tracks running this time of year. (See the chart below.)

Exacta

Takeout Track

19.00%....CTX (Charles Town)

19.00%....DEL (Delaware Park)

19.00%....ELP (Ellis Park)

19.00%....MNR (Mountaineer)

19.00%....MTH (Monmouth)

20.00%....FLX (Finger Lakes)

20.00%....PEN (Penn National)

20.00%....PID (Presque Isle)

20.00%....PRX (Parx Racing)

20.50%....LAD (Louisiana Downs)

20.50%....WOX (Woodbine)

21.00%....CRC (Calder)

24.02%....CARF (California Racing Fairs: Pleasanton, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Ferndale, Stockton, and Fresno)

Caveat Emptor.

TVG Late Double Promotion at Hollywood Park

This past Friday night, July 6, 2012, TVG ran a zero percent takeout promotion for wagers made through their ADW on the late double at Hollywood Park. According to TVG, total handle for the late double that night came in at more than $230,000 – whereas the late double on Friday nights over the previous five weeks at Hollywood Park had been averaging under $100,000.

TVG will offer the zero percent takeout late double at Hollywood Park again this coming Friday night (July 13, 2012.) Contact TVG for further information.

Jeff Platt

President, HANA