Final Night at Balmoral

Saturday December 26th was the final day of racing at the South Chicago Suburban Harness Racing track (although a rumor was going through the crowd that they might remain open next weekend because of the success Saturday night.) My girlfriend and I took her two nephews there for their first day at the track. I taught them how to read a racing form, how to bet, and the differences between a few of the standard bets. We didn't get into anything too complicated, but delved into how their payouts would change based upon the odds. We stayed through the 6th race of 12 on the ticket and everybody had a small taste of success. My gambling since I was trying to teach the kids about the simple bets I didn't do any trifectas or anything like that. I wound up winning 3 of the six races, making 5 win bets and one across the board bet, hoping a winning horse could return to form off of a long absence but it wasn't meant to be.

I could see why this place was closing. They couldn't handle a crowd that showed up Saturday. Concession lines were an hour, the bar ran out of beer at one point, although the lines in the restroom were not bad at all (probably because it took you 30-45 minutes to buy a drink. It is sad to see this place close, but at the same time, it is time for this place to go

Race tracks without SLOTS have zero chance of making it.

How much does the owner owe the River Boats something like $82 million? No wonder they ran out of beer had to pay cash to get what they wanted....and knowing its closing night wanted nothing leftover



http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2015/05/08/bankrupt-chicago-horse-racing-tracks-look-for-buyers/

I don't like closings, I prefer openings...
But there have been so many of the later, along with a few of the former, harbingers of the future, I have re-arranged my investments, but only slightly. I see both winners and losers in the future, and I'm not talking about the patrons of either.....

2f. Did you go to Harvard -Yale or some other ivy leagues school ?

Quote: Wizardofnothing

2f. Did you go to Harvard -Yale or some other ivy leagues school ?

WoN, you picking on me again?

What's a school? ;-)

Wasn't picking on you just don't follow your posts honestly and though I was missing something.... No insult intended whatsoever

Quote: Wizardofnothing

Wasn't picking on you just don't follow your posts honestly and though I was missing something.... No insult intended whatsoever

None taken. I promise..

Quote: coilman

Race tracks without SLOTS have zero chance of making it.

I disagree, Santa Anita, Del Mar, Keeneland, no casinos, I don't see them in danger of closing.

Casinos have done a world of harm to the horse racing industry. Hell CHDN only cares about the first Saturday of May as for the horses, they are trying to become a casino company. They could care less about the tracks they own at this point, only want to put casinos in them.

What happened to Hollywood and bay meadows?

Both were bought by development companies who had no interest in Horse Racing, only the land.

My point was they were thriving and now gone

Thoroughbred racing is not in danger although the yearly handle has decreased in recent years. Simulcasting and internet betting saved the sport. In 2014 more than 10.5 billion was bet on thoroughbreds. Harness racing is probably less secure but I don't have figures for it. Equibase lists 21 tracks operating right now in the middle of winter. A very few of them are primarily quarter horse tracks and some of them feature a few thoroughbred races on the daily card. The reduction in the no. of thoroughbred tracks should mean that the size of the fields will be greater which means bigger payouts which means happier gamblers.

This week the figures for 2015 are in and this year they show: a small percentage increase in total handle over 2014, with significantly fewer total races being run, at fewer tracks, with larger field sizes. The money moves around more and more easily, with less and less of it being bet locally on 8 year old arthritic geldings that never should have been bred, running for a $1,500 purse at Armpit Meadows or Cesspool Downs. According to the figures reported a few days ago by Equibase ( [EDIT: see note below] and readily available at the website of The Jockey Club distilled into the very well presented format of their annual Fact Book at http://www.jockeyclub.com/Default.asp?section=Resources&area=11 ) for the year just ended total wagering handle was up 1.2% to $10.67 billion, and while the number of races run was down, purse money per race was up 4.3%, and wagering per race was up a healthy 7.3% this past year.

Methinks it is not necessarily a bad thing when the money eventually flows to the higher quality product and lousy poorly run little (or even not so little) leaky-roof dump tracks close, even if it doesn't make the people who've been financially or emotionally tied to those not so prosperous places happy. Solution for those salt of the Earth folks: move already, or move your money elsewhere as others have done, or your stock if you can compete with quality, or if not then get a job in something more suitable to your abilities.

EDIT: Looks like as of today the Jockey Club hasn't yet re-published their statistical Fact Book with the recently released numbers, but I'd expect the new edition should be up on their site within days. In the meantime, articles providing quick summaries of the Equibase figures quoted above can be found in reports published in the past 48 to 72 hours from the major trade publications such as Blood-Horse and Daily Racing Form.

I respectfully disagree completely-
Most of the higher purses come from a cut of gaming- I.e. Parx casino in Philadelphia- there is no way this is a thriving sport at all. Millennials have no interest in this sport any longer and more tracks will inevitably close before 2020/. All you have to do is look at how many new tracks have opened.
There has been an initial -10 year bubble/ but when places that were granted slot licenses slowly fight to lower the cut that the track takes from the handle the purses will diminish

Quote: Wizardofnothing

I respectfully disagree completely-
Most of the higher purses come from a cut of gaming- I.e. Parx casino in Philadelphia- there is no way this is a thriving sport at all. Millennials have no interest in this sport any longer and more tracks will inevitably close before 2020/. All you have to do is look at how many new tracks have opened.
There has been an initial -10 year bubble/ but when places that were granted slot licenses slowly fight to lower the cut that the track takes from the handle the purses will diminish

This past Thursday, in just one race, at Aqueduct, in a $31,000 maiden claiming race, 255K was bet in the Win, Place, Show Pool; another 224K was bet in the exacta pool and 158K was bet in the trifecta pool. 109K was bet in the superfecta pool, 95K in the daily double pool, 82K in the pick 3 pool and 216K in the pick 4 pool. This is in the middle of winter at New York's least exciting track. 3 of those pools were multi-race pools. Race #9.

I understand you are a horse racing lover and want to defend it- but clearly it's a dying sport- race tracks have closed left and right/ handles have been down for years- even Atlantic city race course closed the simulcasting/ handles may be up at certain tracks due to consolidations/ just like numbers are up at some Atlantic city casinos from other casinos closing down/ does anyone say Atlantic city is going strong?????

I don't think it's useful at least for me to continue this discussion beyond this last post. If you analyze the figures from the Jockey Club you will see that the racing handle has had only a marginal decline since 2011. The numbers are way up if you compare them to the 1994 and older pre-simulcasting days. You use the word "dying." Horse racing has been around for at least 6500 years in various forms. The tracks need to do better regarding their management; there's lots of room for improvement. But dying? No. The figures quoted by the Jockey Club do not include the tremendous amount of betting from offshore books which do not send the money into the pools. The tracks benefit from this because they charge the books a fee for the simulcast signal.