FANS TINGLING OVER COMMINGLING.Byline: Kevin Modesti If you follow technological trends - or even if you care only about getting fair odds on a horse - take note of something new at Hollywood Park Hollywood Park may be several places:
For the first time, wagers placed at Hollywood Park and its satellites on out-of-state races are being fed into the distant tracks' parimutuel pools by computer, and payoffs are being calculated based on nationwide betting percentages. Until this year, California fans betting on, say, the Kentucky Derby Kentucky Derby One of the classic U.S. Thoroughbred horse races. It was established in 1875 and run annually on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs track in Louisville, Ky. With the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, it makes up U.S. racing's coveted Triple Crown. , were matching wits only with other California fans. The difference might seem subtle, even incomprehensible, to non-horseplayers. But it can be considerable to anyone who bets on a California horse, jockey or trainer racing at an out-of-state track. For example: After Farma Way Farma Way (foaled 1987 in Kentucky) was an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by Santa Anita Derby winner Marfa out of the Diplomat Way mare, Fine Tribute. Trained by Neil Boyce, initially Farma Way was a late bloomer, losing his first four starts. blossomed into the dominant handicap horse at Santa Anita Santa Anita may refer to:
Another example: When California-based Snow Chief and Ferdinand ran 1-2 in the '86 Preakness, $5 exacta ex·act·a n. A method of betting, as on a horserace, in which the bettor must correctly pick those finishing in the first and second places in precisely that sequence. Also called perfecta. bettors at Pimlico collected $87.50. Fans making the same wager here settled for $50. Soon we'll be rid of such inequities. Hollypark executives see several advantages to ``commingling'' wagers: It allows fans here to bet into parimutuel pools totaling millions of dollars - instead of hundreds of thousands - creating the chance of larger payoffs. Before Hollypark fans' wagers on the daily, full-card simulcasts from Woodbine woodbine, name for several vines, among them honeysuckle and Virginia creeper. woodbine Any of many species of vines belonging to various flowering-plant families, especially the Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia, family Vitaceae) of in Toronto were commingled, there were embarrassing cases in which nobody bet on winning pick-three and trifecta tri·fec·ta n. A system of betting in which the bettor must pick the first three winners in the correct sequence. Also called triple. [tri- + (per)fecta.] combinations. It eliminates confusion over different payoffs at different tracks. It allows fans to back their California favorites at healthy odds. Whether the change has meant increased business for Hollypark is unclear. General manager Eual Wyatt Jr. said it seems to have helped ``a little bit . . . nothing dramatic.'' But every little bit helps - for racetracks as well as horseplayers. ``Certainly people are more likely to want to bet on races that have horses, jockeys and trainers they're familiar with,'' Wyatt says. Bets on the Woodbine races and on the 26 stakes races Hollypark has imported from New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Kentucky, Maryland, Illinois and Arizona so far this season have been mixed into the host tracks' pools. This allowed California chauvinists to collect nearly 40 percent profits if they did nothing but bet on California-based jockeys to win the 10 races simulcast from Churchill Downs on the Friday and Saturday of the Kentucky Derby. Payoffs of $37.40 (on a Chris McCarron-ridden horse) and $21.60 (on Pike Place Dancer and Corey Nakatani in the Kentucky Oaks) probably would have been much smaller if the odds hadn't been determined mostly by bettors in Louisville. So far, only a mid-May race from Delaware Park has been conducted under the old system because, Wyatt says, setting up telephone data lines for one race from that track wasn't worth the trouble and expense. They've got the same explanation for why the betting on Saturday's Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs won't be commingled with the Boston track's pools. This will make the Mass Cap remarkable for two things: the presence of Cigar; and the fact the simulcast, as received by Hollypark, will be among the last of a parimutuel breed. Soon we'll all be playing the races at Global Village Downs. Notes: Tiger Talk, who has a chance to be a top sprinter, and Slews Royal Son, who has a chance to race nine times at the Hollypark meet at this rate, are among seven 3-year-olds entered in the 7-1/2-furlong Harry Henson Stakes on Saturday. . . . No more than six horses are expected to be entered this morning for The Californian on Sunday: Mr Purple, 122 pounds; Helmsman, 122; Del Mar Dennis, 118; Siphon siphon (sī`fən, –fŏn), tube through which a liquid is lifted over an elevation by the pressure of the atmosphere and is then emptied at a lower level. , 118, Tinners Way, 116 and Score Quick, 116. The race is the local prep for the June 30 Hollywood Gold Cup The Hollywood Gold Cup is a Grade I stakes race for thoroughbred horses inaugurated in 1938 at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California. It was run as a handicap race until 1997 when it was switched to weight-for-age conditions. . . . . Hollypark will take two simulcasts - in addition to the Mass Cap - this weekend: Saturday's Sea O' Erin Handicap at Arlington and Sunday's Sheepshead Bay Handicap The Sheepshead Bay Handicap is an American thoroughbred horse race held annually at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. The race is open to fillies and mares, age three and up, who are willing to race the one and three-eighths miles on the turf. at Belmont. Betting here will be commingled, but none of the three races is expected to include California horses or people. MEMO: Staff Writer Kevin Modesti's horse racing column appears on Fridays. |
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