How to fix the problem: a multi-track Pick-8 - Tongue Tie Off

Tongue Tie Off

September 21, 2009

How to fix the problem: a multi-track Pick-8

By Alan Kirschenbaum

So we have identified the problem, then. No one knows we exist. We have fallen off the radar. And now, we either push ourselves back onto the screen, or wait for the inevitable reduction in our handouts. And it is coming, it might even be here. So we need to make one last furious push to get ourselves back onto the screen. Again, not so we can return our sport to its glorious heyday. Not so Muscle Hill will be on the cover of Sports Illustrated, or Brian Sears on the Jay Leno Show. Those days are gone. We just need to inch our way back into the public consciousness, so when civilians hear about “harness racing,” their mind immediately jumps to something positive, something exciting, something. And it’s not going to happen by giving away more t-shirts, or by hosting more concerts. It’s going to happen when people hear someone mention “harness racing,” and they think something like, “Oh, yeah, that’s where you can win a million dollars.”

We are a gambling sport, remember? Many of you do not. There are more than a few days at several of our leading slot tracks, and almost all of the B-tracks, where the purses given away dwarf the actual handle of that day’s races. What I am proposing is this: Eight of the most successful tracks band together and create a North American Pick-8, with a guaranteed pool of $400,000 to start, taking place on Saturdays, with a dedicated Internet/television show broadcasting handicapping info, the eight live races, updates on live tickets as it gets later in the sequence, and, ideally, interviews with the owners of previous and current winning tickets. One race with a full-to-bursting field from Yonkers, from the Meadowlands, from Dover, from Chester, from Pocono Downs, from The Meadows, from WEG, from Indiana, all of whom do not offer any other form of multi-race wager that day.

I remember last season when the Meadowlands Pick-6 carryover got up to somewhere around $500,000, and bettors from around North America chased that jackpot with another $900,000, making the total pot nearly a million-and-a-half dollars. And going into the last leg, three of the 10 starters had no backers, meaning there was still a chance that it was going to carry over for another day. And how much would have been thrown into the pot that next night? And that’s at one, albeit arguably the most popular, racetrack. Now imagine if the marketing efforts of the USTA, Standardbred Canada and each racetrack were behind this, with a few months lead time to make sure every pari-mutuel gambler in the world knew about it?

And here’s the thing: in my opinion, it wouldn’t even cost anything! That $400,000 pool guarantee is just a guarantee: each track guarantees $50,000, in an ideal world, this would be split evenly between each facility’s management and purse pool. But with proper marketing and awareness, the first night’s wager will be higher than the guarantee, and if there are not tickets with eight-out-of-eight, and another week’s lead time to publicize the estimated pool size, by the second Saturday, the pool will be in the millions. And this will get people’s attention.

And if the pool doesn’t exceed the guarantee? And the purse pools and track managements take a little hit every now and then? I personally don’t think it will ever happen, but so what? Does the open trot at Woodbine, or at Yonkers, really need to go for $50,000? Would anyone’s life change drastically if one week it went for $45,000? You’re all involved in a gambling sport, right? So gamble. Because we’re gambling even more if we don’t do anything. We’re gambling that no one’s going to mess with our slot money. And as a gambler, I don’t like those odds.