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Who says horse racing is in trouble? Coming off a record breaking handle of over $122 million at the Breeders’ Cup this year, bettors put it down with both hands and fists and deposited $5,698,493 to set a Churchill record on the Pick Six last Saturday. The highest total wagered on a single day into the Pick Six is the $5,889,712 fired into a Santa Anita pool in 2004.
Each winning $2 ticket was worth just under $33,000 before taxes and it proves that with big fields and competitive racing, if you build a good program, people will come and they will come to bet.
It took 9 days to reach the pinnacle carryover and one of the reasons was because the races carded at Churchill are fully subscribed and tough to figure out.
In the last 4 days of the carryover, 62,63,64 and 68 horses were entered in the pick six respectively. That’s an average of 10.7 horses a race and that is what makes for value, good racing, and good betting. The other venues around the country should sit up and take note.
Take a look at Hollywood Park this meet. Sure, there are problems there with no turf racing, but from 11/18 until this past Sunday, a total of only 149 were entered in the Pick Six races for the 3 days studied. That an average of 8.2 horses a race. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the more horses, the tougher the wagering, and the better value that can be attained.
How can more horses be attracted to the entry box? This is not an easy question and if it were, there would be full fields up and down the state of California.
One thing that may help in California is to lower the bottom level for claimers. In the second leg of the Pick Six last Thursday at Churchill 11 runners entered a $5,000 dash at the demanding distance of 7 furlongs. Okay, there is no glamour in betting $5K claimers going short but it makes for competitive betting and that is what fans want overall. These runners were racing for a $15,000 purse, not too shabby to run for 3 times what you would cost on the claiming block and in this particular race, the Pick Six was fueled big time as a 41-1 shot went wire to wire beating a 1-2 shot. Nobody wants to consistently look at 5, 6 or 7-horse fields. There is no excitement in that and it forces bettors to seek the exotic and multiple race bets just to try to make a little hit.
This game is called the Sport of Kings but it is the claimers that stir the drink. There are only so many stars to go around, and this is true of all sports. Maybe it’s time for the powers that be in California to reevaluate the races they are writing, and give the little engines in the barns a chance to race in full fields.
THE G SPOT
It must be nice to put together your own golden parachute and Wayne Gertmenian, the former chief executive of the Jockeys’ Guild, might be able to write a book or at least a short story on the subject.
According to general reports, on the day Gertmenian was fired, he wrote checks totaling over $200,000 to himself and other employees of his consulting company including his VP Albert Fiss. This guy will not go quietly and this story could have legs. He reportedly also knocked down the new interim head of the Guild, Darrell Haire, when Haire and other riders burst into his office seeking documentation about some of the things that got Gertmenian in trouble.
Under Gertmenian’s watch, the catastrophic-injury policy was allowed to lapse. The policy formerly had covered the riders up to a million dollars and that is where all the trouble really started.
Gertmenian and Fiss, who reportedly was physically throwing jockeys out of a room when Haire was knocked down, were recently sued for $10 million by Gary Birzer, who was paralyzed in a spill in 2004 just months after the million dollar policy was allowed to lapse. He was not aware that he was not covered and his medical bills are reportedly between half a million and $800,000 at this point in time.
Looking up the biography of Gertmenian revealed some interesting facts. According to a piece culled from a Pepperdine site, Gertmenian served Nixon and Ford administrations as chief détente negotiator in Moscow and is a distinguished professor at 2 universities in China and advises Russian leaders on free market economy. He is also the author of the audiotape ‘Everything’s Negotiable’.
He better believe his own audiotape. Maybe he can negotiate a good deal regarding the $10 million lawsuit. More on this guy later.
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