Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So how'd we do? I bet $60 total, $20 to win on Normandy Invasion, 20 to win on Revolutionary, and my favorite long shot and what proved to be the best long shot in the field, Battle Lines at 32-1 I placed 20 to win. Yeah I lost all 3 bets but it was nice to see my homework paying off.
I can appreciate why you spread your bets around. This was a very difficult race to cap (unless you accepted the fact that ORB was the best horse going in) and the track condition made it even more challenging. I expected Lines of Battle to be stalking the pace, and was not thrilled when I saw what his early position was. I am a little too stubborn when it comes to the horses that I like, as LoB's terrible gallop on Friday should have put me off of him. However, I had faith in O'brien, plus there was off-track breeding on the top (grandsire) and bottom (2nd dam) which was enough to keep me from jumping ship. Win or lose, it's a great time of year, wading through the preps and searching for "the one."
Last edited by JustPassinThru; 05-05-2013 at 12:04 AM..
Racing is a challenging sport to follow. For many it becomes a vice. To successfully follow racing you need to have stout self control and discipline. in addition to discipline you have to be sharp; this game is very complex multi-dimensional sport. A hundred people can see a race 100 different ways. Many feel it is a number game but others it is a form game, for others it is like pin the tail on the donkey.
Seems like the masses don't have the attention span to appreciate the complexity and prefer to be mentally masturbated by easy to follow ballgames. Racing is another animal from another era. There is something about going to the track and smelling that horse smell and scouring the form and the horses. All to try and beat the crowd and taking an interest in the race. It is so much more engaging that just watching two teams of mercenary millionaires play against each other.
Racing's main problem is that it is an awful TV sport. Two minute of action then 30 minutes of dead time leading up to the next race. For a sport to be successful today it first and foremost has to be good TV fare. Two minutes of action is not going to keep to the masses amused and watching commercials.
I'm from Australia and racing/gambling is very popular out here. I am interested in knowing what similarities and differences the US has to Australia.
So here goes about my experiences in Australia:
I like having a go on Saturdays (I put a set amount in my account and use only that). I follow the form though keep an eye out for the odds. I like exotic betting (trifectas/first 4s) rather than win or each way. I read somewhere that men often prefer the straight out betting (eg win/place) and women the exotics. We have quite a range of exotics and we also have what is called flexi betting on many exotic type of betting (you chose the amount you want to bet and it works out the percentage, which is quite handy with trifectas/first 4s).
Quote:
Racing's main problem is that it is an awful TV sport. Two minute of action then 30 minutes of dead time leading up to the next race. For a sport to be successful today it first and foremost has to be good TV fare. Two minutes of action is not going to keep to the masses amused and watching commercials.
Here in Australia, there is a glut of racing of all kinds. However, on a Saturday, there is usually a metropolitan meeting every 10 minutes (with secondary meetings in the 5 minutes in between). So an example of timing on Saturday might be Melbourne 2pm, Adelaide 2.10pm, Sydney 2.20pm, Brisbane 2.30pm, Melbourne 2.40pm etc (Melbourne and Sydney are always 20 or so minutes apart). Many people just stick to their own state or Sydney/Melbourne. Do you not have staggered racing?
Our best known race is the Melbourne Cup, a 3200m race on the first Tuesday in November (yes same day as your elections). It is called the race that stops the nation and it literally does. Melbournites get the day off but for the rest of the nation, it is on a working day and most people will at least go in a sweep with many others having their only bets of the year (of course, they are the ones who often win a fortune lol). Because there are 24 horses running over a not very common distance, that does mean that it isn't always to pick a winner and if one has an exotic, it can often pay a fortune for $1 (although with our flexibets, the actual dividend paid out might be smaller).
The following site gives an insight into racing in Australia:
Note that we are very closely tied to NZ as well (many stayers are from NZ bloodstock, the sprinters from Australian bloodstock).
Btw I do like being at the track and wandering around looking at the horses but it has been a long time since I went. I must admit that what I've seen of your race tracks, I would love to visit them someday, especially Churchill Downs, Santa Anita, Saratoga Springs etc.
when you bet 3 horses to win you have lost 2 bets before the race is run.
That's why I like the exotics. I particularly like trifectas and first 4 and do pretty OK out of them - however, out here we have what is called flexibet which enables me to spend less money for a smaller percentage.
However, I don't just box them, I have a particular way of doing trifectas/first 4s that means I get them reasonably regularly. In fact, I have noticed that if there are only three horses under 10 dollars in the market, one can get a trifecta about 80% of the time, a first 4 about 50% using my particular method (which involves having the 3 favourites all to come either first and second and the field for third in a trifecta, with the first first having all 3 favourites to either come first, second and third and the field for fourth in a first 4 - it is made easier out here because one can spend a lot less on each race but with a smaller percentage - one can still win quite good money.
In very large races like the Melbourne cup (24 horses), quinellas are the way to go as one can box a large number of horses for a small outlay - I've got the Melbourne Cup quinella about 80% of the time.
So, even though I follow the forum, it is also about the numbers and knowing how to structure one's bets. I was always pretty good at maths at school, so that helped.
I'm a novice race fan, only betting on the Triple Crown Races when there was a chance for a winner since 2004. But I do love to watch them. We now live very close to Penn National and went there for the Preakness (and I lost). Yesterday we went for the Penn Mile and this was my experience:
Off to the races with $67
Cost of reserved box: $20
Bar tab for drinks/: $20
Drive thru snack on the way home: $15
Coming home with more cash than we left with: PRICELESS!
For the first time, I made bets in multiple races and won more often than I lost. It was a GREAT night!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
