Horses Betting

With impressive business numbers, the Hong Kong Jockey Club kicked off its 2011-racing season, an indication horse racing and betting remains a major attraction.

At Sha Tin Racecourse, the largest Chinese New Year meet crowd in nine years, the HKJC reported more than 96,000 people attended the first meet. From 2010, Pari-mutuel handle increased 8.6%, with HK$1,261 million ($154 million in U.S. dollars) wagered on an 11-race card. On the most popular day on the Hong Kong racing calendar, betting turnover for the 11 races soared to the equivalent of £98.7 million, which was the healthiest handle since 2001.

The $557,800 Chairman’s Sprint Prize, in which Dim Sum edged reigning Horse of the Year and heavy favorite Sacred Kingdom by a nose. More than 96,000 people gathered at Sha Tin Race course for Chinese New Year card and they were treated to a thrilling finish in the day’s feature.

Dim Sum, a seven-year-old Kyllachy gelding won the 1,200-meter (5.97-furlong) race two years ago at 50-to-1 odds while Sacred Kingdom finished third. In the Kent & Curwen Centenary Sprint Cup on January 16 in his previous start, he finished a promising second, three-quarters of a length behind Sacred Kingdom, although his only other win since then was the Sha Tin Vase last May at Sha Tin.

In this year’s Chairman’s Sprint Prize, Trainer John Moore said he was not entirely caught off guard by Dim Sum’s win. In the race, Sacred Kingdom was seeking to equal the Hong Kong record of 18 wins by Silent Witness and 1970s runner Super Win. At odds of 50-1 in what seemed a one-off success, two years ago Dim Sum (formerly Algol when trained by Howard Johnson) won this race.

As Sacred Kingdom was reserved at the back of the field early, Dim Sum raced in second behind a swift pace set by Ultra Fantasy. After turning into the straight, Dim Sum seized command soon and had enough energy in reserve; hold back Sacred Kingdom for the victory. In 1:08.74 on firm turf, Dim Sum covered 1,200 meters under Olivier Doleuze. In Hong Kong, the Chairman’s Sprint Prize is considered a Group 1 race.

On Monday night, the most anticipated Horse of the Year announcement in 26 years highlights the 40th annual Eclipse Awards dinner, which is to be held at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel in Florida.

Will it be the wildly popular mare who had won all five of her starts in 2010, Zenyatta or will it be the nation’s leading older horse, who won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Blame?

The President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Alex Waldrop will make the announcement and it is expected to come between 9:30 and 10 p.m. Eastern Time at the end of what promises to be a marathon evening. To the black-tie dinner, more than 500 people are expected to attend.

For that Eclipse Award, the colt Blame and the filly Zenyatta are finalists. At Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky, Blame beat a fast-closing Zenyatta by a head Nov. 6 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. In Zenyatta’s 20-race career, it was the only loss.

Racing writers and racetrack officials are the Eclipse Awards voters. On Jan.4, the voting was completed and in each category, the three top vote getters were identified as finalists. In racing publications, some writers said they voted for Zenyatta, as she generated a lot of publicity for racing and because she won five of her six 2010 races. Other writers said that they voted for Blame, as Blame beat Zenyatta. Blame had won four of the five 2010 races.

Two horses that began their careers at Calder Casino & Race Course, Awesome Feather and Big Drama are favored to win other Eclipse awards. For the 2-Year-Old Filly Award, Awesome Feather is a finalist. She won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly stakes Nov. 5 and has won all six of her 2010 races.

Other categories are slam-dunk decisions and are as close as the Zenyatta-Blame battle. Lookin At Lucky (3-year-old male), Goldikova (female turf horse), Uncle Mo (2-year-old male), Awesome Feather (2-year-old filly) and Blind Luck (3-year-old filly) are expected to win by landslide margins.

Finalists Ramon Dominguez, Garrett Gomez and John Velazquez could be separated by only a few votes in one of the most interesting categories, the top jockey.

Despite an afternoon cloud cover and midday and early evening traffic jams, it was a glorious day in Arcadia on Sunday. It was an opening day at Santa Anita Park that truly was grand. Optimism is often in abundance around a racetrack. So even though the numbers are not exactly encouraging on the opening day at Santa Anita’s annual winter meet, the numbers improved during the next couple of days.

The numbers were not healthy, when Santa Anita opened Sunday. A 21.5 percent decline from the previous year as it was bet $11,707,276 on the first day, and it was the lowest opening-day handle since 1992. On the Santa Anita event the following day, $5,529,285 was bet and there was not a comparable Monday, second-day-of-the-meet card in 2009. There was a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, however on the third day of the meet. A Wednesday card in 2010 versus the same sort of Wednesday card a year earlier. However, the results were almost the same as they were on opening day. A $1,578,842 decline from 2009 as it was bet just $4,038,175. From a year earlier, that’s a 28.1 percent drop off. The figures are even less than Tampa Bay Downs handled on the same day.

Why Santa Anita has gotten off to such a wretched start, there can be only one reason – the increase in the takeout. The horseplayers actually can be pushed too far, it seems like. It’s more likely the answer is anywhere bettors can get a better chance to win. Serious horse betting enthusiasts are learning to shop for pools offering value via lower takeout rates, regardless of bankroll size. It ought to be at Santa Anita, America’s classiest track, if horse racing deserves to thrive anywhere.

On Saturday December 11, punters are in for a treat today as 14 massive TAB race meetings set to run at country and city tracks around Australia.

By the metropolitan meets in Brisbane and Perth, today’s racing action is headlined. At Ascot the Group 3 AJ Scahill Stakes (1400m) headlines a crack Perth Summer Racing Carnival meeting, while Eagle Farm hosting the re-scheduled Group 3 George Moore Stakes (1200m).

At Ascot and Eagle Farm, the best Saturday racing action will take place so it is advised to check out the odds through Luxbet and get into the Group race betting.

Eagle Farm will also be home to four excellent Listed races, as well as the George Moore Stakes and the Ascot race-card has both the Listed WA St Leger (2100m) and the Listed Starstruck Classic (1600m) as highlights not to miss.

At Morphettville in Adelaide, there is also black-type racing with the Listed City of Marion Stakes (1200m). Around the Listed Christmas Cup (2400m), a brilliant day’s racing centers around in Sydney.

For tracks including the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Newcastle and Darwin, quality race days are also planned and it seems that for the punters, Saturday will shape up as a beauty.

With a bumper eight-race TAB meeting planned, Melbourne’s best racing action will be found at the famous Flemington Racetrack, and many have the best chance of winning big with exclusive Saturday Flemington betting tips.

At Flemington, Racing will start at 12:56pm (AEDST), with the final race due to jump at 5:25pm (AEDST) in the afternoon.

For the metropolitan Victorian meet, we give our best rated selections in all the race fields. Then, by taking advantage of our other two tips in each race, really clean out the bookies by jumping in on the exotic markets like the Exactas and Trifectas.

Make sure you get the best odds possible by signing up and betting online at Luxbet, whether you fancy our insider Flemington tips, or have a hot pick of your own you want to put down tomorrow.

For decades a jockey betting on horses they ride, or don’t ride, has seemingly been common practice. For a long time, the rules relating to jockeys betting on racing have also been in place and they’re not allowed to do it, full stop.

To leave them open to questioning by the sports stewards, why then would some jockeys be so careless.

This year, we’ve seen that sort of stupidity or at the very least carelessness. Before a race, Danny Nikolic washed his dry mouth out with a swig of beer at the barriers. Jim Cassidy tested positive to marijuana. Finally Blake Shinn and Peter Robl have supposedly been caught having a bet using TAB accounts in the name of Shinn’s mother Carol Shinn and Robl’s wife Elaine Robl.

Last week, having been charged the pair will front stewards on Friday to answer charges related to illegal betting activities.

Two of them have won Melbourne Cups and all these riders are Group 1-winning hoops of considerable talent.

Particularly relating to riders having a bet, so maybe it’s time to change the rules.

As a steward, I know the rider who’s backed his own horse won’t be just “giving it a run”. He or she will be giving the horse every possible chance.

In other words backing a horse to lose, if a jockey is caught laying horses on a betting exchange, then he will get a lifetime ban kind of penalty.

They should be banned for life as well, if they back another horse in a race they’re riding in that’s not their own, and they get caught. No half measures with the penalty, as that sort of behavior completely compromises the integrity of the sport.

Even though at least as a punter and owner, you’d know, the odds would drift you’d think.

That’d make it interesting. Imagine if five riders declared they’d backed their own horse in a race?

It’s ridiculous to think that you can somehow police jockeys having a bet, on a broader level.

For them their wife can bet, their mother-in-law or mate, their girlfriend and they can place the bet legitimately, too.

Climbing 15.5% for last Saturday’s card, the overall handle for the Breeders’ Cup held at Churchill Downs increased to set a new record.

Fan-favorite and horse racing betting favorite as well, Zenyatta’s attempt to win her 20th race in the Classic helped the success of this year’s Breeder’s Cup. Other factors also helped increase the handle, such as an increase in race field size and a lower minimum for many exotic bets even though beyond Zenyatta’s fan base increasing television ratings. Last year, the all-sources handle on the 14 races was over $157 million, up from just over $136 million.

As did betting numbers on Zenyetta to win, betting on the Classic itself, set a record. As bettors could place a wider variety of bets, handle in exotic pools were increased due to the larger field sizes and bet minimums set to fifty cents.

Compared to previous years, attendance was also very strong for Saturday’s card, with over 70,000 at Churchill Downs and for Friday’s card almost 42,000 at the track. Enjoying two races Friday and the Classic Saturday under Churchill Downs’ track lights were the attendees, who enjoyed prime-time racing.

A successful Breeder’s Cup was contributed by innovative new betting offerings, increased field size, and the presence of a track favorite, of which many features will be utilized at the 2011 Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs.

The retirement of 2010, Kentucky Derby Winner Super Saver was announced by WinStar Farm.

There was a fear that Super Saver would not recover his racing form after such an injury, making retirement the preferable option, although the three-year-old colt had an injury to his cannon bones that he could have recovered.

While a stud fee has yet to be named for him, he will be put out to stud.

Super Saver managed to take home $1,889,766 in his racing career. Including the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, he also won two races and finished second in two others. In addition, in the Odysseus’s Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby, he had a third place finish.

In the wake of the departure of Bill Casner and Ken Troutt, Super Saver’s campaigners, from the WinStar partnership comes Super Saver’s retirement. For WinStar Farm, Super Saver represented a major breakthrough, giving them their first Kentucky Derby winner.

While the winner of the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, the farm had previously bred Funny Cide, their sale of him as a yearling prevented them from reaping any reward from it. Super Saver was one of four WinStar horses, the year he won the Derby by 2 ½ lengths. Cementing WinStar’s position was another WinStar horse, Drosselmeyer, won the Belmont Stakes.

Yet another blow was suffered at the Breeder’s Cup Sprint, as Discreetly Mine will miss the race because of an injury to his left stifle. Horse racing bets will be affected because of Discreetly Mine’s absence.

Majesticperfection, division leader was the first major defection from the race when retired because of injury late this summer.

To diagnose the exact nature of Discreetly Mine’s problem, trainer Todd Pletcher said it took several days but received the bad news from Dr. Larry Bramlage on Wednesday.

Pletcher said, “It’s nothing too serious, but he’ll have to be given 60 days off, which naturally eliminates the Sprint from consideration. If all goes well we hope to have him back in training again this winter at Palm Meadows. This is terribly disappointing to us because obviously this horse found his niche sprinting during the second half of the season.”

At distances ranging from six to seven furlongs including the Grade 1 King’s Bishop and Grade 2 Amsterdam, Discreetly Mine won his last three starts this summer at Saratoga.

Girolamo and Riley Tucker are the two horses who do appear headed for the Sprint after finishing first and second respectively on Saturday in Belmont’s Grade 1 Vosburgh Invitational.

Friday’s Grade 3 Phoenix at Keeneland featuring Warrior’s Reward and Saturday’s Grade 1 Ancient Title at Hollywood Park are the final two major Sprint preps are on tap this week.

The 2009 Horse of the Year in thoroughbred racing, Rachel Alexandra has been retired from racing, her owners announced Tuesday.

With a win in the 2009 Kentucky Oaks, Rachel started turning heads and went on to win all eight of her starts as a 3-year-old filly in 2009. But in 2010, Rachel Alexandra won only two of five starts.

In the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga on Aug. 29 was her last loss, when she was bested by a length. To run in Saturday’s Grade 1 Beldame Invitational at Belmont Park, she had been working out, but owner Jess Jackson decided to retire the filly on Tuesday.

Jackson said in a news release, “As you know, despite top training and a patient campaign, Rachel Alexandra did not return to her 2009 form. I believe it’s time to retire our champion and reward her with a less stressful life. We are delighted that she will retire healthy and happy to our beautiful farm in Kentucky.”

Jackson said, next year he would breed Rachel Alexandra to his two-time Horse of the Year Curlin.

Following her 20 1/4-length victory in the 2009 Kentucky Oaks, business partner Harold McCormick and Jackson had purchased Rachel Alexandra privately from owner/breeder Dolphus Morrison, his partner Mike Lauffer, and trainer Hal Wiggins.

Rachel Alexandra won the Preakness Stakes, Fifteen days later, holding off Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird by one length.

On Monday, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association released its weekly poll of the top racehorses in the country and there were few changes from last week.

Still on top of the list at first place and second place are Zenyatta, the undefeated mare, and four-year-old colt Blame, respectively, according to the latest NTRA National Thoroughbred Poll. Horse betting online fans too have Zenyatta and Blame on the top of the list.

In fact, from last week, the first seven horses remain unchanged, and there are no new names among the top 10.

Zenyatta, a two-time champion was the one of the only changes of note and lost a first-place vote from last week’s 14. The horse now has 170 points in total.

For Zenyatta, the next scheduled race was owned by Jerry and Ann Moss and trained by John Shirreffs, is in the Lady’s Secret Stakes at Hollywood Park on Saturday, October 2.

Winner of the Stephen Foster and Whitney Handicaps, Blame stayed in second place but and picked up five first-place votes. Blame will also make his next start on October 2, in Belmont Park’s Jockey Club Gold Cup and it now has 158 points.

With 139 points, Woodward Stakes champ Quality Road is third followed by Lookin At Lucky (120), Blind Luck (97), Paddy O’Prado (47) and Rachel Alexandra (41).

Five-year-old mare Proviso is moving up from ninth to eighth. to move ahead of Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti, the turf runner received 33 points and posted 24 points.

In 10th with 21 points remains Pacific Classic winner Richard’s Kid.