Sports news from racingfigures.com / betting

What's a degenerate gambler to do when he's off on a Monday but his wife's working? Why, bet Finger Lakes and Fort Erie, of course! Anyone reading who has tips for the Monday tracks (a list that also includes Delaware, Philly, Prairie, Colonial, Indiana, and Yavapai) please leave a comment. Update: And so ends the Monday afternoon betting experiment. I played three pick fours and went 2/12. That's right, I managed just two winners among a dozen races. There was a race at Finger Lakes I went five deep in a field of seven, and the two horses I didn't...

After seeing what the pick four paid on Tuesday at Colonial Downs (races four through seven), I've decided to focus on the track in the hope of securing a similar overlay using two 9-to-2 horses and two favorites. After taking care of my husbandly duties at home (e.g., walking/feeding the dog, laundry, starting dinner), I settled in with my Friday Colonial PPs, my Equineline account, and my Pilot G-2 05 blue pen to begin handicapping the twilight pick four. Much to my dismay, some of the races aren't coming up on Formulator. No matter, I'll just tackle that two-year-old MSW...

I can only assume that many of the people who populate the Thoroughbred racing corner of the blogosphere also wager on the product, so it was with some surprise that I surveyed the landscape and found that only Steve Crist mentioned (with appropriate outrage) that New York will increase the takeout on its bets to 1%. As one commenter on the Cristblog noted, some mucky-mucks cited New York's "relatively low takeout" compared to other states. This holds true in the WPS pools and possibly in the two-horse wager pools (DD and exacta), but the trifecta, superfecta, and pick N pools...

Pimlico Special-Preakness double will-pays from Ed. The daily double wager linking the Pimlico Special Handicap (G1) with the Preakness Stakes (G1) provided few surprises in how the betting will go for the middle jewel of racing's Triple Crown on Saturday, as the double with Special winner Student Council and Big Brown would pay $20.20. Student Council paid $16.40 to win, which translates to a 1-5 price on Big Brown. The second choice was Gayego, the only other Derby starter to enter the Preakness, at $235.80, which is about 14-1. Special-Preakness double will-pays: #HorseWill-PayWin Odd Equiv1Macho Again$569.8037-12Tres Borrachos$1162.8078-13Icabad Crane$587.6038-14Yankee Bravo$410.2026-15BehindatthebarSCRSCR6Racecar Rhapsody$391.2025-17Big...

There's 33 races scheduled between now and 7 p.m. Saturday, but to hell with patience. I'm heavily invested in #8 Baladeva in here. He took money sprinting on the turf at Gulfstream and got into trouble when hitting the gate, but still came home in a snappy :11.40. Baird sticks around, Ward can fire second start, and he gets a drop in class. There's some negatives, but 2-to-1 is fair value on this one to me, and he's 5-to-2 now. Let's get this pick four single home! Well, that sucked....

- Through the Oregon wagering hub, and this in a year of upsets and disruptions across ADWs: Wagering through the Oregon Racing Commission hub system jumped 17.4% in 2007, according to data compiled by the state regulatory agency. A record total of $1,573,680,475 was processed through Oregon hubs in 2007, up from $1,340,375,866 recorded in 2006. - Doubts about the times for Dubai World Cup races run after the Godolphin Mile have been raised by the Racing Post, whose clockers came up with discrepancies of almost a second in five races, including the Duty Free, in which Jay Peg was...

In two years, eight instances of past-posting involving New York races. In one test of live data from three races in 2007, a series of bet cancellations after the break in one. Last fall, past-posting at the Fair Grounds, as reported by bettor Mike Maloney. Since September 2007, analysis of pool data from 40 tracks reveals patterns suggestive of suspicious activity. Yes, I'd say it's time for an independent wagering monitor and a modern tote system....

- Race 1, 5 furlongs, maiden special for two-year-old fillies. Trainer Michael Trombetta debuts Moon Jumper, a daughter of Malibu Moon, off a string of steady works. He's 20% with two-year-old firsters in the past year and post-time odds on the filly will probably be around 5-2/2-1. She's a likely...

No Laurel play for me yesterday, with Gust and others scratched from the eighth after Friday's races were taken off the turf. I'll try again today, in the sixth, a six furlong maiden special for babies with a standout firster in X Rated Cat, who debuts for trainer Timothy Salzman...

Laurel's "noble experiment" begins Friday: For the track's 10-day summer mini-meet, takeout is 11.4%* on all wagers. No exceptions, no catches. It's a beautiful, horseplayer- friendly gesture, and I've resolved to do my bit to make it a success with a Laurel play of the day. The first: Race 8....

Bettors, don't worry about past-posting or outdated tote system technology: Late odds changes, like those that had Any Given Saturday dropping from 2-1 to 9-5 and Xchanger rising from 29-1 to 32-1 as the Haskell field headed into the clubhouse turn, are your fault: Without being so foolhardy as to...

John Pricci wonders why silence has greeted Ellis Park's decision to lower takeout to 4% on its pick four wager: I'm no math genius, far from it. But a wager that puts the odds in our favor over the long term, one where track executives and horsemen and legislators from...

"It is easy to cite evidence that American thoroughbred racing is in moribund condition.... But anyone who paid attention to the events at Hollywood Park on Monday -- as most horseplayers did -- would come to a different conclusion about the health of the racing industry. Bettors wagered a record...

Horseplayers hit the pick six at Belmont, Churchill, and Hollywood, which were all offering sizable carryover pots on Wednesday, but favorites dominated the sequence at each track. At Hollywood, the longest price was $9.40 on Charisma Matters in the sixth, and the payout $5,193. Belmont players were saved from an...

You have to feel sorry for whoever it was holding the lone live pick six ticket going into the ninth race at Hollywood on Sunday. That was one bad beat, losing the chance to take down the entire pool when Candygram finished a head behind Warren's Kitten. But not too...

- Fleetheart wins, pays $4.80. I make nothing. My online betting service is an AmericaTab outlet and I'm shut out of Southern California and New York, the two circuits I play with any seriousness, thanks to the TrackNet-ADW mess, until -- like a lot of other players -- I go...