I bet in person or on line through Philly Park Phone Bet. Although SA was originally listed on their schedule for this week, they have updated their calendars and there is no FG, SoCal or NoCal racing listed. Once Calder closes, there will be no Florida racing (GP). For a sport that is already hemorrhaging, this type of insanity only further ruins the game.
In Pennsylvania, I seriously doubt if they prioritize simulcasting revenue, as live racing at both Philly Park and Penn Nat have full fields and outrageously higher purses for claimers that are fueled by slots. When you see people like Doug O\'Neill running a stable of horses on the PA circuit, you realize that the game has changed right under our noses. As a person that has been a fairly large player at Philly Park over the past 10 years, I am convinced that they could care less about horse players. You can get better comps these days as a penny or nickel slot player at their casino.
Their behaviors over the past year feel to me that as if they are driving horse players away. Most of their locations have cut way back on hours of operation, and there are rarely enough tellers on duty as well as limited food service. This was not the case before they got into the slots/casino business. Prior to that time, supportive players were treated like gold--now I feel like we are being treated like crap--and nobody cares.
The removal of simulcasting on \"premium\" tracks like CD, SA, FAG, and GP is just another nail in the bettor\'s coffin. Horse racing is dying, and the major players in the business these days who remain solvent (Penn National Gaming, Greenwood, etc.) are all slots casino Companies. One need only look at the example set by the State of West Virginia--it is the most fiscally solvent State Government in the US--because of the steady stream of slots revenue from CT and MNR over the past 15 years.
Jerry, thanks so much for the free sheets again this year--but sadly, I doubt if I will be using them much or at all, as I prefer playing Santa Anita and Fair Grounds at this time of year--especially with the poor quality of the inner track at Aqueduct when it is open.
If you want a good contrast, take a look at Poker. Twenty years ago it was low-key, sleazy and in smoky, dimly-lit back rooms--and rarely found outside of Las Vegas and the few card rooms in California. Today, the WSOP gets top billing on ESPN (and way better ratings than horse racing) and Poker is played by tens of millions on line or at numerous and rapidly-expanding legal gaming locations. Horse racing, on the other hand is too busy with infighting (such as the current simulcasting debacle) to properly market and grow its sport, so it doesn\'t have a way of maintaining its fan base or creating enough new fans to sustain the sport. Unless something drastically changes, I believe the game will barely exist twenty years from now.
