Belmont Purses get 13% hike courtesy of 'Toga
 

ELMONT, N.Y. – Starting with the card on Saturday, September 25, The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) will increase purses at Belmont Park’s fall championship meet by approximately 13 percent. Average daily purses for the Belmont meet will be $480,000, up from the initial projected figure of $425,000. With purses for overnight races increasing roughly 13 percent across all categories, some of the changes include:

• Overnight stakes races will increase to $70,000 from $60,000
• Open money allowance routes will increase to $63,000 from $56,000
• Open maiden special weight routes will increase to $52,000 from $46,000
• Starter allowance routes will increase to $47,000 from $42,000
• New York-bred maiden special weight routes will increase to $44,000 from $39,000

NYRA was able to increase overnight purses for the Belmont Meet due to higher than projected wagering activity at the 2010 Saratoga Race Course meeting and a purse underpayment by $500,000 at the Saratoga meet instead of the projected $2.5 million overpayment.

Awesome news. Happy for the trainers/owners and jocks. Let's get that takeout down to 10% and we will be rolling.

...brought up as if NYRA controls takeout.

No not at all. Just a general statement about takeouts.

A non-sequitor and pointless canard given that the wagering at Saratoga with existing takeout levels in place produced the purse increase.

Totally disagree. From that rationale, takeout doesn't matter at all. If that were the case why would DRF and others publish the takeout information and bloodhorse run a story about online wagering where within the story, the fact that takeout needs to be lowered is the key point? Saratoga and all tracks would do better, not worse if takeout were lowered.

Ain't that the truth!

And it's hysterical that you bring it up because as I typed 'pointless canard', I swear to G-d, I said to myself, "Where the heck has Cardus been???"

Well, my issue with the takeout debate, (as it is), is that it's a "Johnny One Note" hot button. Would careful management and a coherent approach to takeout benefit handle overall by promoting churn? Yes. Is pell mell takeout reduction a panacea to pari-mutuel handle? No. It isn't.

By economic standards, there is a threshold that makes ideal sense in the takeout discussion which benefits all sides. However, the foil hat 'lower takeout' mantra chanters have no idea what it is, have no interest in discussing what it might be, or no actual stake in trying to work with anyone to try and discover it.

If the takeout topic is such a deal maker, why has there been close to no applause for Delaware's very noble and practical exacta expirement?

Because it's limited to one wager type when it should be all.

It's like bringing home a whole chicken and giving the man of the house one wing.

Where is my foil hat? Let's start with 10% for WPS and better breakage and start from there. That is the same as pro sports betting....Better yet, let's encourage people to go to the track and offer reduced takeout on track...What was the attendance for Saturday at Belmont? 5500....in NYC. Also really you aren't comparing apples to apples when you deal with Saratoga. It is a destination. What about the other 10.5 months of the year? Takeout is hardly a canard and someone with a radio show who should be pro bettor should know that, especially with guys like Sanan who say precisely what I'm saying.

That would involve aggressive marketing and quite frankly there aren't enough bold entrepreneurs to take that risk in an industry that has little faith in itself to bring people to the track.

All we need now is a "u slurp my large ass" out of Byk and this thread will be complete:)

Actually, Sanan has little regard for the one trick pony takeout drum-beaters which only serves to tell me you haven't listened too carefully to his weekly visits on ATR.

It's a phony issue. While it is a part of the overall equation, it's far from the lynchpin. Few are more pro-bettor than me. I just have a wider appreciation for all the stakeholding parties involved in this than those that think magically slashing takeout will be some miracle elixer.

I read that and all I could think about was Archie Bunker.

Why should bettors applaud this when no bones come our way?

A lot of people were using similar figures in bashing Monmouth Park's inability to pay $1 million per day in purses. Doesn't this statistic really mean that, like Monmouth, NYRA was forced to run far many more cheap races at Saratoga than they had anticipated?