You bettor believe wagering is on rise

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http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/284076

You bettor believe wagering is on rise

Woodbine season comes to an end as the industry sees decent surge in online and simulcast wagering

Dec 10, 2007 04:30 AM
JENNIFER MORRISON
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Ontario's thoroughbred racing industry is thriving, based on significant gains in wagering from on-track and simulcast betting in 2007.

The 170-day season ended yesterday with a 13-race card with some 150 horses racing for total purses of more than $720,000, a fitting end to a lucrative meeting for horsemen and Woodbine Entertainment folk alike.

Nick Eaves, president and chief executive officer of Woodbine Entertainment, cites the first full season of the Polytrack racing surface, a synthetic track, as a major reason for the big numbers.

"The surface has gone a long way to improving wagering numbers because we've seen our average field size go up," Eaves said. "Wagering is driven by more horses in each race, which leads to more betting possibilities. The numbers speak for themselves."

Wagering in the Toronto market on live thoroughbred racing is up 7 per cent. Overall, wagering increased 4 per cent.

The average number of horses per race increased a significant half-a-horse to 8.9 per race.

However, the Polytrack was not without its problems. It proved to need a great deal of tinkering when the weather turned nasty and two racing dates were lost in the last month due to the track condition.

Statistics on the success of synthetic surfaces as far as preventing horse injuries have to yet to prove it is safer than a traditional main track.

Simulcast wagering was up thanks to common-pool wagering (wagering into American track pools), which debuted this year.

"The simulcast product is really up in wagering, about 11 per cent, entirely because the pools are bigger now since we bet into the pools of those tracks," Eaves said.

The Queen's Plate returning to CBC television next summer, after a decade on smaller networks, is also big news for the industry.

"That in itself reflects the general health of the thoroughbred business in this area," Eaves said. "The CBC has made a four-year commitment to the race."

He said positioning top races and events to attract new customers to the sport is still a challenge, but plans are in the works to re-vamp some aspects of next year's fall stakes schedule to tie in with big American events.

On track this year, the local highlights were plentiful.

Emma-Jayne Wilson became the first female jockey to win the Plate, coaxing the giant Mike Fox to a narrow win in the $1 million classic for D. Morgan Firestone, a first for the long-time owner and breeder.

Jambalaya, bred in Schomberg by Gus Schickedanz and owned by Kingfield Farms, travelled to Chicago and won the important Arlington Million, the first Canadian-bred to do so. His trainer, Catherine Day Phillips, became the first woman to win that prestigious race.

Sealy Hill became the first winner of the Triple Tiara for fillies, with a little help from the Ontario Racing Commission.

The Eugene Melnyk-owned filly finished first in all three legs of the series but was disqualified from the middle jewel, the Bison City Stakes, before that ruling was overturned in a hearing two months ago.

Sealy Hill's trainer, Mark Casse, and jockey, Patrick Husbands, completely dominated the meeting. Casse won 24 more races than the next leading trainer while Husbands won 149 races, 21 stakes races and more than $9 million.