Rachel beginning to pull away (Jason Moran)

Robert at They’re in the Gate already posted about this but in my previous post on the matter, Rachel Raises Attendance AND Handle, I stated that I would follow-up with a comparison of this Saturday, so what the heck!

Saturday June 27th, 2009:

Belmont Park Attendance: 13,352

On Track Mutuel Pool: $1,357,534

ITW Mutuel Pool: $2,657,212

ISW Mutuel Pool: $8,361,822

Saturday July 4th, 2009:

Belmont Park Attendance: 7,667

On Track Mutuel Pool: $1,378,296

ITW Mutuel Pool: $2,969,277

ISW Mutuel Pool: $9,564,986

Attendance down: 5,685 / 42%

On Track Handle up: $20,762 / 1.5%

ITW up: $312,065 / 12%

ISW up: $1,203,164 / 14%

Robert already pointed a couple of things, such as last Saturday had not only 1 stakes race vs. 3 on this Saturday’s card, but 3 that were a lot more wide open from a gambling perceptive than the Mother Goose. This Saturday also had an additional race.

One interesting uptick was that the bump in the Intra-State wagering. I’m wondering if this had anything to do with Sweetnorthernsaint at Finger Lakes? While I couldn’t scare up attendance figures, according to the charts from DRF, handle from last Saturday was $596,897 while handle from this Saturday was $623,518, an increase of 4.5%. Probably not a direct cause but perhaps a contributing cause.

Now that I feel somewhat committed to the quest to find a true apples to apples comparison, I’m going to do this (hopefully only) one more time. The next three Saturday’s at Belmont are similar in conditions to Mother Goose day, one featured stakes race on the card and no national holiday. Let’s hope one (if not all) of them has spectacular weather so we can get a fair gauge of the impact of a marquee star.

(The Library of Congress)

Happy Independence Day y’all! I’m off to Belmont for a day stakes racing, hot dogs, birthdays and fun.

Check out Val’s thoughts on today’s races, as usual I’m running too late to put together any thoughts but I may tweet some picks once I get there.

Good luck everyone!

Rachel and Calvin bringin’ home the bacon. (Sarah K. Andrew)

I don’t subscribe to the theory that any one thing can “save” racing, but a quick look at the attendance and handle figures from the last two Saturdays at Belmont indicate that having well publicized stars around helps not only attendance but the bottom line.

Saturday June 20th, 2009:

Belmont Park Attendance: 4703

On Track Mutuel Pool: $863,292

ITW Mutuel Pool: $2,116,700

ISW Mutuel Pool: $5,246,269

Saturday June 27th, 2009:

Belmont Park Attendance: 13352

On Track Mutuel Pool: $1,357,534

ITW Mutuel Pool: $2,657,212

ISW Mutuel Pool: $8,361,822

That’s an increase of:

8649 / 65% increase in attendance

$494,242 / 36% of on track handle

$3,115,553 / 37% increase in interstate wagering

I’m never sure if IST/ISW includes ADW wagering, I assume it does. ITW, or tracks within New York, didn’t show a notable increase. Sure, per capita wagering could always be better but you gotta start somewhere!

Players definitely took advantage of getting a freebie in multi-race wagers with the Pick 4 and Pick 6 pools pretty much doubling.

Pick 4 Pool:

Saturday June 20th, 2009: $257,050

Saturday June 27th, 2009: $484,588

$227,538 / 47% increase

Pick 6 Pool:

Saturday June 20th, 2009: $61,617

Saturday June 27th, 2009: $138,250

$76,633 / 55% increase

The feature on the 20th was a Grade 3, not a Grade 1… perhaps a comparison to this coming Saturday, July 4th with the Suburban, Prioress and Dwyer + a holiday would be a better comparison. Either way, I think it’s safe to say that having/keeping stars around can only help.

Zenyatta and Mike Smith after winning the Milady (Charles Pravata)

Twitter was a buzz this afternoon once the news broke at DRF that Zenyatta’s owners actually want to face Rachel Alexandra after all. Glad to see that Eddie D was right, they were playing coy!

And to add to the drama it was before either race went off.

Rachel in the Mother Goose? Check.

(partymanners)

Moss specifically said that it would depend on how Zenyatta did and how she came out of the Vanity.

Zenyatta in the Vanity? Check.

(partymanners)

And apparently after the race on TVG Moss confirmed that he’s interested in making this match up happen…

Moss just said he is going to do everything possible to meet up with RA

Fingers crossed that Zenyatta and Rachel come out of their races in good order and that we’ll be looking at match-up. I know several folks who’d love to see them in the Del Cap but is that too soon? Where do you think they should meet?

Sabastion Morales after being thrown by Kim Karakorum at Belmont (raymond)

If you’re interested in more than just pictures of Chantal Sutherland (something Google can’t tell me), you should check out Alex Brown’s interview of her. While I suspect that ALL that Google traffic isn’t about determining if she’s currently the leading rider at Woodbine, this is the sort of thing you can find out in the interview and frankly, we’re hoping you’re interested in that too.

Admittedly you’d be hard pressed to find out such information at her new web site and that splash screen is NSFW! Fans of more than how hot she is would love to see up to date news prominently placed on her homepage, perhaps with the ability of subscribe to an RSS feed so we could find out things like her upcoming big races, when she hits a milestone, has an appearance or even some new product coming out (as apparently she’s now also a brand… who can blame her?). Here’s hoping her team can steer her more towards a usable interactive experience vs. the equivalent of a magazine spread.

New York rider Maylan Studart seems to be on the mend after her recent accident in the shedrow, sending the following notes to her Facebook Followers:

Hello, my friends!!!! I got a hold of my laptop now, but am still in the hospital. I had an accident during morning workouts where a horse “liked me too much” and knocked me down!!!! LOL!!! I don’t like him that much after this, but he was just showing his love!!! LOL!!!! I broke my left femur Thursday morning and was taken to North Shore Hospital and was operated in the evening. I was walking the next day.

Thanks again for the support guys!!!!! I have great news!!!! I’m leaving the hospital today and going to Glenn Cove Rehab Center at 2p.m.!!!! I will be there from 1-2 weeks but will know exactly after I get there and talk to the physical therapists. I walked a lot today again!!! Much more!!! I went down out the room to the end of the hall to a window and came back to my room!!! It was about 150ft. my Phys.Ther. said

Best of luck for a speedy recovery!

On the riderless front, the previously mentioned Phone Jazz’s triumphant run at Belmont on Saturday did not go unnoticed. ESPN picked up on it, here’s the segment.

The chart doesn’t indicate that she continued on gamely after dumping Jean Luc-Samyn, but we’ll always know she was the best that day!

Over the weekend Val pointed out a disturbing trend in breakdown reportage, or lack of it. The good news is that All Smiles, the filly that was pulled up at the wire and dumped her rider in the Obeah, has come out of surgery at the New Bolton Center and is likely to go home soon! Thanks racing fans and twitter for supplying pertinent information!

Last, but not least and not at all related to the rider theme, I have to give a huge shout out to Woodbine for their exceptional parade camera work! Of the tracks I watch or play regularly I think NYRA has the best parade camera work. But what was so impressive about Woodbine’s was that not only did they label each horse as they followed them during the warm up, they followed them in numerical order! A super extra “well done” to the camera team at Woodbine and if you missed Queen’s Plate day, Keith has a great photo essay.

(superterrific)

The HANA Pool Party is back at Monmouth today! It’s the 7th race that goes off around 3:30pm ET, so you still have time to grab the free PP and get in on the action! Update, I had the winner at 11-1!

A few other notes of interest… there goes my Google traffic.

Not only did boozy 20 somethings enjoy Churchill’s historic foray in to night racing, the numbers show a notable increase in handle as well!

It was bona fide dance party at Belmont last night with Disco Diva in the 5th and Danceyoursocksoff in the 7th. In fact, Disco Diva over Gin Tango is quite possibly the best Friday night exacta ever!

Riderless horse Phone Jazz just crushed the field in the 5th at Belmont, good thing I had Hold the Cruiser, the official winner ($19.40) who finished about 3-4 lengths behind the riderless winner. Hopefully the game Phone Jazz was collected without incidence and the rider is ok.

And finally, it was nice to see Ocean Colors, the last foal out of 1988’s Santa Anita & Kentucky Derby winning Winning Colors put it together on turf at Churchill. For those of us who have been following her since Saratoga, it was great to see her show a little front running dazzle that her mother was so famous for.

You know you do! (Hello Race Fans ecard collection)

Or at least the most contextually appropriate! And really there is no such thing when it comes to ecards and horse racing, until now!

Check out the Hello Race Fans racing ecards collection! Ecard provider extraordinaire Some Ecards has recently added the ability for users to create cards, so we jumped at the chance to make some racing cards.

Here are a few more.

You can find them all here, and you know we’ll be adding more!

Happy Ticket was just before my time as a racing fan but when I saw the reaction to the news of her death I thought I’d see what I could find out.

There was only one race available on YouTube but what a race it is. Happy Ticket hooks up with Round Pound in the 2006 Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn Park and the two go head to head the whole way.

(partymanners)

What a game mare! Owner-breeder Stewart Madison had this to say about her:

She was a once-in-a-lifetime horse. Happy Ticket never disappointed. She had what you can’t breed into them. She had the heart. She loved to run. That’s what Andy always said about her, that ‘She likes to do what she does.’ Hopefully she passed that along.

Condolences to her connections.

Zenyatta big foot sighting outside of California (churchilldownsflickr)

If you’re of the mind that you’d like to see the mighty Zenyatta challenged this summer, you will probably find this little news item as annoying as I did.

Apparently there’s a chance that Life is Sweet, touted as a potential “rematch” for Zenyatta in the Vanity might be pointed to the Hollywood Gold Cup, you know, open company.

Mind you, she’s just nominated, but still… at least she’s nominated! Perhaps Shirreffs and Wygod think she’s gotta a better chance against the colts than Zenyatta?

This morning I, probably along with other bloggers, received an email from someone named Robert Gately politely informing me that he had recently converted some super 8 footage of Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed in their Triple Crown stretch runs in the Belmont and that I could feel free to share the clip if I wanted.

My access to almost anything at work is extremely limited so I had to wait until I got home to have a look…

(Robert Gately)

Thank you Robert Gately! How great is it to have a close up, clear look at these immortals in the parade? They all look fantastic too although I have to say that I think Alydar looked a little a better, good thing I wasn’t wagering. Enjoy!