Pari-Mutel wagering

Recent trends continued in the month of June, as wagering on U.S. Thoroughbred racing decreased slightly year over year while purses continued to rise, according to the Thoroughbred Racing Economic Indicators released Tuesday by Equibase. Q2 of 2022 also reflected the same trends compared to last year's second quarter.    

Numerous horseplayers received an email Thursday from a touting service promising pari-mutuel riches that purported to be authored by trainer Wayne Potts. But Potts told the TDN that he was in no way affiliated with the service, which includes the website wayne-potts.com. "It's not me," he said. "It's not my phone number. I have already reached out to somebody. I don't want to get into it anymore. I have already made phone calls." The email includes a number in the 410 area code and the website lists a number in...

A four-month investigation into the dysfunction at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club that led to the winner of last year's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf having to race for purse money only will not result in any complaints being filed against anyone in the chain of command now that "inconsistent radio communication" has been identified as a key contributing factor. "Various witnesses indicated that they made calls over the radio that were not heard or received by the intended recipients," stated a California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) summary report issued Thursday...

Despite COVID shutdowns, a total of $21.52 billion was wagered legally on sports in the U.S. in 2020, about twice what was bet on horse racing, and the gap will be even greater this year and for years to come. Sports betting is growing exponentially and an argument can be made that some of its success is coming at horse racing's expense. It's surely siphoning off dollars that otherwise might be available to racing's pari-mutuel pools and it has to be drawing existing and potential customers away from racing. Yet,...