TIF

The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission is investigating a spate of pool manipulation incidents which seem to have occurred on three races run at Prairie Meadows in the last eight race days, the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF) said in a release Friday morning. Daily double pools on Sept. 4 (Races 2/3), Sept. 1 (Races 6/7) and Aug. 25 (Races 5/6) were subject to massive bets on combinations the manipulator(s) expected to lose. In each case, the bets were made in the final betting cycle when projected payouts for each combination...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A panel on computer-assisted wagering (CAW) and its pros and cons, and another on trainers' reactions to the new Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) regulations, took center stage at the 2023 Jockey Club Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing held in Saratoga Springs, New York on Thursday. Patrick Cummings, the moderator of the panel on CAWs, is the Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, a racing-industry think tank. Cummings took the panel through a brief history of parimutuel wagering and the changes...

Nine of the 11 largest betting pools have shown declines from all customers except computer-assisted wagering groups over the past four years, while the handle of the largest CAW groups grew dramatically, according to an extensive study of data released Monday by the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF). "The Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's analysis of data from Del Mar between 2018 and 2022 showed on an inflation-adjusted basis, per-race (or per-opportunity basis for certain bet types) CAW betting, from what is believed to be 17 accounts, has grown tremendously in the last...

With 20 questions and a tiebreaker facing contest participants, entries are now open for the 2023 Thoroughbred Idea Foundation Derby Prop Contest, the organization said in a release Wednesday. The entry portal closes at 11:00 a.m. E.T. this Saturday, May 6. Players should keep track of their answers as you will not be able to revisit the survey portal once you submit your entry. Should a horse named directly in a prop be scratched, all answers to that prop may be counted as correct. Winners will be notified by email...

No business can change what it does not measure. Racing's public measurement of support, via wagering, hides serious issues. Recent stories have continued to cite declines in total handle, wondering just what is at play. How that handle has been derived has changed dramatically, but that's not reflected in the overall numbers. Over the last century, U.S. racetracks have reported total handle on their races and, for most of that time, it was one metric that accurately depicted the health of the business. But in our modern era of simulcasting,...

Fixed-odds betting options on horse racing could come to New York residents if a new bill introduced by Senator Joseph Addabbo, Chairman of the state Senate's Racing, gaming and Wagering Committee, is passed, according to a story from the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation. Senate Bill 2343 is similar to a measure introduced a year ago, also by Sen. Addabbo, but which was never advanced for a vote, TIF reports. "There should be no doubt amongst racing stakeholders that our existing pari-mutuel offerings are not enough in today's competitive market," said Thoroughbred...

A month ago, the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF), a think tank that uses independent research to try and drive changes in the sport, brought to light an example of what it said was brazen quinella pari-mutuel pool manipulation at Gulfstream Park. The scheme was apparently designed to jack up the odds the manipulator would receive on winning bets placed with non-pari-mutuel offshore bookies that paid on-track prices. On Wednesday, Pat Cummings, the TIF's executive director, told an audience at the Global Symposium on Racing hosted by the University of Arizona...

Through the conclusion of racing at Keeneland Sunday Oct. 15, more than $1.1 million has been returned to bettors since the introduction of penny breakage--rounding pari-mutuel winnings to the penny and not the dime--less than two months ago, according to a blog post from the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (TIF). TIF was a vocal supporter and champion of the penny breakage provision, the first of its kind in North America as part of broader legislation designed to standardize pari-mutuel taxation. "The total is even higher than $1.1 million, that is just...

There has never before been an effective, institutional advocate for horseplayers in North American racing, but Pat Cummings and the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation have emphatically changed that in the past several years. As the TIF's executive director, Cummings has brought to light many of the myriad issues and injustices facing horse bettors like no one has before, and Tuesday, Cummings joined Bettor Things with Joe Bianca for an illuminating conversation about the progress made on behalf of players in recent years and how much work there still is left to...

There has never before been an effective, institutional advocate for horseplayers in North American racing, but Pat Cummings and the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation have emphatically changed that in the past several years. As the TIF's executive director, Cummings has brought to light many of the myriad issues and injustices facing horse bettors like no one has before, and Tuesday, Cummings joined Bettor Things with Joe Bianca for an illuminating conversation about the progress made on behalf of players in recent years and how much work there still is left to...

by the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation  In an unusual incident on Tuesday, Sept. 6, a horse reported to betting outlets as a scratch for 40 minutes prior to the start of a pick four sequence at Mountaineer Park was later unscratched after betting was closed and allowed to race. Remarkably, all pick four bets placed were paid to the actual results. "There are some similarities to the Modern Games (Ire) incident from last year's Breeders' Cup," said TIF Executive Director Patrick Cummings, "and it proves that wagering rules are in desperate...

"One of the most urgent issues facing our industry is that of improved electronic security for the pari-mutuel wagering system." This simple declaration was part of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA)'s five-year strategic plan covering 2006 through 2010, and published in 2005. Approaching two decades later, there has been little progress on the topic, and recent wagering incidents in the summer of 2022 highlight the long-term failure to address these problems. If you think the stewards are always in charge of stopping wagering when the race begins, think again....