Meet Larry Collmus – Track Announcer

On Thursday, January 9^th, I had a chance to spend several races in the announcing booth with Larry Collmus, the track announcer at Gulfstream Park. In addition to announcing at Gulfstream Park, he is also the track announcer for Monmouth Park in New Jersey and the voice of the Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup races for NBC Sports.  Update: Larry is now the track announcer for Churchill Downs.  He will no longer be at Monmouth Park.

Larry was very comfortable with having me in the booth with him, and that allowed me to fire away with questions, while taking periodic breaks for his race-to-race preparations and actual race calls.  Here is a replay of our conversation.

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Beat The Host Tournament

On Xpressbet.com there is a weekly tournament under way right now that is fun and very affordable.  It is called “Beat The Host.”  It is conducted every Saturday (having started on January 4th) and runs for eight consecutive weeks thereafter.  So, at the time of this article three of the eight weeks have been completed.   But not to worry,  each week is an individual contest, so you can jump in at any time. Read More >>

Panning for Gold

Panning for real gold can be a tedious task.  But, on the occasion that a precious nugget is left behind in the pan … oh what joy that can bring.  Sometimes when I’m handicapping, I think of myself as panning for gold.  A lot of sandy material gets washed over the side of the pan as I look through a horse’s Past Performances (PPs).  I think of sandy material as information that everyone else can plainly see.  For example, seeing that a horse has won lots of races, has the highest Beyer Speed figure of anyone in the field, or consistently runs well at the distance of today’s race.  Good information, but it will be used by everyone in deciding on which horse to bet on.  In other words it will be directly reflected in the odds of the horse.  No gold to be had there, only sand.

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2014 Plans

I started this website as a challenge to myself, to give something back to a sport that I have loved for my entire adult life.  And, to satisfy an internal drive I have to teach people about a sport that I feel is often misunderstood.

As I look into the future of 2014, the future of The Sport of Kings is very much in doubt.  For those of you who know only Saratoga or Keeneland, you might not be able to grasp that fact.  But, every serious study within the equine industry shows steady decline in attendance, handle, and fans.  As a whole, the racing industry in North America is struggling.

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Happy Holidays 2013

With my family soon to be all together for the holidays, I intend to take a vacation from writing articles for a couple of weeks.  You see, both of my kids are away in college now … and quite frankly I miss them.  We have always been a close family; whether playing games, vacationing, traveling, or just hanging out.

Neal and Mike on Xmas Day 2012

Something recent we’ve come to enjoy,  is spending Christmas together in South Florida.  Some people say that it’s not Christmas without snow.  Well, in the Benoit family, we now say that it’s not Christmas without sand.  To the side is a picture of my son and I on the beach Christmas Day 2012.  It’s also not Christmas without suds.  Cheers!

But seriously, as we all are adjusting to these big changes in our lives, it’s nice to know that we can pull together for this short time together.  They say that you can pick your friends, but not your family.  I guess I’m pretty lucky, because if I could pick my family … they’d be exactly the same group of people.

So, from my family to yours … Happy Holidays!

N.Benoit

High and Low at GP

In a prior article we introduced the wagering strategy of High and Low Superfecta wagers, where you key a “High” horse that you think is a serious win threat over a “Low” horse that you suspect can’t win the race, but might land in the lower rungs (say 3rd or 4th) to complete a Superfecta wager.  Click here for a review of that article, and in particular for the mathematics for calculating the cost of the wager.

After a 3-day weekend at Gulfstream Park (GP), I’ve decided it’s time to put this strategy to the test in sunny Florida, because it seems like the conditions are right; large fields, double-digit horses landing in the top four spots, and predictable winners (defined as one of the top 3 betting choices).  I put the following chart together that shows eleven such examples over the weekend, with only one (#11) not exactly fitting the criteria of the winner coming from the top 3 betting choices.  I’ll explain later.

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Needs The Lead

When handicapping, I will sometimes make the notation, “Needs The Lead” at the top of a horse’s Past Performances (PPs).  Meaning they do their best (and sometimes only) running when they are happily cruising on an uncontested lead at the front of the pack.

Now, if the horse is running in a race on a speed favoring surface, or happens to be the “only” speed in the race, I will color code my comment in Blue (for a good thing).  But, more times than not I don’t view this trait as a “good thing.”  Especially if there are other “Needs The Lead” horses in the same race or if the horse in question doesn’t seem to have superior speed to establish an easy lead.

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The Art of Trip Handicapping and Making Trip Notes

Trip handicapping is the art of watching video race replays and making notes when a horse was aided or harmed by extraordinary racing conditions.  This is especially valuable when your observations are not fully reflected in the race comments captured in the program or racing form.  Keep in mind that the majority of horseplayers are limited to these comments, so to know something other players do not know is to have an advantage over them.

With that said, the interpretation of good and bad trips is highly subjective.  Don’t let your observation be tainted by prejudices, such as focusing only on a horse you wagered on. Also, try to determine if the problems a horse encountered really made a difference in the outcome.  If a horse was blocked by another – was it just as he was about to make a move? Or, was it in the latter stages after he had already shown signs of weakening.

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Horse Races Now

Starting on Monday, November 5, 2013 the popular iPhone and iPad App Horse Races Now began featuring material from the educational website Getting Out of the Gate under the Channels section of their App.

Horse Races Now is an App “dedicated to fan participation and viewer proliferation of horse racing worldwide.” Getting Out of The Gate is a website “dedicated to educating and entertaining fans in the sport of horse racing.” The synergistic result of these two enterprises working together will be to bring fans closer to the sport of horse racing AND help them to understand it once they are there.

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Conditional Claiming

In a prior article we introduced Claiming races. Click here for a review of that article. The type of races described in that article are open to any horse where the owner is willing to offer the horse for the claiming price of the race.  But, there are other types of Claiming races where a horse can be entered only if they meet certain “conditions.”  It is these type of races that we will focus on in this article.  We’ll start with the simple, and work our way up to the more complex. Read More >>