In a huge move, Woodbine has decided to contribute $150,000 to their, now weekly, Pick 6 pools starting this Sunday.
The Pick 6 pools have been a dismal failure up until now as it took a good 25 racing days for the pool to climb to $100,000. At Woodbine it is hard enough to grab a Pick 3 let alone a $2 Pick 6. Meanwhile, California tracks always gets huge pools, even if it is the first day of a carryover.
This now makes Woodbine's Pick 6 one of the best bets in racing today as bettors are pretty much starting off with a positive takeout, until $600,000 is in the jackpot, as the takeout is 25% for this bet.
On Queen's Plate day, this Sunday, we could see a pool of around $500,000, even more. It will be interesting.
"70 percent of the pick six pool will be allocated to ticket holders with six winners, with the remaining 30 percent to be distributed in consolation payoffs."
If someone hits the Pick 6, Woodbine will replenish the pool the following Sunday after it is hit until the end of this year.
"Our purpose is to raise awareness of Woodbine, predominantly in the United States, where it's sometimes a struggle to get eyes on our product," said Steve Mitchell, CFO of WEG.
Since WEG wants to raise awareness to US bettors, I think I can help a bit:)
Woodbine's Track Takeout (remember, they have slots)
Win Place Show 16.95%
Exactors 20.5%
Triactors 27.0% Ranked 66 out of 71 tracks
Superfectas 26.3% Ranked 64 out of 71 tracks
Pick 3's 26.3% Ranked 68 out of 71 tracks
Pick 4 and 6 25.0%
Keeneland (HANA's number 1 rated track; no slots)
Win Place Show 16.0%
All other bets 19.0%
Definitely, bet the Woodbine Pick 6, if you are so inclined, but keep your hands in your pockets or tread lightly if you bet triactors, supers, or Pick 3's.
Fort Erie Update
I forgot to report a couple of weeks ago that the consortium looking to buy Fort Erie race track waived the June 11th deadline.
In other words, there was no way in hell that they were going to get $35 million guaranteed by the government for the purchase.
So now what?
Nordic gets to keep the $2.5 million they extorted from various parties to keep racing going this year at the Fort.
The Consortium and the HBPA are now trying to come up with a viable solution to keep racing going for a long time. Noble as it may seem, they are really at square one, as they have to come up with dough to buy Nordic out. Whether it comes from one investor who buys the track, or a bunch of investors who buy bits and pieces, they need to most likely come up with a still unrealistic sum of money that Nordic will accept.
The $35 million was a joke, and with the Magna tracks coming onto the market soon, there are only so many buyers willing to buy a racetrack, so the demand for Fort Erie is definitely not great, especially when dealing with Nordic, who historically have overvalued the track by huge sums.
I think the governments participation as guarantor will depend on a couple of things. The price, and how close Fort Erie's bottom line is to break even. And it would have to be very close to break even if the government is to back them.
Again, the only real solution is to give Fort Erie a bigger cut of the revenues from slots, something the OLG doesn't seem to want to entertain.
Speaking of the OLG, they finally awarded the jackpot money to the person who thought he won 2 $1 million jackpots. He got what he was supposed to had there not been a "glitch": $5000.
UPDATE on Chad Beckon
Chad Beckon was involved in a terrible spill last night (Wednesday) at Woodbine. From the Toronto Star:
'Agent Tony Esposito said Beckon was alert immediately following the spill but began drifting in and out of consciousness before being admitted to Sunnybrook's critical care unit. He was to receive a CT scan this morning.
Beckon has two broken vertebrae, a broken nose and cheekbone and "some outer cranial bleeding," Esposito said.
"There's no internal bleeding, no internal injuries that we know and he's been X-rayed from head-to-toe. The only fractures are his face and spine," Esposito said.'
Full article here
5 comments:
Ajax Downs would be an excellent substitute for Fort Erie. I was there the 1st Sunday for Q/horse racing and the track layout is perfect for thorobreds of FE quality.
If it happens that thorobreds start racing at Ajax, my prediction is that betting will easily surpass FE handles.
How? Do they even have a turf course?
Woodbine should offer Nordic $10 Million (a pretty good deal for Nordic) and if they dont bite, build their own track (for about $10 Million) somewhere near the falls.
Just for clarification..... is weg actually putting up 150k cash or are they just guaranteeing apool of 150k? I think they are only guaranteeing amininum pool 0f 150k. So if there is ashort fallin the pool they will make up the difference. Correct me if I am wrong!
Anon, they are putting it in. Not a guarantee.
They need the pools to add $600,000 in new money to break even on it. That is why Mitchell stated that if the pick 6 isn't gone in three weeks, they should wind up ahead of the game.
And it is very difficult to hit a pick 3 at Woodbine let alone a pick 6.
They also expect handle to go up as more people will handicap the pick 6 and these people will most likely play other races on the card, and from Woodbine's standpoint, maybe they'll get more long term Woodbine players.
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