Page 22 - June 2005 The Game

22 The Game, June 2005 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
The 20 Cent Superfecta:
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
From the Oval to a Ring
By Peter Gross
The recent idea by Woodbine Entertainment to initiate 20-cent betting on superfectas has some horseplayers (well me, at least) giddy with excitement. This is an innovation so attractive, it's impossible to see a down side.
When the superfecta was created, the point was to give the fans a large payoff to shoot for by challenging them to select the first four finishers in a race. Problem was, the seemingly endless possibilities made the bet intimidating for the $5-$10 player. To box four horses for $24 or 5 for $120 was just too costly to get involved.
But 20 cents a play - heck you can't even buy a newspaper for 20 cents these days. Twenty cents might get you four minutes of parking at Victoria and Adelaide, which I can pretty well assure you won't be nearly as exciting as watch- ing the field for the fifth come flying to the wire knowing you've got a shot at a week's pay in an instant.
For those of you who might be some- what mathematically challenged, at 20 cents a pop, you can now box four horses in the superfecta for just $4.80. A five- horse box will cost you $24. Take all com- binations of six runners and you're in for $72.00. At a dollar a bet, a six-horse box sells for $336.00
Let's say you were going to put $30 to win on a horse you love in the last race. Instead of putting it to win you could key that horse with six others to finish in sec- ond, third and fourth. That would run you $24 and if one of those runner-up horses is a bit of a longshot, you could have yourself a pleasant moment at the cashier's window.
We already have some tempting exam- ples. On May 6th, the first day of 20-cent superfecta wagering, $30 to win on Whiskey Swish in the fifth would have returned $114.00, while a 20-cent invest- ment in the super cashed for $176.80. In the 9th race that day, $30 to win on Mazengah was good for $355.00, but your 20-cent superfecta returned over $1875.00.
Hang on though. On Wednesday night, May 18th, the 2-4-13-12 superfecta in the 8th race posted a payoff of $109,190.25 for a $1 wager. However, since just $29,694 was bet in that pool, we can calculate that there was only one successful bet on that combo and it must have been a 20-center which paid $21,383.05.
20 cents bet. Over $21,000 cashed.
Can you say Dinner on me?
The beautiful thing about this is that it creates a more level playing field between the heavy bettors and the ones who are just out to have some fun. Trust me, in a twelve-horse field, if the five horses mov- ing towards the front in the final furlong match the numbers in your super, you're going to reach your maximum pulse rate in a hurry.
Woodbine, wisely, took their cue from other racing jurisdictions, which were already experimenting with the 20-cent idea, In fact, Keeneland offered ten-cent superfectas during their spring meet.
Steve Mitchell, Woodbine's Sr. V-P of Operations examined what was happening south of the border and saw a good idea waiting to happen.
"The U.S. tracks that implemented this certainly have had positive wagering results," says Mitchell,
"Even the big players like to cover up some of the longshot possibilities with 20- cent bets. We've had only positive feed- back since we introduced it."
That the superfecta pools are showing more action is beneficial, but Mitchell is enthused about something beyond parimutuel profits.
"There are more winners being generat- ed," he says, " And that creates goodwill among our customers."
It's a way of telling the racing fan that he or she matters and in this lottery mentality world we live in, numbers players should be absorbing the arithmetic.
A year ago, the Ontario Lottery Corporation decided to raise the price of a 649 ticket to $2 a shot. But in doing so, they kept the payoffs the same for the lower prizes. Three out of six numbers is still $10. Four out of ten still pays less than $100. Racing fans would go postal if they watched their 9-1 shot win and then were paid off at 4-1, but lottery players, who are, collectively, about as bright as a flock of hens, barely made a peep. Where was Pamela Lee Anderson when she was real- ly needed?
The 20 cent superfecta. We're giving it both thumbs up. Now we're looking for- ward to the 20 cent win-place-show bet, the 20 cent Racing Form, and, of course, the 20 cent beer.
(Editor's note: Peter was offered 20 cents for this column, but held out for his regular fee.)
By Kelly MacKay
When Regina Sealock took out her apprentice jockey license in 1985, she never thought she would still be riding successfully twenty years later. But On Monday May 16, Irwin Driedger, head of the Jockeys’ Benefit Association of Canada, handed Regina her twenty-year service ring.
Regina didn’t say a
word instead she focused
on the business at hand and went out and rode Backstretch Gossip, to a maiden victory in the first race.
Only when she returned to the jocks room, cleaned up, and readied for her next race, did she put on her hard-earned ring and show the rest of us riders.
The ring is a coveted accolade in the jockey colony because it is not given to you because you rode the best horses that year or won the most races, it is given because twenty years around the oval is quite an accomplishment and it certainly garners a great deal of respect.
Regina started her riding career in Alberta between Northlands Park in Edmonton, and Stampede Park in Calgary. In 1990 she moved her tack to Fort Erie where she became a regular rider on the local circuit. In 1998, Regina, looking for some new scenery once again, found herself in Winnipeg riding weekdays and at Saskatoon on the weekends. Regina recalls her adventures in the West, “Going to Saskatoon was a blast. It got me back in the game and made me realize why I love to ride.”
Twenty years of race riding has taken her to many other locations including: Hastings Park in Vancouver; Finger Lakes Racecourse in New York; Turf Paradise in Phoenix Arizona; Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky; and Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs in Florida.
Regina’s travels have earned her 646 first place finishes and five stakes
victories.
It hasn’t always been an easy road
though. A compression fracture in her back when she was an apprentice, a broken knee in 1996, broken ribs, a broken hand, a fractured leg, and separated collar bone are just a few of the injuries that have side- lined her over he years, but none of them were enough to keep her from returning to competition.
When asked what keeps her motivated? She replies, “I like to win! I’ll do it a few more years, god willing and the creek don’t rise.”
Regina says she has been fortunate and the racetrack has been good to her. Receiving this ring gives her a lot of personal satisfaction.
Regina is known to be very dedicated and passionate about the sport and is looked up to by her peers. Laurie Gulas, another member of the female riding colony sums it up by saying, “To have stayed competitive at such a hard game for so many years is a wonderful accomplishment.”
Laurie Back in the Saddle
Jockey Laurie Gulas is back in the saddle after more than a year off after fracturing her neck.
Laurie says that she is galloping at Woodbine in the mornings and spends one day a week getting on some of her favorite horses at Fort Erie.
Laurie is taking the time galloping to make sure she is completely ready coming off of such a serious injury and figures she will be back racing in June.
Jockey Regina Sealock dis- plays her 20-year ring
Laurie Gulas at Fort Erie
Did You Know....
That last year’s Champion Apprentice Jockey Corey Fraser, suffered a broken nose when he was bumped by his mount Gangster in the paddock at Woodbine on May 15.
Jockey Robert King Jr. took over the mount on Gangster and finished fourth. Corey’s other two mounts that day both won while Corey was at hospital.
Corey is currently second in the jockey standings at Woodbine with 17 wins, 16 seconds, and 12 thirds with $774,453 in the bank in 87 starts.
He sits close behind current leader Patrick Husbands who has a record of 19 wins, 19 seconds, and 18 thirds and $955,283 in earnings in 118 starts. Jim McAleney (15-16-15 $1,059,109), Todd Kabel (15-8-6 $991,998) and
David Clark (13-7-7 $701,723) round out the top five as of May 23, 2005.
Cassandra Frack (middle with red hair and pink silks) received a wonderful birthday present when the Fort Erie jockey colony agreed to pose with her for a birthday photo. The jockeys provided Cassandra with a set of silks for the photo which was arranged by her Godfather Laverne Johnson, who is a hotwalker for Alan Bird. Cassandra turns 10-years-old in June. Photo by Patricia Burns