Horseplayers Impact

[km]

Frustrated with being treated like cannon fodder by the racetrack industry?

Mayo and others have posted an idea to encourage horseplayers to become easily and painlessly involved with taking action - no dues, credit cards, membership or anything like that. The idea is easy for everyone to get active with because all you have to do is bet a few bucks on a designated race.

Read more here for an explanation and stay tuned. Don't be cynical, anything is worth trying.

http://blog.horseplayersassociation....-we-stand.html

[SPIKE]

GREAT PLAN

I am all in. What an awesome plan. Lets do this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[Bob]

Fantastic idea!

I'm in.

Bob G

[tomcat]

Mayo, Great idea.
Now, if they ask what we want.....or if someone says "bet at our track", or we are not going
to bet at that track......where do we go from here?

[DanG]

Good people with selfless goals working for us.

Officers:

Jeff Platt, President
John Swetye, Vice President
Theresia Muller, Treasurer
Dean Towers, Secretary

Advisory Board:

Cary Fotias
Dr. William Ziemba
Nick Mordin
Barry Meadow

[phantom]

RACING

Phantom is in!
Now here is my feedback!
Once we get more information on this and know what Track and Race Card,then we pick a horse
to Bet on that we all agree on!Example [TRACK]---[LRL]---[RACE]--[4]---[HORSE] [5]--$100 to
WIN on [ 5] Now were not looking at the odds,just the WIN! You take about 20 or 30 members doing
this then the Track will take notice!If we as members of HTR can put this together and maybe KEN
and RICK can jump in with there ideas,just maybe we can be a part of help Racing ! I know that I
can pick at lease 8 WINNERS out of 9 at most East coast Tracks!
What betting venu do we use?
Gus

[NC Tony]

Ken and Mike,

We had similar discussions over a year ago on the Thorograph board.

I am all in, as this is one of the few way's us bettors will finally get noticed.

If you want I could try to introduce this back over there if there is interest. Not sure what has already been discussed behind the scenes.

NC Tony

[km]

NC and everyone: Please post the link to the letter on any other bbs or chat board you frequent - thanks

Phantom, they will announce the track.date.race for the "all in" bet after getting the message out to more people

[Mayo]

I wanted to thank everyone who has responded so far. I must say that since I have released this idea publically I have had only ONE negative response. All others have been absolutely positive and everyone has said they wanted to participate.

Let me tell everyone what Ross and I have come up with so far. We participated in a conference call this past Wed night with the Board of Directors of Horseplayers Association of North America (HANA) at their request. The discussion was very positive and upbeat by all who were on the call. This group is very informed about our industry and seems up to date on just about anything that is going on. They knew about the MEC bankruptcy filing for the next day before it actually happened. Ross and I agreed to let this group run with this idea because they already have a website and have about 650 members. Our goal was to use the email databases from HTR, Horseplayer magazine, and Public Handicapper and direct everyone to the HANA site to read the letter and sign up with HANA if they were interested (it is FREE to sign up). At the end of my letter is a link to sign up with HANA which will in turn get you in the database to participate in this idea.

We have not exactly decided who and how we will select the track and race each week. That will be discussed next Wed night on the Board of Directors conference call. The Board at HANA wanted to wait and see what kind of response was generated by this idea. Everything that has come through so far as been absolutely great and more people are signing up daily. I encourage as many people to sign up in the next two weeks as we hope to move forward and use WEDNESDAY APRIL 1 ( and no this is no APRIL FOOLS JOKE) as our first betting day. I can tell you we will bet the small tracks first to keep the individual bets at a reasonable amount and allow our group to grow. This will also allow us to have an immediate impact which will be noticeable to the selected track. As we grow we will be able to move to the larger ones. Right now we want to keep this POSITIVE and help the smaller individual track operators with a bump in their handle. The good folks at HANA have already compiled a list of target tracks for the first few weeks. We want to keep this kind of quiet with the track operators until we get this ball rolling.

I encourage each of your to send this link or the HANA link to as many fellow horseplayers that you know. Some non members of HTR may not read this post but will want to participate. After all, no matter what software or publication any of us use, we are ALL in the same boat as horseplayers.

Thanks again

Mike Mayo

[MVM]

Sounds like a great idea. Far, far easier to make a dramatic positive impact on a pool than it is to have a substantial negative effect.

I'm kind of of the same mindset as Tomcat. It's important to me to understand what the desired end result of this effort would be. What type of changes would we as a group be seeking?

The committment to the weekly pool is an easy one to make, but if this proceeds as planned our group will actually need to assume a much tougher committment if we actually want our desired changes to take root.

[Mayo]

As I explained in the letter, we want to try and keep things positive at first. As the group grows, as well as the block of MONEY, we can then make just about any impact we want either positive or negative. Our ultimate goal is to get to a Million $$ a week in block money as well personal money that members want to bet outside the block. All of us realize it will take a while and more recruitment of members over a year period or so to get to our goal. We do believe with time and good publicity that is very attainable. A million a week is significant and could easily influence the pools of any single race at most race tracks. That is why we are targeting the small tracks first because we want to have an immediate impact with smaller amounts of money until our group grows. This will certainly help them and hopefully get them interested in our movement. Perhaps these race tracks could offer inducements such as lower takeout on certain bets etc in order for our membership to continue to bet these tracks with our dollars outside the group. The larger tracks would then have to take notice and perhaps follow suit. ALL HORSEPLAYERS KNOW THAT LOWER TAKEOUT MEANS LARGER HANDLE. This fact seems to have slipped the mind of track operators or they just choose to ignore it. We could use Maryland as an example. They just raised the takeout to 25% on all pk3 and pk4 wagers up from 14%. Now is that encouragement for any of us to continue to bet those pools. I think NOT.
That is just one example of how we could make an impact. There are many other negative impacts (creating negative show pools etc) we could have with a half a million to a million dollar block of money. However that is not our ultimate goal and we certainly hope we are not forced to do something like that.

If things grow as hoped over the next 3 months or so and we can prove the positive impact, I feel sure the word will get out and we can get good publicity from the DRF and other racing publications as well as the tracks which we have helped. This is in turn should bring in more members to our group.

I hope this has answered some of the questions anyone may have.

Sincerely,

Mike Mayo

[dehere]

This is not a negative post - its just that I'm thick.

So, let me get this straight. You are asking horseplayers to play $100 to win in a race starting with small tracks so that, should the horse actually win, we stand to make a buck or two. If the horse loses, oh well. You are asking this in a tough economy when $100 may be more than some (many) horseplayers budget for a day at the track.

Okay, let's say I'm all in favor of horseplayers having their voice heard, but let's say I'm cheap (actually, there's no "let's say" about it - i am cheap). So I say, "go Mayo" "go everybody". I want to reap the rewards of what you are doing but I just ain't all that inclined to spend $100 a week for the privilege of being a part of it all. Me thinks I may not be the only bloke who takes that approach. Without these blokes such as myself - and there are probably more of them than there are those with $430 to invest each month "for the greater good" - can this plan succeed?

Anyway, what this thick brain can't figure out is - how is this better than an organized boycott where the absence of betting highlights the bettor's actions rather than the presence of, shall we say, excessive betting? Heck, even the underemployed guy can go along with that gameplan. And, what about the whales? What if they felt the same way about a horseplayer's coalition? What if they could be talked into boycotting a stakes race or two - or better yet, refusing to fund a guaranteed $500,000 pick four or two?

So, this is basically an inquiry - help me out here Mayo - how does this plan appeal to the horseplayer who is fretting about coming home at the end of the day and telling the wife (or the husband), "sorry honey, not a good day at the track" and then sitting down with the bills and parceling out a minimum payment on a credit card here and there? Does he look forward to the next week end when he gets to spend another $100 to help the horseplayers' cause?

[Gambler]

Nice post Henry. I agree with your thoughts.

[Wright Stuff]

One bettor SCREAMS for attention. A thousand bettors DEMAND attention. The BIG picture is to show the powers that be that there is a UNIFIED force dedicated to positive change. As I write this, the powers that be can do what they want and things will NEVER change. They know this. If we SMACK them in the head with our collective actions we CAN make a POSITIVE change in the sport that we all love even if some/all lose a few dollars in the process. MONEY moves this sport and our combined money WILL make a difference. We ALL lose money chasing a long shot. We all have different spending limits. Some of us can help make this work without spending a penny. It's all about UNITING for CHANGE. We ALL MUST play a part. Collectively, we can turn this long shot into OUR favorite. The BIG picture should be our goal. The alternative is the SAME crap---DIFFERENT day. I vote for change.

[Mayo]

Henry,

I would hate to see your negative response if this one is not. However since you asked me to help you out I will certainly try. I am pretty sure I have explained this thing pretty clearly and I do not remember saying everyone had to bet $100 to win on any race. In my original letter I explained that everyone certainly has their own betting threshold or confort zone. It was never the intention for anyone to deviate from that. The numbers used were simply for math purposes to show how our money bet together would add up. The way this thing will eventually be set up is most everyone can bet whatever amount ($10, 20, 50, 100 or more per race) they want and any way (wps, exacta, trifecta, etc) they want as long as it is in the designated race for that week. We certainly do not want to have everyone bet the same way or to bet more than they are comfortable with. That is obviously what our sport is about. Again I am trying to keep this thing in a positive mode. Boycotting is certainly not positive. That is something that could be done down the road if a certain situation dictates.

This was simply an idea that was put out to see if there was enough interest to make it work. Based on the responses so far, I would have to say yes, it is very probable. If you or anyone else has a better idea to truly help our sport then I am all ears and will certainly listen. If you wish to participate then we would be glad to have you. If not, then we certainly understand. Again, I thank you for your opinion and certainly respect it. I hope my explanation helps.

Sincerely,

Mike Mayo