Punters set to cash in as National Tote sparks bookie battle
Punters should brace for a very competitive marketplace in terms of promotions this spring as the TAB introduces a Single National tote pool.
The launch has seen bookmakers model what product they could offer when best-of-three totes will no longer exist.
They have modelled tote plus five per cent and tote plus 10 per cent, but those products would also come with higher race fields fees.
Some bookies are looking to base their promotion around a fixed-odds product, so it won’t help promote the National tote.
Others see tote plus five percent as the place to fall, perhaps with a guarantee of starting price as well. They could even go to tote plus 10 percent for exotic bets like quaddies.
The winner will be the punter, who will have big choice of offers.
With the changes coming to the on-line gambling laws in the new year, bookies will look to leverage offers to maintain, and grow, their market share.
The TAB is sure to hit market with a strong push to get punters back to the tote, as the bigger the pool, the better.
The start date of the beginning of October for National Tote will bring on more competition, which can only be good for punters.
Autumn Glow a NSW star but not Australian horse-of-the-year
Autumn Glow was named Australian horse-of-the-year last week and let’s just remember it is Australian horse-of-the-year.
She has never raced outside Sydney but was judged the best horse in the country.
Remarkably, three-time Group 1 winner Sir Delius finished fifth in the count even though he won in Melbourne and Sydney, and in the spring and autumn.
In the spring he beat Via Sistina before being banned from continuing his campaign by the controversial Racing Victoria scans.
He came back in the autumn and on Autumn Glow’s biggest day, demolished her at 2000m in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
For mine, Sir Delius was clearly the best horse of the season, taking nothing away from the boom around the mighty mare.
Metropolitan downgrade won’t change the field
Racing NSW has always said it wouldn’t mind seeing some of its Group 1 races downgraded and the Metropolitan became the first to lose its premier status last Thursday.
The decision of the Asian Pattern Committee came after Racing NSW decided to keep the Metropolitan as a handicap rather than making it a set weights and penalties race.
It is a nod to history, but also an acceptance that at 2400m our horses aren’t competitive at the highest level internationally.
If you are going to take upgrades, you need to accept downgrades.
Being a Group 2 will not lessen the field that turns up for the Metropolitan at Randwick on the October long weekend and this is the way the Pattern is supposed to work.
‘Shameful stunt’: Racing NSW hits back
It is no clearer when the Hazzard Report into the Thoroughbred Racing Act will be released after fiery Budget Estimates sessions.
Mark Latham, who has had his personal run-ins with Racing NSW, and Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann used the Estimates process to table documents relating to V’landys under parliamentary privilege.
But Racing NSW were clear there was nothing to see here.
“This is nothing more than a shameful stunt. It is so factually incorrect, that it destroys their credibility even raising it,” a Racing NSW spokesman said.
“What Mr V’landys had previously said was 100 per cent accurate and to say that he committed perjury is laughable.”
Racing NSW confirmed the document tabled was a deed of release document related to a male employee, who was terminated due to his conduct in the workplace.
As for the Hazzard Report, NSW Racing Minister David Harris told the committee it was in the cabinet process and could not give a timeline for its public release.
It needs to be made public to stop any innuendo.
One for the punters
Guest House broke one of the oldest track records in Australian racing in the San Domenico Stakes, but it was the style he did it that was more impressive. Zac Lloyd gave him a brilliant steer, and then when he asked the star colt to take an inside run, he bulldozed his way through it and stormed away. If not for Ka Ying Rising he would be a clear Everest favourite. Let’s hope he continues to step up, which will be his next test.
One from the stewards
Tom Kitten had a lot more to give in the Memsie Stakes and stewards noted his traffic problem in the straight. “Approaching the 400m shifted out and became unbalanced after bumping with Birdman (IRE). Held up from the 400m until passing the 200m. Again held up over the concluding stages and ultimately was not able to be fully tested,” they reported.
One for the bookies
American Eagle drew a lot of attention winning the McNeil Stakes after a perfect run. The time is worrying, more than a second slower than the fillies, and there are much better three-year-old options going forward. He will always start short in betting because he is owned by a micro-ownership company, so use that to your advantage.
One for the futures
There is not much fat left in future markets these days, but the fourth by Zahrann in the Heatherlie Stakes was an eyecatcher from a Cups perspective. A black-type winner in Europe, he will have enough weight to get into the Caulfield Cup, where he is $15 chance at the TAB, and he is $26 in the Melbourne Cup.
