The New York State Legislature passed a bill last year, which requires “multi-jurisdictional account wagering providers” (MAWPs) to pay a “market origin fee” on all wagers made by New York residents who use the MAWPs’ wagering services, regardless of whether the wager is made on a New York track or a track in another state. The market origin fee requires the MAWPs to pay 5% of each wager made by a New York resident who has an account with the MAWP to the “market origin account” maintained by state racing commission. The question remains: is this constitutional? Continue reading Hold Your Horses: Advanced Deposit Wagering, The Dormant Commerce Clause and New York’s Market Origin Fee
Category Archives: Handicapping
The Kentucky Derby Point System: Two Years In, Has It Been Successful?
From the time it was announced, the point system devised by Churchill Downs for determining Kentucky Derby entrants received a significant amount of attention, discussion, and criticism. In its inception, the switch from graded stake earnings to the point system had a few goals:
1. Emphasize the prep races closer to the Derby so that horses “on form” are more likely to gain entry;
2. Eliminate the influence of prep races that were shorter than 1 mile, but nevertheless yielded graded stakes earnings (i.e. the Hutchison Stakes at Gulfstream; the Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct);
3. Eliminate the influence of graded stakes races run on turf (i.e. the Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream;
4. Eliminate the possibility of a filly qualifying by running in restricted races only;
5. Screw Hawthorne Race Course and the Illinois Derby.
Fundamentally, the purpose of the system was to try to get the 20 best three year old route horses as of the first Saturday in May into the gate at Churchill Downs. But now that we have completed two years of the point system, is the system working?
Continue reading The Kentucky Derby Point System: Two Years In, Has It Been Successful?
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Handicapping Potential Host Sites for Breeders Cup 2015-Part 1 of 3
Breeders’ Cup Limited’s decision on where to host the 2015 Breeders’ Cup may be the most significant and telling decision in the organization’s history. Continue reading Handicapping Potential Host Sites for Breeders Cup 2015-Part 1 of 3