We kick off with the Swan Hill Cup tonight and how privileged are the locals to have Guaranteed and Hector Jay Jay going around in their $30k cup. Guaranteed resuming would have been coup enough in my book but to also have the Interdom Fav is sensational for the locals. There will be $30k cups later in the season which wont attract better than Smudge Bromac - no criticism intended, just pointing out how lucky Swan Hill are tonight.
They know how to attract a field as last year it was won by the Hunter Cup winner Arden Rooney before he headed off to win the NZ Cup. It will be a Tk Rec tonight as AR's wonderful 1.57.3 was for the 2790m SS with AR coming off 30m while tonight is now of course from the mobile. I do not think anyone can argue that tonight would have been a much better contest as a handicap but then again they may not have attracted the top 2.
I hope we will have a poster in attendance to report that they have a huge crowd. If we did not have visitors this weekend I would go myself as it is < 3hrs - and that is a turn around from a guy who did not even go to the local meet on Thursday! If great horses cannot pull a crowd then we are in big trouble. If you cannot be there tune in at 9pm tonight folks
https://www.harness.org.au/fields.cf...romstate=vic#7
ps Looking up Arden Rooney is another one of those schemozzles where you have to go between 2 sites to study his performances but at least NZ acknowledges his Aus form.
Last edited by Messenger; 10-15-2016 at 01:45 PM.
Greg Sugars was a Champion harness racing person
Should be a good crowd in attendance as the local radio station sponsors the race and HRV are this season promoting "in town" a day or two before each Cup, handing out flyers etc plus promoting on the new trots segment on SportsDay regional syndicated radio show.
A good way to convert people into followers of the sport by capturing their interest in these regional events they attend.
Extra stakes for many of the Pacing and Trotting Cup races this season too!
I saw some of the promotion on the Swan Hill facebook page KyleOriginally Posted by Amlin
I remember musing about the idea of concentrating on capturing country folk in the thread
http://www.harnessracingforum.com/sh...n-and-Menangle
and Cody told me this was going to happen
Hector running home in 53.1 was the stuff that sticks in your memory so I hope we hear the attendance was super
Greg Sugars was a Champion harness racing person
Any of our posters go last night?
How many were there?
What did it cost to get in?
I think the majority of the admittance if not all of it was going to the 4 charities that attendees had to vote for - call me heartless but I would hate to think that too high an admittance could effect attendance when we needed to maximize it. From a marketing perspective, if the organizations had huge community numbers eg the local schools - it could be an attendance winner
I know some things are bigger than the industry but Country Cups have to be about the industry because I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that we are fighting for our survival
Greg Sugars was a Champion harness racing person
http://www.harnesslink.com/Australia...h-new-approach
It certainly sounds like it was a success and that the 4 charities was an interesting approach. I would still like to know what admittance cost. The real positives are undoubtedly:
“We can easily reach harness racing people, but these community groups can reach many other people who previously haven’t been involved in the trots.
“Already we’ve had a lot of community groups keen to do it next year, so that will be great.”
It was also interesting to read
Ms Watson said all who saw star pacer Hectorjayjay mercilessly slay his rivals in the cup would appreciate the memory, but added she received feedback from punters bemoaning “too many short-priced favourites”.
“I definitely received more feedback on that issue on the night, but unfortunately that’s something that’s not within my scope,” she said.
4/8 races had long odds on faves, 3 of whom won, and 3 other favourites who all won were not much better than Even money
http://www.harness.org.au/meeting-re...D151016&ms=vic
People not familiar with the trots but maybe the gallops are used to more value
IMO long odds on favourites really only suit a handful of pro punters whom we seem to be too reliant on
Greg Sugars was a Champion harness racing person
People in the gallops certainly are used to that Kevin and HRV has made it clear the aim is to find ways to reduce long odds-on favs.
From my own personal observations having followed both codes most of my life, it's not correct to think trots markets should be the same as gallops markets. To really use a simplified argument before I go on, I could say Australian rules football is one of the most popular forms of gambling in Australia and punters there are not afraid of two-horse fields with generally one long odds-on favourite! Footy punters know what they are getting and they sign up for it when they place a wager.
In the trots, I will have more 1 unit win x 3 units place bets if I'm taking on a favourite, whereas in the gallops if I'm taking on a favourite I might simply play each-way. Reason for this is generally favourites in the trots are - and this is as traditional as stand-starts or hot chips on race day - shorter than in the gallops.
Just because they are "shorter than in the gallops" however, doesn't necessarily mean that is a huge negative. The feedback from wagering service providers tells us the sweet spot for a favourite's price to produce optimum turnover - and thus maximum return to the industry - is about $1.8 to $2.5 (give or take). So technically "odds-on favourites" are not dirty words, but admittedly $1.45 to $1.8 is not ideal, and $1.4 and shorter is detrimental to turnover, and thus returns to industry.
Cody, we are indeed a different animal. I think one of the concerns is that people get burnt more often by odds on pops in harness with 40% of them losing. They also don't seem to understand that the horses do not set their odds and sometimes see long odds on pops being beaten as 'dodgy'.
I think a bigger concern is that I am pretty sure it is a smallish pool of big punters that creates our turnover. One of my proofs of this is the way any carryover jackpot to a following race always results in a huge increase in the next race's tri or First 4 pool. It is undoubtedly pros - most average punters are not even going to know there is a carryover. The dependence on very few makes one very vulnerable
So far changes are not working as we are still seeing 44% Odds on faves.
My biggest concerns are the number of meeting only having 6 or 7 races and the fact that we are so far behind the gallops in media coverage.
Let's hope the Country Cups captures rural Victoria as we do not have a city presence
Greg Sugars was a Champion harness racing person
Kevin, I mentioned above, $1.8 to $2.5 is optimum favourite price to ensure best returns for harness racing industry. This information is direct from wagering service providers.
Thus any assumption that "all odds-on favourites are bad for the industry" is incorrect. And any statistic that lumps all odds-on favourites in the one pod, eg: "44% odds-on favourites" is superfluous because some of those are I'm guessing optimum favourite price ($1.8 to $1.95).
HRV is hoping to reduce the number of $1.4 to $1.04 favourites, because that bracket of odds-on pops results in reduced turnover on races and thus reduced returns to the industry.
I am not necessarily convinced that short favourites are definitely bad for turnover (except for the fact that I AM convinced that it is a small band of pros) for the Tri and First 4 pools are sometimes very large with an odds on pop
If wagering service providers are right they would have to be concerned that after 360 races 33% have been $1.70 or worse
Last edited by Messenger; 10-19-2016 at 02:02 AM.
Greg Sugars was a Champion harness racing person
Not having been to Swan Hill track and somehow I did not pick it up until watching In The Gig but the trots track is miles away from the people.
Good luck converting newbs when our horses are even further away than the gallopers.
If we cannot utilize the excitement an actual trots venue offers then we may as well race on the gallopers grass
Greg Sugars was a Champion harness racing person
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