JC / Railbird

Churchill Downs

That’s Not a Mint Julep

… Mad Men character Peggy Olsen is holding in the video still below, found on the official Churchill Downs’ “Plan Your Derby Party” page:

At least it’s not Roger Sterling in blackface singing “My Old Kentucky Home.” That really could have been embarrassing.

From the Twitterverse: Says o_crunk, “@EJXD2 solid marketing. Ganja goes down better than a mint julep. Untapped potential in couch potato potheads waiting to get hooked on TVG.” Of course! Churchill is wisely reaching out.

2/8/10 Update: So, it wasn’t subversive marketing, after all. The Derby Party page is now free of all mentions of Mad Men and the episode three video clip.

Posted in Miscellany on February 4, 2010 / Tagged Churchill Downs, Derby Parties, Funny, Kentucky Derby, Mad Men

Night Numbers

By all accounts, Churchill Downs’ inaugural night of racing was a success: “It looks like the Dubai World Cup,” said jockey Julien Leparoux, surveying the crowd (Daily Racing Form); “We had to park and walk like it was Oaks or Derby day,” said an attendee (Paulick Report). The final attendance figure announced by Churchill was a healthy 28,011 for a card without a major stakes. But what about handle? As @superterrific noticed,

… all the reports of success don’t include handle …

Churchill no longer releases handle totals, but it is possible to glean clues about last night’s wagering from the pool data included on Equibase charts. For instance, on Friday, June 12, $1,966,831 was wagered WPS on 11 regularly scheduled races compared to the $2,309,563 that was wagered WPS yesterday on 11 nighttime races. That’s an increase of approximately 17% in the WPS pools week to week. In the late Pick 4 pool, $103,062 was wagered the previous Friday versus $137,689 last night, a 34% bump (the first Pick 4 pool was up 14%). Pick 3 pools totaled $273,409 compared to $243,508, up 12%. The tiny Pick 6 pool was up 80%, going from $4,811 last Friday to $8,653 last night. Total exacta pools showed some of the smallest growth, up a mere 6%, or $1,584,627 last night compared to $1,500,217 the week before.

Overall, not bad, considering the crowd skewed young and casual (Aside: Churchill took much criticism for raising the track entrance fee to $10, but clearly that didn’t keep people away and it surely made up for some of what many attendees didn’t — and wouldn’t have — bet). Looking at what information is available, it seems safe to conclude even without official figures that night racing was a win for handle as well as attendance.

Addendum: Curious about the totals, I returned to the charts and tallied all the pools for both dates. On June 12, total handle came to $5,872,007; on June 19, $6,526,603, an increase of 11%. Without figures from Churchill, it’s impossible to know the breakdown between on- and off-track wagering and whether on-track bettors wagered less per capita Friday night or how simulcast wagering might have been affected. Regarding the latter, it does seem likely the late post-times resulted in depressed off-track handle: The first three races on Friday night were the only races where pool totals didn’t exceed totals from the previous week. It was in race four, which had a post-time of 7:30 p.m., that wagering took off, with $704,666 wagered compared to $387,382 the week before. Take the first three races out of the totals for both days, and Churchill handle was up almost 18% for races four through eleven.

6/21/09 Update: The Courier-Journal reports that Churchill Downs took in $6.5 million from all sources (the same number I came to above), “a 32 percent increase.” Since the reporter earlier referenced 2008 numbers in discussing on-track numbers, I’m going to assume that this increase also represents a year to year comparison, not a week to week.

Posted in Industry on June 20, 2009 / Tagged Business, Churchill Downs, Handle, Night Racing, Wagering

Derby Eve Notes

– First, of course: Rachel Alexandra. Winner of the Oaks by a record 20 1/4 lengths, all while looking like she was out for a jog. “Breathtaking,” “one-of-a-kind freak,” “wow, wow, wow,” and possibly “the most dominating victory in a major race since Secretariat’s Belmont Stakes,” were just a few of the immediate reactions. Magnificent, I’ll add. Awesome. A final eighth in :12.16, a final three furlongs in :37.06, all without jockey Calvin Borel moving. Not a shake of the reins, not a flick of the whip, urged her to that beautiful widening lead down the Churchill stretch.

In the April 18 issue of the Thoroughbred Times, an excerpt from Regret’s 1934 obituary appeared on the final page. Regret was the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby; Rachel Alexandra looked every bit like she could have become the fourth. “Peerless Regret she was hailed and peerless she undoubtedly was,” recalled the writer, “and to this day we have never been able to think of her without that descriptive adjective affixed.” It is now affixed to Rachel Alexandra, wherever her career takes the filly.

– Props to announcer Mark Johnson for making the most of what could have been a bland call and deftly incorporating Borel’s stretch mugging into his patter with impeccable timing: “Borel looks over his right shoulder, no danger!,” he says as the rider’s head ducks. “Over his left shoulder, no danger!”

– Derby picks: Instead of adding to the glut, I’ll point to this page, on which can be found a surfeit of sharp handicapping, selections, analysis, etc. After taking a first pass through the Derby past performances, I landed on Friesan Fire, who I’d previously dismissed except as an exotic possibility, due to the seven week layoff and the lack of a nine furlong prep. I see I wasn’t the only convert — several of the contributors to the HRI Media Poll tabbed him on top, and the Larry Jones trainee is the 9-2 favorite in early Derby wagering. Except — now, I’ve taken a second pass and while Friesan Fire strikes me as a must-use horse, I’m not so confident he’s a winner. (That layoff!) What will I do on Saturday? I’m not sure yet … but I will be using Friesan Fire, Regal Ransom, and Dunkirk as A horses; Papa Clem, Desert Party, and I Want Revenge as B horses; Musket Man, Mr. Hot Stuff, and Pioneerof the Nile as C horses. Yes, that’s right … I’ve narrowed the Derby down to nine horses.

– In the second installment of the Blinkers Off chronicles, our special correspondent wades into the sea of humanity that is the Oaks crowd.

– Just a lovely piece of writing: The legend tutors the rookie in Derby riding. “‘An option will open for you,’ the legend tells the rookie … ‘Wait for it. Wait for it to appear. If you move early, you’ll pay the price.'”

Posted in Racing on May 2, 2009 / Tagged Blinkers Off, Churchill Downs, Jockeys, Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks, Rachel Alexandra

Blinkers Off Returns

Special correspondent Blinkers Off is once again roaming the Churchill backstretch and filing irreverent posts …

While this idiocy was going on, Papa Clem went out and whistled three furlongs in 34 seconds. A very fine reporter, actually paying attention, said the horse looked like he wasn’t even trying…

Tom Law, managing editor at Thoroughbred Times, picks him.

Later on, Nowhere to Hide went out for a gallop at 8:30 a.m. Nick Zito looked embarrassed to be there with such a popgun. All I could think of was the year he ran five and had a plastic fence installed around his barn to keep away the riffraff. This year, he’s running the riffraff.

This spring, though, instead of posting on Railbird, Blinkers Off is over at Raceday 360, which is beginning its expansion into original content. More on that development sometime Friday, right after a couple database issues afflicting the site this evening are addressed (items are slow to add, pages may be slow to load). Also, a bit of Oaks, and more Derby.

Posted in Racing on April 30, 2009 / Tagged Backstretch, Blinkers Off, Churchill Downs, Kentucky Derby