A wager with a low Takeout show pool that is offered for on-track fans Oaklawn Park Come as part of the Scorching Springs, Ark.
The simplest bet in racing proves to be popular with fans who appear every day in Oaklawn, which is enjoying a demographic population compared to other tracks, which includes more families, teenage people and modern racing fans. By offering a 10% takeover for show-Wagers that have been made on the track-in contrast to the 17% Rake-off-Track-Rawn Oaklawn customers who personally appear with higher payments of show pool payments for the race. These fans know a bargain when they see one.
In the first 38 days of the meeting from 2024-25, the track trade in Oaklawn reached $ 14,322,812 for $ 376,916. On the trail of this sum, $ 2,773,637 was awakened in the show pool; Good for $ 72,990 daily and to remove 19.4% of the pools.
The more beginner, which turns out for the greatest days of the track, support the show pool even more. The map on February 23 with the top 3 year olds in the $ 1.25 million Rebel Stakes (G2) recorded more than $ 220,000 in the show pool. More than 206,000 US dollars were used on March 8th in the show pool as a horse of the year Thorpedo Anna won the Azeri Stakes (G2). This latter has almost 25% of the track handle.
It is a study in an apparently lost art in the race: emigration. And the bet offers an entertaining way to enter sport, in contrast to a complicated selection 5 or something. Oaklawn, in turn, has followed the approach to give the customer what he wants.
“Our fans always enjoyed it to try tickets more often than to choose exotic and get the substantial wind case,” said Louis Cella, President of Oaklawn Park. “Our per capita betting is lower than just every track, but when you look at the pools, you can see that it is 2 -dollar -Show -Show -Betting players. But these fans come out in droves. They love it because it is entertainment.”
As part of this approach, Oaklawn tried to keep the concession prices low.
“Our secret sauce should always be fan -friendly and give them the opportunity to enjoy the day,” said Cella. “It is entertainment. It is not a gambling. It is entertainment. It is the sport of the horse race. Even more that you go on a track, you concentrate on the gambling dollar and not on the sport of racing and the entertainment value of it. This is the entire purpose of it.
“That is why we subsidized our food and our drink.
Races in the Oaklawn Park
Cella sees this approach as the key to the development of modern fans.
“We want to reward our fan on the track. And I spoke to many, many tracks, and I don't understand why other tracks don't,” said Cella. “It works. The bonus of the show -Bet works. We have younger fans, more fans. They are all tickets.
Cella believes that there is a market for this level of sports entertainment and races that can find fan support in this area.
“We encourage families to get out with their children, go to the infield and buy a warm dog and a cola and simply enjoy horse racing because we know that our job is to sell the sport. We know when these children grow up, they will return to Oaklawn because they have had a great experience,” said Cella.
A report that I was prepared for in this column on February 19 for the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission Prairie Offer a lower takeover (larger profit payments) for customers on the track and in the states to develop fans. Oaklawn's experience suggests that this approach pays out dividends.
At Oaklawn, the fans appear for half an hour or more in front of the route before the doors open for the race day. When the Track started its show pool bonus in 2017, the average daily number of visitors had fallen to 9,483. But it returned to a five-digit average in 2021-22 and reached 11,385 last year. The fans accepted the experience on the track.
“Well, who has the highest participation in a 65-day racing meeting and a younger population group?” “The evidence in pudding. There is no racing tax in the country that is half so. Nationally, it is usually between 6% and 9% in any jurisdiction.”
