The Facts According to This Media

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Bernies Blog

Today's subject, as it has been for weeks, is a continuing examination of the "Rise and fall of the thoroughbred industry - according to the media."

Most of the time, the media is swayed one way or another by statistics. But for some reason that can't be explained by rational people, statistics don't seem to matter when it comes the racing. So here are some stats that the media can add to its "ignore" list. What follows is the total handle for the country's five leading tracks for Saturday and Sunday, and the sum of those two days for each:

Gulfstream Park - $16,779,845 + $11,323,898 = $28,103,743.

Aqueduct - $8,122,279 + $7,112,272 = $15,234,551

Santa Anita - $13,003,218 +$11,563,028 = $24,566,246

Tampa Bay Downs - $5,009,549 + $3,427,719 = $8,437,268

Oaklawn Park - $9,124,972 + $2,459,555 = $11,584,335

Total for the five: $87,926,335. Other industries should be in such trouble.

Here's a little tidbit pertaining to the "the old players are dying off and no new players are being made" rant. At Oaklawn on Saturday, a crowd of 35,000 showed up to watch Cupid enter the Triple Crown picture with a sharp score in the Gr. II, $900,000 Rebel; Upstart return after a layoff of six months and romp in the Gr. III, $350,000 Razorback, and once unbeatable Untapable return after 5 1/2 months to get nailed in deep stretch by Call Pat in the Gr. II, $350,000 Azeri.

The on-track handle for the day was $2,122,102, a per capita of $60.63. Now, who are they trying to convince that 35,000 "oldies" turned out to bet $60 each for the day? A picture from overhead would no doubt show youngsters scurrying all over the place and having a ball.

Let's jump to the Mary Ellen Klas-Jeremy Wallace story a few weeks ago that informed us that "There's one thing that nobody's talking about - the slots are declining, too." Here's a fact: The Resorts World Casino New York City (at Aqueduct) has one week left in its fiscal year. The record year for the casino was 2014-2015 when $18.3 billion was dropped into the 5,000 machines, and the net revenue was $813.7 million.

Both records have already been broken - the casino's "credits played" is just under $20 billion and will end up at $20.4 billion at the end of this week. The net revenue is $838.99 million and will end up at 856 million, give or take. If that's an example of declining, I will give up wagering forever. (Not a chance).

Through Feb. 6, the Big A casino had enjoyed just one week in its five-year run with credits in of more than $400 million. The last six weeks have produced six over-$400 million bonanzas, including the highest week ever - $430.4 million.

As for the South Florida casinos, through February of the last fiscal year the total credits in came to $5,202,139,561. The net revenue was $337,954,552 and the tax due to the state was $118,284,093. For the same period this year, the credits in stands at $5,312,934,393, the net revenue $347,411,400 and the tax due $121,593,990. As Jon Lovitz famously uttered in 'A League of Their Own,' " Well, this would be more then, wouldn't it?"

P. S. The gross sales at OBS March last week came to about $50 million. Woe is us!