"One of the things this framework is built on is that it's customer-focused, it's not supply-focused
. We need to see competitive racing at whatever track you have across the province and that means that horses in a given race the public needs to know and see that those horses are competitive."
In light of the Ontario Racing Commission's new framework for harness racing in the province, ORC Chair Rod Seiling and Trot Radio's Norm Borg discuss this new proposal in more detail.
Seiling also talks about how the horsemens' groups reacted to the concepts of standardized condition sheets and purse pooling - keys to the concept.
"Without the standardized condition sheet and purse pooling, the whole customer-focused aspect of this framework comes crashing down."
Episode 148 – ORC Chair Rod Seiling
Audio Format: MP3 audio
Host: Norm Borg
For more on the ORC's new framework, please refer to Friday's news release.
More important than the take
More important than the take out issue is having an honest race which is not always the case as everyone can see with the expulsion of 3 drivers. Most important of all is ensuring that in each race every horse on the gate will be trying to win the race(no easy trip this week or we have an outside post excuses). Just give me races where all horses and drivers are giving their best and I can deal with the take-out rate!
When i seen that trot radio
When i seen that trot radio was having a guest on, namely Mr Seiling talking about live racing and putting the focus on the customer i was all excited. Finally i thought someone was going to speak out in an interview about the importance of reducing the track take out asap. I listened to the interview once and i said i couldn't have payed enough attention because i did not hear a single thing about the importance of reducing track takeout to a max of 10% in all pools so they are competing with other forms of gambling. So to be sure i listened to the interview a 2nd time.
Well lo and behold not a single peep about it. What could be more customer focused then making the game fair for people who like to bet on the races. All i heard was stuff like purse pooling perhaps addressing post times. I don't care about any of this. I along with thousands of others quit betting the ponies because of excessive take out, none of this other stuff will get me back betting the races unless the takeout is slashed to a point where they are competitive with sports or poker, stuff they did not have to compete with 20 or 30 years ago.
I know Mr. Seiling must read this website so here is a direct question to him and i hope he is kind enough to respond. Do you not understand the importance of the industry reducing track takeouts to a point where the race game is competitive with other forms of gambling or do you think the race game can continue to take people to the cleaners every time they walk through the doors and stay in business long term.
Lets hope Rich Coleman,
Lets hope Rich Coleman, Derek Sturko, and the management at Fraser Downs listen to this. Thank you Rod Seiling for wanting "live" racing