In September 2019, when Monique Vág joined Woodbine Racing Live as their new co-host/analyst, the WEG in-house Standardbred team gained not only a young woman with a sharp eye for picking horses, but also a veteran professional sports handicapper that brought 17,000 Twitter followers along to her new gig with her.

Interview by Dan Fisher.

On September 26, 2019 Monique Vág joined Chad Rozema as a full-time host and racing analyst on the Woodbine Mohawk Park in-house show. A long-time racing fan, the new Woodbine on-air personality brought with her a knowledge of both Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing, as well as many years of experience as a professional handicapper of both horse racing, and sports such as basketball and football. With six years experience as a freelance sports journalist, contributing to outlets such as America’s Best Racing and Covers.com, Vág also brought with her a strong social media following.

Meet Monique Vág - a young professional from a demographic racing is looking to attract, and learn her thoughts on horseplaying, the current state of the game, what we need to do to attract new fans, and much more.

How does a 27-year-old woman end up as an expert at wagering on horse racing and other sports such as basketball and football? At what age did you first discover the world of each, and who was it that introduced you?

I grew up with both horses and sports in my life. I remember going to the track with my parents from as early as I have memories… running around in the grandstand with friends I made there whose parents were betting like mine (laughing). I’ve just always loved placing bets on sports and horses. For horses, when I started betting, when I was 13 or 14, it was just picking the ones that looked best on the track. I really didn’t know what I was looking for at that point, but I started taking it more seriously in high school - I’d go to the track [Woodbine] with my dad on weekends and he’d play Flamboro, the Meadowlands, Yonkers… Sports were always on our TV when I was growing up, so that’s how I got so interested in them. My parents would sometimes bet Pro Line tickets. In terms of racing though, it was going to the track itself about once a week, usually with my dad.

Did your dad make your bets for you then?

Sure (laughing)... we’ll go with that (laughing).

You started on the Standardbred side of things but then switched to the Thoroughbreds for a few years. How did each come about?

My dad just always played the Standardbreds… that’s just always what we did. I guess I always found them to just be more formful and easier to predict when you had the smaller fields then the Thoroughbreds, who could have 14 and 15 horse fields and race different distances. There was a distinct story though, that turned me off of the Standardbreds for a while, and over to the Thoroughbreds. For me I was always playing the Meadowlands… I followed that circuit religiously. I loved their drivers colony and it’s what led me to that track. I remember distinctly betting a ticket one night on the Meadowlands - I bet something like $100 or $110 - and cashing a Pick-5 and losing about $80. It only paid about $20. For me it was so hard to accept hitting a Pick-5, which is hard to do, and losing that kind of money on it. And it was a $1 base ticket too - not a $.20. I realized that it was almost impossible to have that same thing happen to you while betting the Thoroughbreds, and I’ve always loved both breeds so I switched over at that point, mainly for the bigger fields, bigger pools and bigger payouts. Now that I’m working at Woodbine Mohawk Park the Standardbreds are my main focus again, which is great because I’ve always loved them.

Tell us about your current connection to sports wagering - how are you involved? You write for COVERS.com and are one of their official betting analysts? What does that entail?

I do write for COVERS.com as a freelance journalist… I cover pretty much whatever is in-season in sports. I do a daily NBA column right now… every day I give my five favourite picks throughout the entire basketball slate for the night. I try and mix up my bets so it’s not only moneyline bets, but it’s also spread-bets, team totals, it’s everything… Whatever is most relevant at the time, whether it’s March Madness or football, that’s what I write about. Football has always been my first love, probably my favourite sport to cover and bet.

Do you think that single-event sports wagering is coming to Canada, and if so, to Canadian racetracks in particular? If it does come, do you see it changing the atmosphere and age-demographic at our tracks and do you think it’s possible to integrate the newcomers to betting horses?

Yes, I think that it’s inevitable that single-game sports wagering is coming to Canada, and I think that for us at Woodbine, we have the perfect facility to host it… we also have software that’s very compatible for it, that would only need a few tweaks here and there. Seeing the way that fantasy has taken off, and how interested the public seem to be in sports wagering, I think that it’s coming, and with Woodbine it’s a match made in heaven. I think it might be tough to integrate it with racing however, but I do always try to promote horse racing to my followers on Twitter.

Speaking of that, you have 17,000+ followers on Twitter (@ParlayQueen). Assuming the majority of them started following you due to your sports betting prowess, do you know if many have followed you into Standardbred wagering at all?

I do think that some of them have followed me to betting the horses. The payouts on our early Pick-5 have been outstanding, so that’s been selling itself to a degree. There’s always been a love-hate relationship with bettors and the $.20 minimum. The big bettors don’t like it, but it does open the door to more people playing, and that creates bigger pools. I’ve never been one that’s afraid to take a shot on longshots, but I also try to impress on some of my followers that you can still make money betting chalk in horse racing. A high percentage of favourites might come in, in our sport but you can always adjust your base wager. I explain to them that a Daily Double might only pay $6 sometimes but if you bet a $20 one it can still make for a nice return. What I always say to my followers is to just get to the track first, and when they do they love it. There’s no thrill like it… they call the Kentucky Derby ‘The most exciting two minutes in sports’ and it’s true. It’s just not the most friendly or inviting sport. It’s tough to get involved in it. We need to present it in a way where people are comfortable wagering and they know what they’re doing. Even if it’s easy for some to learn to read a program it’s still difficult to go up to a machine or a teller to try and say your bet.

How do we get more people to bet on Standardbred horse racing? If we made you the Czar of Standardbred racing in North America what are the first steps that you would take to make positive change?

I think that putting out really competitive races every night is a big key. I think that even if you had to run fewer races, but provided full fields and very competitive fields it’s huge. One of the biggest problems we face in racing today is that you might look at a maiden race and have a 1/9 shot. That makes it hard for racing - it’s tough to bet that. I mean you can always tell people to bet a Pick-3 or Win-4, but at the end of the day who really wants to bet a 1/9 shot? Ideally if they could find a way to open up some classes a bit more sometimes, to make full and competitive fields, that would be ideal for sure. As far as making bets easier to make, maybe we could offer ‘prop-bets’ like sports do? I think it would be a fun and easy way to bet if you could just pick between two horses and say who was going to win. Obviously we wouldn’t offer a favourite versus a longshot, but maybe two horses that might go off at a similar price and you just had to pick who was going to beat the other. I don’t know how successful that would be but it would be fun.

As a woman that participates in many male-dominated industries, how do you deal with the critics and added pressures, etc?

It’s mostly just online through anonymous handles that people like to bash me at times. For the most part I’ve received more positive comments than negative ones from our industry. With me, for the most part, I work hard to build trust… that’s the main thing for me, having a track record that people can trust. When you’re giving out picks on a daily basis and providing information it’s really important that people trust you. If you work hard and give people winners there’s a better chance that they’re going to trust you regardless of what sex you are.

What do you think about being viewed as a role-model for young women and girls in racing? Did you know that Delaney Hudon (Phil Hudon’s daughter) is a huge Monique Vág fan already? Did you anticipate that this might happen after becoming an on-air personality?

I am an enormous fan of Delaney (fondly laughing). I’ve just always tried to make other women and girls feel like whatever they want to do they can accomplish their dreams. It might be a bit of a male-dominated industry [racing] but there are so many successful women in it as well. Trainers, owners, grooms… some drivers. Gender truly doesn’t matter in our sport and that’s one of the beauties of it. There are no limitations and there are no walls for women. I do feel a bit of a responsibility to present that a female can be as knowledgeable or more knowledgeable at handicapping as any man, and obviously Dawn Lupul is someone who was very, very popular with handicappers, with her success. She earned that and worked super hard to achieve that.

What is your ‘go-to’ bet in sports wagering and/or horseplaying? Do you actually play your picks for real, that you give out on the WMP in-house show?

When I was younger my parents would play a couple of Pro Line tickets, but I realized that it was just better to know my market and look at something like ‘player props’ or something I loved. Finding a specific player that I thought would have a breakout game and finding a way to capitalize off of that. For example, you might choose Steph Curry and bet the over/under on his points or assists one night, and you know what your payoff is going to be if you win - you lock it in at that number. Pro Line didn’t offer that so it was specifically online sports books for me when I started betting those. There’s much better value betting on just one outcome than being forced to parlay bets. As far as actually betting my Mohawk picks, it’s hard sometimes because we have to make them 2-3 days in advance. For me, I bet when I feel I have a perceived edge or when I feel I have a good read on it. When you make your picks that far in advance, there can be a track condition that you weren’t expecting, or a late scratch that could affect the way you build an entire ticket. I’ll stand by my picks and use them for sure, but sometimes adjustments need to be made as things change. For example, a horse that I didn’t originally pick might be getting early money, and that catches my eye most certainly… unfortunately, when we’ve made our picks for the TV show really early, we can’t always adjust them like you can if you’re picking closer to post time.

So how do we get more 27-year-old women, or simply more 27-year-olds in general, to the racetrack moving forward?

For me it’s not necessarily that we have to get younger people in… it looks good if we have more people in the crowd, and they’re spending money on food and hospitality. That’s great in that sense, but I don’t necessarily think that’s the demographic I think we should be going for. I think if our focus is mostly on wagering… I’ve always said that there’s so many people that bet sports that would love to bet horses but just don’t know how to. Even then, there’s a lot of younger people involved in daily fantasy… but I think getting people involved that are a bit older and have more money, that’s more important. We need the people that will take the time to truly get invested and learn the sport, follow the product and learn the ins-and-outs of it. I was always drawn to it because no two races are the same. There are all of the analytics of it… you can watch replays or go and watch them train. It’s really fulfilling to study it closely and do well. I also don’t know anywhere else that you can take $1 and win $100,000 or more, like what’s in a Pick-5 pool or the Jackpot Hi-5. Obviously the seasoned bettor knows that might not be easy, but it does happen… so if you want to market it that way, that works too. At the end of the day though, getting people in the door is the key. Whether it starts with a concert or a free brunch or something, just getting them in is huge. I’ve always said that once you watch a race, and even if you only have a little bit of money on the line, it’s the thrill of seeing your horse sweep the field, or even being in position where they could win or could hang on… there’s no thrill like that.

Can you share with us any stories with us on big scores or near-misses in your gambling history? What about some advice for our readers?

There’s always those really big ‘just-misses.’ With me I have a bad history with canceling tickets last minute and they end up coming through. Those are the ones that sting the most. Sometimes it’s actually over-analyzing or thinking that we know too much. I’ve just got to learn to just sit back sometimes and trust my read and follow that. One bit of advice I’d give, and that I once got, and it comes from poker, is that you get a gut feeling for a reason. Maybe it’s because you were in that situation before or in a similar situation... you’ve got to trust that feeling. Sometimes you can over-think it or over-analyze it... but there’s a reason that you’re getting that gut feeling... you have to be confident enough to be aware that if something seems a little off, it probably is, and trusting that.