|
Our
resident online sportsbooks & offshore sportsbetting
gambling expert, James Johnson, weighs in with his
articles on the status of the online gambling industry
and online sportsbooks. Be sure to check WagerOnFootball.com
every week for his next bit of amazing insight on
the world of offshore and online gambling. This
man knows gambling! This man knows his way around
a few sportsbooks too!!!!
Feb 10th
By James Johnson Correspondent
for Wager On Football
Offshore Racebooks - Online
Casino Gambling - Online Poker Rooms
HORSE RACING EXPLAINED
AS I KNOW IT OF COURSE
I Introduction
Harness Racing, form of horse
racing in which each competing horse pulls a lightweight,
two-wheeled cart, called a sulky or racing bike,
which is guided by a skilled driver. Two kinds of
races are usual, one for trotting horses and one
for pacing horses. These two types of horses belong
to the same breed, but they are trained to employ
different gaits, or running styles. The fastest
trotters and pacers can cover a mile in less than
two minutes, although they cannot equal the speed
of a galloping racehorse ridden by a jockey.
The world center of harness-racing activity is
the United States, where about 14 million people
annually watch the competitions. The governing body
is the U.S. Trotting Association (USTA), which has
jurisdiction over harness racing in the United States
and in the Maritime provinces of Canada. The sport
is also popular in France and other European countries
and in Australia and New Zealand.
II Types of Horses and Equipment
Pacers and trotters are Standardbreds, the name
being derived from the practice of basing racing
records on a standard distance. These horses were
bred mostly from Thoroughbred horses of the type
ridden by jockeys in flat racing (see Horse Racing).
Standardbred horses also have a small admixture
of blood inherited from sturdy farm horses or workhorses.
As a result, Standardbred horses are stronger and
more tractable than the high-strung Thoroughbred
saddle horses.
The typical harness-racing horse is smaller than
a flat-racing Thoroughbred, standing about 14 to
16 hands (about 142 to 162 cm/about 56 to 64 in)
high and weighing between 408 and 522 kg (900 to
1150 lb). Virtually all Standardbred horses today
are descended from Hambletonian, a 19th-century
stallion who was bred in the United States.
Trotters and pacers differ from each other in
the way they coordinate the movements of their legs.
The trotter is a diagonally gaited horse—that
is, it moves its left front leg and right hind leg
in unison in a smooth, high-stepping motion. The
pacer is a laterally gaited horse, moving its right
front leg and right hind leg in unison in a swaying,
side-to-side motion. Pacers are somewhat swifter
than trotters; the mile record for pacers is 1 minute
46? seconds, compared with 1 minute 51 seconds for
trotters.
By contrast, the mile record for a galloping racehorse
ridden by a jockey is 1 minute 31? seconds. (These
records are for oval tracks.) Some harness-racing
horses, notably the American horse Calumet Evelyn,
have competed with equal proficiency as pacers and
as trotters. A harness-racing sulky consists of
a lightweight wooden or duralumin (an aluminum-copper-magnesium
alloy) frame mounted on ball-bearing bicycle wheels
with pneumatic tires. Wooden sulkies weigh about
18 kg (about 39 lb); some all-duralumin sulkies
weigh only 3 kg (7 lb)
Drivers, women or men, may be amateur or professional.
Most of the drivers participating in major races,
however, are full-time professionals.
Harness-racing tracks are usually oval. In the United
States, 20 of the 44 tracks that conduct extended
pari-mutuel betting meets are half-mile tracks;
seven are mile tracks; the others are odd fractions
of a mile in circumference. The noncommercial tracks
in the United States are usually half-mile ovals.
The tracks built exclusively for harness racing
have a harder, faster surface than the tracks used
for flat racing. About 375 noncommercial tracks
are used for harness racing in the United States.
At these tracks, state and county fair racing meets
are held; few of these are betting meets. The seating
capacity of harness-racing tracks varies widely.
A popular large track may have a grandstand capacity
of 20,000 or more.
III Pari-Mutuel Betting
Under the system now in general use in the United
States, the betting odds for harness racing are
computed from the relation between the amount wagered
on a horse and the total amount wagered on the race,
less a percentage deducted by the state for taxes.
As in flat racing, wagers are made on the horses
to finish first, second, or third. Odds are computed
automatically by a totalizator and are flashed electronically
on screens or on closed-circuit television sets.
Harness races are decided by single trials known
as dashes, which predominate at commercial tracks.
They may also be decided by a series of trials called
heats, 1.6 km (1 mi) in length, usually raced at
fair meets and in some stake races, usually with
large sums of prize money at stake.
For purposes of competition, horses are grouped
into different classes according to age, previous
performance, previous earnings, or sale value (claiming
price). Since 1946 harness races at all pari-mutuel
tracks, and at most others as well, have been conducted
with the aid of a mobile starting gate. This consists
of long horizontal rails, mounted on a slowly moving
automobile and extending across the width of the
track.
The horses draw up to the starting gate and, if
they are aligned evenly along the arms of the gate
as it crosses the starting line, the race is declared
officially under way. The arms of the gate are then
quickly folded as the automobile speeds off the
track.
The leading meets are conducted by associations
belonging to the Grand Circuit, which was founded
in 1873. Its membership varies frequently; in the
mid-1990s, 16 tracks belonged. Any track electing
to sponsor a Grand Circuit harness meet becomes
a member and is represented on the Board of Stewards,
which decides meet dates and establishes general
regulations.
In states that sanction pari-mutuel betting, the
state harness-racing commissions cooperate with
the USTA. However, the laws of each state govern
the betting and the general conduct of the sport.
IV History
Harness racing as an organized activity is an American
innovation dating from the early 19th century. In
the early races, the horses usually carried riders
and did not draw vehicles. Sulkies came into use
in the 1830s and 1840s. The first known speed record
was an unofficial mark set in 1806 by the American
trotter Yankee, 2 minutes 59 seconds for one mile
under saddle. Later, better breeding and training
methods led to much faster performances, notably
the performance of the trotter Lady Suffolk in 1845,
who had a time of 2 minutes 29.5 seconds for the
mile.
During the first half of the 19th century, most
of the fast American horses were descendants of
Messenger, an English Thoroughbred brought to the
United States in 1788. Hambletonian, foaled in 1849
and descended from Messenger, became the founding
father of the Standardbred breed. The Hambletonian
Stakes, the most important of all harness-racing
stake events for trotters, was named for the horse.
This event, first held at Syracuse, New York, in
1926, was raced at Goshen, New York, from 1930 to
1942; at Yonkers, New York, in 1943; at Goshen again,
from 1944 to 1956; at Du Quoin, Illinois, from 1957
to 1980; and from 1981 at Meadowlands Race Track
in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Goldsmith Maid is considered the most remarkable
trotting horse of the early era. She raced only
once before the age of eight, but after that she
set many records. She achieved her fastest time
at the age of 19 and was still racing a year later.
Goldsmith Maid earned a total of $364,200, a world
record at the time. One of the greatest pacers of
all times was Dan Patch. Foaled in 1896, he was
retired in 1909, never having lost a race. He broke
the 2-minute mile mark 30 times in his career.
Following the introduction of night racing in
1940 at Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury, New York,
harness racing enjoyed a nationwide increase in
popularity. Crowds attending races grew very large,
especially at night meets, and many new tracks were
built.
The USTA, formed in 1939, was established primarily
to standardize the sport. The chief functions of
the association are to register and maintain records
on horses in harness racing, to establish rules
for the conduct of the sport, and to sanction race
meetings and issue licenses to track officials,
owners, and drivers. The USTA, with headquarters
in Columbus, Ohio, had 35,196 members in 1994. The
association has a board of directors consisting
of several members from each of its 12 regional
districts in the United States and Canada. The USTA
puts out an official publication, The Year Book,
which contains statistics on all phases of harness
racing and breeding, including a roster of all racers
who have been timed in 2 minutes or less for the
mile.
In 1951 the Museum and Hall of Fame of the Trotter
was established in Goshen, New York. Records of
famous events in harness racing are kept there,
and memorabilia are on display in an original stable
setting depicting the history of the sport.
Three of the major stake races in each division
have been designated triple-crown events, as in
flat racing. By winning all three of these events,
a horse becomes the holder of the triple crown.
In trotting, the triple-crown events are the Hambletonian,
the Kentucky Futurity, held at Lexington, Kentucky,
and the Yonkers Trot, held at Yonkers, New York.
In pacing, the three events are the Little Brown
Jug at Delaware, Ohio, the Messenger Stakes at Ladbroke
at the Meadows, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and
the Cane Pace at Yonkers Raceway.
Be sure to visit MySportsbook.com
- VIPSports.com - Bodog.com - and Cybersportsbook.com
your friendly offshore sportsbetting sportsbooks
and bet a game or two. They all have brand new state
of the art Racebooks
as well for your gambling pleasure so check them
out. You'll enjoy their games that much more, and
you might just make a few bucks.
As always Check out my picks for the best offshore
sportsbetting Sportsbooks and Casinos Online.
NFL
Sportsbooks Ratings Guide
| | | |
