NEWS
Pimlico to offer new wager with $100,000 guaranteed jackpot
Posted: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 5:19 PM
by John Scheinman
A new multi-race, ten-position wager called the “Slider,” will debut on April 1, opening day at Pimlico Race Course following the wager’s unanimous approval at the Maryland Racing Commission’s monthly meeting on Tuesday.
The wager, with a base of 50 cents per combination and an 18% takeout, requires players to advance through four races of increasing difficulty to hit the jackpot, and there are no consolation payoffs. Players advance out of the first leg by selecting the winner, out of the second leg by selecting the exacta, out of the third leg by selecting the trifecta, and win the jackpot by selecting the superfecta of the fourth leg.
“It’s not an easy wager to hit, and it’s not a lottery bet,” Maryland Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas said. “It's a real possibility, and you're at 18% takeout, so we're not gouging the public.”
Because of how the tote system will interact with the wager, any scratch of any horse used in the sequence will result in a full refund of the wager. Commission member John McDaniel expressed concern about the parameters of what constitutes justification for a late scratch, and Chuckas responded that was in the hands of the stewards.
Asked if the new wager replaces the “Quad Super” wager proposed by Frank Stronach, the founder and chairman of MI Developments Inc., which is the majority owner of the Maryland Jockey Club, Chuckas said that bet was “under review.”
The combinations involved in the Slider wager are staggering. If each race averages eight betting interests then there are 252,887,040 available combinations, which is more than 964 times the available combinations available in a pick six sequence with eight betting interests or about the equivalent of a pick six with 25 betting interests in each race.
In other news, the commission took public stands on several horse racing-related bills before the state legislature.
Chief among them was a bill in the House of Delegates that would transfer the Bowie Training Center property to the state for open space. Several commission members voiced concern with the vagueness of the language of the bill (HB.557), and Alan Foreman, counsel for the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said the group opposed it.
“You can't force the conveyance unless you exercise eminent domain on it,” Foreman said. “We would not oppose the closing of Bowie, provided a significant number of stalls are constructed at Laurel Park or Pimlico.”
John Scheinman is a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent for Thoroughbred Times
READER COMMENTS
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Posted by: FRED, Venice, FL on February 16, 2011 at 07:14 AM
O' come on really? Just bring back the triple double between races 3 and 4 to generate interest and increase betting.
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