by Joe Nevills

The Kentucky Horse Racing Authority voted Monday to expand wagering at Ellis Park, adding new ways to bet on the races and expanding others.

The proposed wagers were presented by Mark Geary, director of development for Ellis Park, and each was unanimously approved.

“I am very happy,” Geary said. “Everything we requested went through and we’re pretty pleased with that.”

Among the new wagers approved by the KHRA was the super high five, which requires bettors to pick the order of finish for the first five horses in a single race. 

“We’re hoping it will do pretty well,” Geary said. “We’re going to put our best race on the back end of the card and have some full fields. Hopefully, people will jump on it just like they have at Keeneland [Race Course] and Churchill [Downs].”

Another wager approved by the committee was the addition of an early pick four, giving Ellis two per day.

“Last year, our pick four was pretty successful and we actually had some requests from horseplayers to add another one at the beginning, so we decided to go ahead and do it,” Geary said.

Ellis Park has experimented with the pick four wager in the past, offering the bet with a 4% takeout last year. The wager will be offered this year at the normal takeout rate of 22%.

“We wanted to give the horseplayers last year a chance to get a lower takeout and put more money in their pocket,” Geary said. “The way it turned out, some California OTBs and tracks and some Las Vegas places ended up not taking the bet, so we ended up taking the pick four back to its normal percentage.”

Geary also was pleased with the committee’s decision to lower the minimum wager on trifecta bets from $1 to 50-cents.

“I think the patrons of our track will really love it,” he said, “as well as some other people out in OTB land. I think it will be more affordable for them to box horses.”

Joe Nevills is a Thoroughbred Times editorial intern