WEG Harness Racing News; Brainard, Zeron among HOT TRAINERS

Tracy Brainard has re-emerged as the hottest trainer on the Woodbine Entertainment Group harness racing circuit, and Rick Zeron has made the most of limited starts to rocket up the charts.

Takter, Fellows, McIntosh, Kopas, McCall and Camirand have posted great numbers the past few weeks, while Baillergeon remains his steady Eddy self.

W H O ‘ S H O T AT WEG - TRAINERS

Last 15 Days 03/9/2009 thru 21/9/2009

TRAINERS Sts 1st 2nd 3rd Win% UTRS

Tracy L Brainard 36 8 5 7 22.2 .364

Jimmy W Takter 28 6 4 4 21.4 .341

Benoit O Baillargeon 37 5 9 0 13.5 .270

Robert Don Fellows 29 5 4 4 17.2 .295

John R Kopas 20 5 1 3 25.0 .328

Robert A McIntosh 34 5 6 3 14.7 .275

Richard Zeron 18 5 5 2 27.8 .469

Darren James McCall 11 4 1 0 36.4 .414

Marc R Camirand 7 3 0 0 42.9 .429

Casie Coleman 31 3 3 3 9.7 .183


Last 20 Days 27/8/2009 thru 21/9/2009

TRAINERS Sts 1st 2nd 3rd Win% UTRS

Tracy L Brainard 47 9 10 9 19.1 .374

Benoit O Baillargeon 50 8 10 0 16.0 .271

Robert A McIntosh 52 8 10 5 15.4 .293

John R Kopas 29 7 1 5 24.1 .318

Richard Zeron 23 7 6 3 30.4 .493

Robert Don Fellows 36 6 4 5 16.7 .275

Jimmy W Takter 28 6 4 4 21.4 .341

Casie Coleman 45 5 3 3 11.1 .170

Darren James McCall 15 5 1 1 33.3 .393

Marc R Camirand 10 4 1 0 40.0 .456


As you can see, the Coleman barn has been uncharacteristically weak these past 20 days, but I do not have any insight as to whether a specific malady affected the full team. In any case, Coleman horses rebounding off of troubled races may come at decent odds if up against vulnerable faves. Casie runs one of the hardest-working and most professional barns in the harness racing world and she remains among the leading Canadian standardbred trainers by wins, UDRS and money won, and part of the recent low WEG numbers can be attributed to her star pupils competing in OSS events across Ontario.

Standardbred Racing Handicapping Wagering Links

I am hoping to add more links to standardbred wagering and handicapping information, for Toronto / GTA and Southern Ontario harness racing fans, and standardbred fans all over the world.

Beginner

- Learn to read the program
- Learn differences between pacing and trotting races
- Learn types of wagers and risk / reward tradeoffs


Intermediate

- Finding value on a race card
- Identify horses with energy that want to win
- Strategies for cashing exotic wagers such as Exactors, Triactors, Superfectas, Pick 3 and Win 4 tickets
- Identify whether a race is "stratified" or "competitive"


Advanced

- Personal tutoring to overcome ingrained bad habits
- Money management / advance betting
- Learn to cash larger tickets by combining contenders with favourites
- Parter up with a friend or relative for shared exotic tickets

Feel free to send in your links; I'll be adding some soon.

Rusty Nash's C-Note Picks for Mohawk and Balmoral

Here is a link to harness racing wagering strategies for this weekend, from UStrotting.com's excellent C-Note feature by Rusty Nash.

Handicapper's Corner at WoodbineEntertainment.com, tips for WEG races

FREE Standardbred Programs for harness racing at Woodbine and Mohawk

Best Bets for Harness Racing - Standardbred Wagering Strategies

Almost every race has multiple possibilities and one of the ways to hit regularly and still win big occasionally is to mix favourites with contenders and longshots.

When reading my suggestions for efficient risk-reward tickets, always consider the morning line fave as the one, the second fave as the two etc. Where two or more horses have the same m/l odds, count from the inside out.

Worthy Fave

Suggested Exactor ticket:

1 with 456789
2345 with 1

$2 EX x 10 combos = $20


Suggested Triactor ticket:

Key 1 with 345678 = 30
23456 with 1 with 23456 = 20

$1 TRI x 50 = $50


W3 - Most Probable Winner MPW

1234567 w 1234567 w MPW = 49
3456 w MPW w 23456 = 20

The other day I read about a triactor wagering strategy that costs only $8 yet is positioned to land you a few larger wins now and then. You take two horses on top, add one more for the place position, then a fourth across the bottom, for example:

13 w 135 w 1235

I'll add the link, I believe it was from ustrotting.com or standardbredcanada.ca, as soon as I can find it.

More Harness racing links:

BowieNet Harness Racing Handicapping Tutorial Software

In The Sulky Harness Racing News

Standardbred Canada Harness Racing website

US Trotting Association official website

Canadian Open Yearling Sale averages 15k+, up 40%

Great news from the Canadian Open standardbred yearling sale, with the sale avearge reaching $15,191 up sharply from 2008's $10,786 average.

Show highlights included a full sister of Raising Rachel (Raising Rhonda, by SJS Caviar out of Raising The Bar by Angus Hall), selling for the world-class sum of $200,000. The John Kopas barn picked up the exquisite filly.

Kopas also picked up the Angus hall half-sister to Mohawk rookie trotting star Il Villagio, the yearling filly Dancin Darlin, out of Dance to Market by Balanced Image.

257 horses sold for a total of over $3.9 million.

Standardbred Canada article results 2009 Canadian Open Yealing Sale at Flamboro Downs


Results of Day One Canadian Open Yearling Sale 2009


Results of Day Two Canadian Open Yearling Sale 2009

2010 Top Trotting Stallions - Muscles Yankee versus The World!

With Muscle Hill continuing his freak of nature athletic prowess and competitiveness, the dominant sire line in standardbred trotting has a legendary racer heading to the shed. If you own a well bred trotting mare, here are some top standardbred trotting stallions to consider breeding to (if this list exceeds your budget, look for sons of the names on this list):

Valley Victory / Muscles Yankee Line

Muscles Yankee

Muscle Hill

Yankee Glide

Cantab Hall

Self Possessed

Valley Victor

Glidemaster by Yankee Glide

Like A Prayer

Tom Ridge

Jailhouse Jesse

Ken Warkentin



Garland Lobell Line Stallions

Angus Hall

Conway Hall

Broadway Hall

Andover Hall

Donato Hanover



Superbowl / Supergill line Trotting Sires

Credit Winner

Striking Sahbra

Malabar Man

Chocolatier (by Credit Winner)



Outcross Trotting Sire Lines

Kadabra (Primrose Lane)

SJS Caviar (SJS Photo)

Dream Vacation (Pine Chip)

2010 Top Pacing Sires - Western Hanover line, Artsplace line, Cam Fella line

With the 2009 harness stakes racing success of Well Said (Western Hanover) and Sportswriter (Artsplace), the two dominant standardbred pacing sire lines each have another son to carry the torch. If you have a well bred pacing mare, consider breeding to one of these stallions, or if your budget precludes that, then look for a son of one of these:

Western Hanover Sons

Western Ideal

The Panderosa

If I Can Dream

Western Terror

Badlands Hanover




Western Hanover Grandsons

Rocknroll Hanover, Peretti stallions pdf

Rocknroll Hanover, US Trotting webpage, Stallion Stars

Shadow Play

American Ideal





Artsplace Sons and Grandsons, Stallions

Art Major

Grinfromeartoear (Alabar farm, Victoria, Australia)

Mister Big

Real Artist

Artiscape




Cam Fella line Stallions

Bettors Delight

Four Starzzz Shark

Camluck

No Pan Intended

Allamerican Native

Cams Card Shark

Blissful Hall




Pacing Outcross Line Stallions

Somebeachsomewhere (Mach Three)

Dragon Again (Dragons Lair)

Real Desire (Life Sign)

I Am A Fool (Life Sign)

Mach Three (Matts Scooter)

WORLD CHAMPIONS Muscle Hill, Well Said both racing at Mohawk Tonight

Ontario harness racing fans are in for a treat this evening as the sport's two superstars, trotter Muscle Hill and pacer Well Said, each face off against three year old rivals in standardbred stakes races.

Full Entries for Mohawk Saturday September 12, 2009

Sportswriter wins Metro Pace in 1.49.2; Shark Gesture takes Canadian Pacing Derby 1.48.1

Sportswriter did as expected, stayed undefeated and dominated a tough field to win his fifth straight and lower his record to 1.49.1, taking the 2009 Metro Pace Final and breaking the legendary Somebeachsomewhere's 2007 Mohawk Raceway track and stakes record of 1.49.3!

PEI hero Shadow Play was scratched from the Canadian Pacing Derby, leaving Won The West as the heavy fave, but it was not to be. After a tough outside trip that got him as close as 2nd, Won The West faded in the stretch as Shark Gesture came on to take the most marbles while equaling the track record in a blistering 1.48.1!!!

Full results of the 2009 Metro Pace final and 2009 Canadian Pacing Derby

It was a wonderful night of standardbred horse racing at Mohawk Raceway, and I'd like to sharev something with horseracing fans who always turn right when they enter the track. If you go left, there is of course a casino with lots of slot machines, and that's why you go right. Itjust so happens that my dad invited my wife and I to have dinner over there, and at the back of the casino there's a fairly large restaurant with some good food, and a large teletheatre with many racetracks on big screens!

Well there you go...


Exactor System UPDATE (see Winning Exactors Betting Strategy post for system methodology):

On the exactor system we are playing right now, there were only 2 races this evening (#11 and #13). The criteria is a fave at 5/2 or higher and an eighth fave at 10-1 or lower.

Race 11 10/2 = 5 with 6 pays 326.10 no sys win

Race 13 10/7 = 2 with 8 pays 505.10 SYS 1, 2, 3 each cash 252.55

Though the systems lost a little bit yesterday, on day 2 each made $200 or more!!! Getting interesting.

Results after Day One:

SYS 1 - Minus 11.75

SYS 2 - Minus 55.75

SYS 3 - Plus 22


Day Two:

SYS 2 255.10 - 40 = Profit 215.10

SYS 3 255.10 - 42 = Profit 213.10

SYS 1 252.55 - 56 = Profit 196.55


Two day Totals:

SYS3 profit $235

SYS1 profit $185

SYS2 profit $159

Let's not get crazy, but we'll go at least one more system to compare against these 3, and it's more longshot oriented but it would be leading now as it would have won both tonight:

SYS4 A - 2345 w 678 $12
SYS4 B - 567 w 123 $9

Total $21
Maximum per card $105

Implementation will be same as SYS2 and 3, whereby the first 5 playable races on any card will be played (SYS1 is limited to first 2 playable races).

Revised standiings including the hindsight-concocted SYS4:

Two day Totals:

SYS4 profit $338

SYS3 profit $235

SYS1 profit $185

SYS2 profit $159

Winning Exactor Strategy Part 2; Harness Race Wagering

To recap where we left off:

Keep in mind that the first step is to consider the M/L fave as the 1, the 2nd fave as the 2, the 3rd fave as the 3 etc.

A - $1 EX 1234 with 5678 = $16
B - $1 EX 5678 with 123 = $12

Total Wager per selected race = $28
Maximum wager per card = $56

A gives us the faves over longshots, B gives us the faves underneath.

Implementation: We will be looking for the first two races with a favorite at 5/2 or higher and an eighth fave with a M/L of 10-1 or less.

As there are 5 eligible races tonight at Mohawk and the system only allows for the first two to be played, we will try comparing a second set of rules and see which outperforms in coming days. The above methodology will now be called EX SYS ONE, and the second set of rules below will be EX SYS TWO:

Exactor System Two

When 3 or more races fit the criteria of EX SYS ONE, from 3 to 5 races will be played (if more than five, the first five on the card will be played), with a slightly smaller field, essentially giving up many tickets with 3 and 4 in them to retain 5, 6, 7 and 8th contenders showing up in the top two.

SYS TWO A - $1 EX 123 with 5678 = $12
SYS TWO B - $1 EX 5678 with 12 = $8

Total Wager per selected race = $20
Maximum wager per card = $100

Now we will compare the results of EX SYS ONE versus EX SYS TWO at Mohawk Raceway during the exciting days of harness racing coming up this September, and we will carry on the work as the horses move to Woodbine Racetrack in the autumn.

RESULTS:

Playable races were 2, 7, 8, 9, 10

Race 2 6/10 = 5 with 2 pays 88.50 = 44.25 SYS ONE / SYS TWO

Race 7 6/7 = 2 with 4 pays 42.50 = 0.00 SYS ONE / SYS TWO

SYS ONE Total wager $56, total win 44.25 = - $11.75

Race 8 8/5 = 4 with 8 pays 77.90 no win

Race 9 9/5 = 4 with 1 pays 18.70 no win

Race 10 7/5 = 7 with 3 pays 88.10 no win

SYS TWO wager 100, total win 44.25, loss 55.75

Winner of round one is SYS ONE with a loss of $11.75, and if the full $28 SYS ONE wager was made on each of the 5 races, wins in races 2, 8, and 10 would have totaled $127 versus a 140 bet, still a better return than SYS TWO on opening night, down over half.

Early days... let's throw a SYS THREE in right now:

SYS 3 A - $1 EX 234 with 5678 = $12
SYS 3 B - $1 EX 567 with 123 = $9

Total Wager per selected race = $21
Maximum wager per card = $105

Tonight the $105 would have won race 2, race 8 and race 10, with a small profit of 127 minus 105, or $22.

How To Cash Big Tickets; Harness Racing Exactors Wagering Strategy

One of the ways to build up a bit of a bankroll for larger exotic bets is to start with something simpler like the exactor, and then work up to triactors, superfectas, Win 3 and Pick 4 tickets. Keep in mind that the first step is to consider the M/L fave as the 1, the 2nd fave as the 2, the 3rd fave as the 3 etc.

This allows you to clearly see your balance of favorites, contenders and longshots. Based on empirical research mostly from WEG (Mohawk and Woodbine) harness racing tracks, here are the 2 tickets we will be buying for select exactors this week:

A - $1 EX 1234 with 5678 = $16
B - $1 EX 5678 with 123 = $12

Total Wager per selected race = $28
Maximum wager per card = $56

A gives us the faves over longshots, B gives us the faves underneath.

Implementation: We will be looking for the first two races with a favorite at 5/2 or higher and an eighth fave with a M/L of 10-1 or less. If you try this method at your local track, you may have to adjust this M/L spread to 12-1 to find a playable race, and please post your success rate and stories, thanks kindly.

I'll try this for a week or two and regardless if any success is achieved short-term, we may expand the discussion to include triactors and Pick 3 bets within the month.

Many Happy Returns!

Joe Trainor

Biggest Betting Payouts 2009 Horse Racing - Pick Six Carryovers +++

Over the next few weeks I will be posting a series entitled How to Cash Big Tickets at the Track, with chapters on Exactors, Triactors, Superfectas, Pick 3, Pick 4 and Pick 6. Most really large payouts are because of either or both of these 2 factors:

A) One or more longshots hit the board

and/or

B) There was a large carryover.

As B allows you a larger return for the same amount of risk, in 2010 I wil be focusing a lot on betting carryovers, and for those wanting to play along, use the Twitter.com Horse Racing Carryovers website to get alerts on the biggest pools out there!


Here are some of the top horse race wagering wins in 2009; SUCCESS in betting on horse races:

#1 - Saratoga Pick 6 - Saturday, August 8 - (4-3-8-6-3-12), 6 of 6 Paid $483,828.00, 5 of 6 Paid $3,840.00



#2 - Hollywood Park P6 - Mon, May 25 - (11/13/15-5/6-1-9-6-5/8), 6 of 6 Paid $294,018.40, 5 of 6 Paid $2,597.20


#3 - Meadowlands Pick Six Saturday, April 4 record $193,384 payout, five winning tickets (previous record Pick 6 payoff at the Meadowlands came in February 2007, when one winner took down the entire $131,071 pool.)


#4 - Saratoga Pick 6 Carryover - Sun, Aug 16 (7/8-8-1-9-7-3) - 6 of 6 Paid $119,797.00


#5 - Belmont Park Pick 6 - Wednesday, July 15 - (4-3-5-6-1-8), 6 of 6 Paid $114,340.00


#6 - Del Mar Pick 6 Sat, Aug 29 (3-10/13/14-10-9-4-8) - 6 of 6 Paid $97,622.8


#7 - Belmont Park Pick 6 - Saturday, July 9 - (8-3/4-9-7-1/9-2), 6 of 6 Paid $73,949.00


#8 - Golden Gate Pick 6 - Thurs, April 30 - (5-6-5-5-2-3/5), 6 Correct Paid $70,937.40


#9 - Hollywood Park Pick 6 - Sunday, May 3 - (7-2-7-1/3/4/6-5/8-12), 6 Cor Paid $70,362.20


#10 - Belmont Park Pick 6 - Sunday, May 3 - (2-2-9-8-7-6), 6 Correct Paid $67,782.00, 5 Correct Paid $7,473.00


Many happy returns!!!!


Here are some highlights from previous years:

2007

Monday July 3rd pick six at Hollywood Park, which attracted more money than any pick six in North American history, paid $576,040 to 13 ticketholders.


The V75 is a ten-cent pick seven wager in which bettors win by selecting the winning horse in seven races, with consolation prize money going to bettors who select five or six out of the seven. The V64 is a 20-cent pick six wager in which bettors win by picking six winners from six races. There are also consolation prizes for picking four and five winners out of six.

Both wagering options have been extremely popular in Europe, with average weekly pool sizes that are among the largest in the world: $11-million for the V75 and $2.5-million for the V64. Carryover pools have reached as high as $25-million. The record payout for the V75 is $4.8-million, while the largest payout for the V64 was $566,451.


2004

The biggest pick six in NYRA history ended with the first two tickets worth in excess of $1 million in the history of New York racing. Six consecutive double-digit winners conspired to eliminate all but those two tickets, each of which worth $1,120,287. (Posted 17JAN04)

The previous record pay out at NYRA was a $767,998 pick six return on April 9, 1990.