takeout

Colonial Downs has lowered the takeout rate on its Pick 5 wager from 22% to 12% and the bet will offer a carryover provision for the first time. The wager will have a minimum 50-cent base. The Pick 5, which will be offered on the last five races each day, will pay out 100% of its net pool to those bettors correctly selecting all five winners in the sequence. On days when nobody picks all five winners, 25% of the net pool will be paid to those who correctly selected...

Several changes for the upcoming 2021 racing season at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino were approved by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission at its Tuesday meeting regarding race dates and wagering and takeout rules. Indiana Grand was initially set to hold live racing Saturday, May 1 during GI Kentucky Derby Day. However, due to uncertainty directly related to COVID-19, a request was submitted to the IHRC to reallocate that date to Monday, Nov. 8, 2021, which will become closing day for the 19th season of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing...

Amongst serious horseplayers, takeout rates in pari-mutuel pools are a frequent discussion. It should be a focus of breeders, owners, trainers and track operators. Unless they are serious bettors too, takeout rates rarely "get a run" from those constituencies, though. Our recent #FreeDataFriday piece highlighted the impact of various takeout rates on win pools at three different tracks. The higher the rate, the lower the return to winners--and thus, the less they would have to churn through the pools and start another cycle of betting. Recently, a few bettors lamented...

Indiana Grand Race Course will host a 94-day meeting in 2020, beginning Monday, June 15 through Wednesday, Nov. 18, on a Monday-Thursday schedule, after the Indiana Horse Racing Commission formally approved the schedule Thursday. There will also be four special Saturday programs for Quarter Horses only over the course of the meet. Also approved was a Pick 5 wager on the final five Thoroughbred races each day which will offer takeout of 11.99%, believed to be the lowest takeout on any wager in the country. The Pick 5 will be...

UNDERSTANDING TAKEOUT Ogden Mills Phipps, former chairman of both The Jockey Club and New York Racing Association and a legendary owner and breeder, heartily advocated for lower takeout nearly five decades ago. In December 1976, Blood-Horse outlined the Phipps plea, a source of great concern given the rising competition in the New York market. "With continuing declines in track attendance and mutuel handle, Thoroughbred racing is faced principally with twin threats, witnesses at an Aqueduct hearing stressed. There are the existing off-track betting structure, which has hurt track management and...