TDN AMERICA TODAY Before Being Eased Late on in the Saudi Cup
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021 TRUE TIMBER OUT OF THE PEGASUS DID RACING PICK UP NEW GI Cigar Mile hero True Timber (Mineshaft) was not entered CUSTOMERS IN 2020? for Saturday=s GI Pegasus World Cup S. after cooling out slightly lame Wednesday morning prior to the draw, trainer Jack Sisterson announced via Twitter. With the defection of True Timber, GI Breeders= Cup Dirt Mile victor Knicks Go (Paynter) was installed as the morning-line favorite in the 12-horse Pegasus. ATrue Timber came up slightly off cooling out this morning,@ Sisterson tweeted. AWhile it appears he might be able to run in the Pegasus, we always prioritize the best interest of the horse and have elected to defer to caution and not compete in the Pegasus. Although it would have been a life changing experience having a runner in the Pegasus, True Timber gave us the excitement leading up towards the Pegasus. Best of luck to all runners in the Pegasus. We and True Timber will be routing for you!@ Cont. p3 Sarah Andrew by Bill Finley IN TDN EUROPE TODAY The sport's major ADWs enjoyed explosive growth in 2020 SIX STAKES HIGHLIGHT CARNIVAL CURTAIN RAISER and, in some respects, none of this comes as a complete The Dubai World Cup Carnival kicks off at Meydan on Thursday. surprise. In a year where everything, not just in racing but in Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. society as a whole, was turned upside down by the pandemic, ADWs were oftentimes the only way a horseplayer had to get a bet down. Handle, no doubt, flowed during the year from bricks and mortar facilities to the ADWs. But was some of the growth a product of racing attracting new customers while it was up and running while the four major sports were closed down due to COVID-19? And if racing did attract new customers, will they stick with the sport in 2021 now that the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB have returned to the sports landscape with full schedules of games? These are important questions and they probably won't be answered until well into 2021. But the 2020 handle figures reported so far do give us some hints. There are 10 ADWs that use the state of Oregon as their hub and the racing commission there posts their handle figures on its website. The final numbers for 2020 are not yet available, but a picture does develop from what has been published. The total amount bet through the first three quarters of the year among TVG, XpressBet and TwinSpires was $4.8 billion, up a combined 47.4%. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Thursday, January 21, 2021 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Deputy Editor Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Associate Editors Christina Bossinakis @CBossTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN News and Features Editor In Memoriam: Ben Massam (1988-2019) ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] In December 2020, 55 horses were adopted from New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program, including Bourbonrox, who now lives in New Hill, NC. Bourbonrox is pictured Social Media Strategist last year in Lexington, KY at New Vocations in a stall named in memory of the TDN's Justina Severni Ben Massam. To learn more about Ben's stall, click here. | New Vocations Associate Producer Katie Ritz ACACIA COURTNEY JOINS WRITERS’ ROOM 6 Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes Gulfstream and NYRA TV Host Acacia Courtney joined the TDN [email protected] team on the Writers’ Room podcast to talk about “America’s Day at the Races” and the upcoming GI Pegasus World Cup. Marketing Manager Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Director of IT/Accounting TODAY’S GRADED STAKES Ray Villa ET Race Click for TV [email protected] 10:40a Dubawi S.-G3, MEY AmWager PPs TVG [email protected] 11:15a Singspiel S.-G2, MEY AmWager PPs TVG WORLDWIDE INFORMATION 11:50a Al Maktoum Challenge R1-G2, MEY AmWager PPs TVG International Editor 12:25p Al Fahidi Fort-G2, MEY AmWager PPs TVG Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 9 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • JANUARY 21, 2021 True Timber Out of the Pegasus cont. from p1 True Timber | Sarah Andrew Off the board in the last two renewals of the Pegasus for previous trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, True Timber was sent to Sisterson when McLaughlin retired earlier this season. Third in the GI Forego S. in August, the Calumet Farm colorbearer was fourth in the GII Vosburgh S. a month later. Runner-up in Keeneland=s Lafayette S. Nov. 7, the bay was romped in Aqueduct=s GI Cigar Mile S. Dec. 5. Did Racing Pick Up New Customers in 2020 cont. from p1 The 10 ADWS registered in Oregon accounted for more than 60% of all wagers made on racing during the first nine months of 2020, a year in which overall handle on the sport was down by just less than 1%. TVG, along with its sister ADW, FanDuel Racing, handled $1.89 billion through September for a 95.8% increase over 2019 numbers. That it jumped over TwinSpires to become the No. 1 ADW in handle in 2020 may not be a coincidence. Unlike the other ADWs, FanDuel/TVG is also in the sports betting business and was able to tap into those customers once the other sports shut down Andrew Moore, a vice president with the FanDuel Group, said that 50,000 new customers signed up in 2020 between TVG and FanDuel Racing and that many of them did cross over from FanDuel's sports betting websites and/or their daily fantasy sports platform. "From our perspective, we're different from the other ADWS as we have a sports betting business as well as daily fantasy sports business," Moore said. "When sports stopped and horse racing was the only show in town we definitely saw a lot of customers engage with horse racing that never would have engaged with horse racing in the past. We definitely saw new fans coming on board." Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 9 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • JANUARY 21, 2021 Did Racing Pick Up New Customers in 2020 cont. throughout the year on the Fox Sports networks. Customers Moore believes that the advent of FanDuel Racing, which first were lured by an offer where a bonus of $25 was added to their started taking bets in January of 2020, was a significant factor in NYRA Bets account after they signed up. the overall growth at the company. More so than TVG, the site "A lot of the customers we acquired were on the lower end," has been designed to be said Tony Allevato, the NYRA welcoming to those who are not executive in charge of NYRA Bets, "A lot of them signed up regular horse bettors. for the $25 offer as opposed to "With FanDuel Racing, we have $250 sign up offer, which was been trying to give customers an surprising to us. We found that experience that was less of the people who signed up for intimidating," Moore said. that offer, 80% of them came "People who have never bet on back and deposited more money racing before don't know what afterward. That's a pretty an exacta is. We try to explain significant number." The FanDuel Racing app very By late July, baseball was back much designed for customers and the NBA and NHL started not familiar with all the back up shortly after that. The terminology." NFL kicked off its season on time NYRA Bets is the fourth largest in September. Would those ADW in the country and also Tony Allevato | Coglianese sports bettors who gave horse posted some impressive racing a try stay with it once the numbers in 2020. Through the first three quarters of 2020, more mainstream sports were available to bet on? NYRA Bets handled $169 million, a 99.6% increase over 2019. "It didn't really drop off," Allevato said. "We started to see less NYRA had the advantage of being able to promote its betting growth from a sign up standpoint, but people that had signed up platform on the America's Day at the Races show that aired continued to play and they are still playing today.@ Cont. p5 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 9 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • JANUARY 21, 2021 Empty Belmont betting windows | Sarah Andrew Allevato continued, AFrom a year-over-year from wagering standpoint, NYRA Bets was up 100% during the pandemic. As the year went on, we continued to be up by record numbers for us. That means that those people were still betting." For the sport as a whole, handle was up 6.24% in December and 5.61% during the fourth quarter, positive signs considering that racing was going up against a full slate of sporting events during those periods. But with so many outside factors possibly skewing the numbers in 2020, most believe a true picture will not emerge until some time later on this year.