For photos from the Meadowlands contact Lisaphoto@playmeadowlands.com

Sunday, July 13, 2014

History is Made

One day, the name Radical Dreamer will be an answer to the trivia question "Name the horse which won the first parimutuel RUS event in North America"?  If you really want to impress your friends, you will add the fact Radical Dreamer won in 2:04.4 at Clinton Raceway and the winning rider was Sarah E. Town.

Yes, the first parimutuel RUS event is in the books and Radical Dreamer won gate to wire, but barely, withstanding a last minute charge by Dayplanner to win by a fast fading nose.



If you watched the whole video, you saw the win pool was $492 and you are probably thinking people want nothing to do with RUS.  Well, while the amount wagered is low for most tracks, truth is it was the largest win pool on the day's card.  The total handle on the race was $1,505.  Again, not much but if you disregard trifecta pools (the race only had five starters so there was no trifecta wagering), the race had one of the highest handles, if not the highest for the day.

Of course the question is did people bet due to the 'newness' of RUS, or is it the fans were truly taken with the new style of standardbred racing?  In  reality, we won't know off this initial race.  We will need to see how these races are received at the windows throughout the season as the RUS tour travels through Ontario to get an idea.  Still, organizers must be pleased with the results of the first day.


Yes, I know last night was Meadowlands Pace night.  Due to circumstances out of my control, I was unable to attend or watch the races live.  Rather than watch the races after the fact when knowing the winners ahead of time would bias my viewing of the races, I will let others comment on the races.  One blog you will want to visit is PTP's as he offers his take on the evening.


No comments: