Delta’s Takeout Promotion Yields Mixed Results

[Wandering Eyes]

Delta Downs decided to give horseplayers an unprecedented break last week. For their daytime cards on Tuesday and Wednesday, the track lowered the takeout in all pools to just 10%. While other tracks have experimented with lowering the takeout in some pools, never before had anyone decided to slash the take in all pools.

By doing so, it looked like Delta would provide the industry with some much needed data. What effect would such a low takeout have on handle and how would the ADWs and the CAW players react? But the experiment didn't necessarily accomplish that. It may have raised more questions than it answered.

On the first day of the takeout promotion, Delta had, for a small track, big numbers. It handled $1,428,848, a 38.6% increase over the comparable program in 2024. But the good fortune lasted only a day. On Day Two of the experiment, the handle was nearly the same as Day One with Delta handling $1,486,485. But that represented a 15.6% decrease from the 2024 handle.

The reason why handle fell on Wednesday is pretty clear. Delta went head-to-head with some very strong competitors, including Parx, Tampa Bay Downs and, especially Churchill Downs. The competition was much softer on Tuesday when the only tracks to run daytime cards were Finger Lakes, Mahoning Valley, Parx and Zia Park.

Delta decided to go the daytime route to give a break to its employees and horsemen around the Thanksgiving holiday, but it might have backfired. Delta rarely runs during the day and one of the reasons is that, during the night, it is typically one of, if not the, strongest signals offered to the player. That's why Delta proudly calls itself “America's favorite nighttime track.”

“Would we have been better off running at night? We don't know yet. Maybe,” said Delta Downs Director of Racing Operations John Simon, who was the one who came up with the idea for the promotion.

Another important mitigating factor for both days was that the Churchill Downs-owned TwinSpires ADW did not take the Delta signal on both days. That wasn't a complete surprise since such low takeouts mean less of a profit margin for an ADW.

“We were a little surprised that they didn't take us after they were, at first, supportive of the idea,” Simon said. “Did they give us an explanation why they didn't take us? No, they did not.”

However, all the other major ADWs–Xpressbet, TVG, NYRA Bets and AmWager–offered Delta to their customers, perhaps realizing that it wasn't the worst thing to let their Delta-playing customers get a big break when only two cards would be involved.

The other unknown was how would the CAW players react. They generally don't like to play wagers with low takeouts because higher takeouts mean they are entitled to larger rebates. Simon said he had yet to receive the data regarding the play of CAW customers. But there was at least one race that indicated CAW play strongly influenced the odds.

In Wednesday's feature, the $100,000 Jean Lafitte Stakes, the Tom Amoss-trained Oscar's Hope (Twirling Candy) looked like a standout on paper, worth even-money or less. At 3:57.30 pm, roughly 90 seconds before the race went off, he was 7-5. With each subsequent flash, his odds kept going down, but only slightly. At 4:56.32, he took a big hit and was all the way down to 2-5. In the last two flashes, he was down to 3-10. He won and paid $2.60, a lot less than the price that was being offered to the “regular player” less than two minutes before the race went off. Though we don't yet know 100% that was CAW play that slashed the odds, the evidence suggests that it was.

Simon said it was too early to say whether Delta would try a similar promotion again, but let's hope they do. And if they do, let's hope that TwinSpires and all the other ADWs take the signal. The industry needs to give a lot more thought to making life easier on the everyday horseplayer, who has never had it worse because they are being hammered by the CAW players, causing many to simply walk away from the sport. Whether it worked or not, Delta should be commended for thinking of the horseplayer first.

 

More on CAWs

Not everyone is ready to sit by and let the CAW players make gambling a frustrating experience for them. Someone posted an online petition on social media sites under the name of “CAW Tracker,” asking players to sign a petition expressing their unhappiness with CAW play and the need for passage of the Fair Horse Wagering Act. The petition can be found at https://cawtracker.com/sign-the-petition/#.

It reads: “Signing the Fair Horse Wagering Act sends a clear message that everyday fans are no longer willing to let computer-assisted wagering quietly distort the sport they love. By adding your name, you help shine a spotlight on an issue that has grown unchecked for years, raising public awareness and pushing regulators to take meaningful action. A unified show of support not only amplifies the voices of horseplayers who feel drowned out by automated betting groups, but it also helps protect the integrity of wagering pools, preserve competitive balance, and restore trust in a game that depends on transparency.”

Well said.

 

At Del Mar, Chad Brown Does It Again

While no one is more dangerous with a turf stakes horse in New York than Chad Brown, he's even better at Del Mar, where his success continued during the weekend's Turf Festival at the seaside track.

Brown won two of three grass stakes on Saturday's card at Del Mar and with the only two horses he started that day. He won the GIII Jimmy Durante Stakes with Just Aloof (Justify), who paid $8.00. He came right back and won the only Grade I on the card with Salamis (Speightstown) in the GI Hollywood Derby. It was his fifth win in the Hollywood Derby as he surpassed Charlie Whittingham for most career wins in the Grade I event. It was his third win in the Jimmy Durate.

He did not have a starter in the GII Hollywood Turf Cup on Friday, a race he has yet to win.

On Sunday's card he had Segesta (Ghostzapper) in the

GI Matriarch. (The race was run after the deadline for this story). That's a race he has won six times, including each of the last four years. He is bearing down on the record for most Matriarch wins, which is eight and was set by his former boss Bobby Frankel.

Overall, Brown, despite not winning a race at this year's Breeders' Cup, is entering the Matriarch 21-for-104 all-time at Del Mar for a winning rate of 21%. For him, that's actually a lower percentage than the one he normally puts up in New York, but what is so remarkable is that all 21 wins have come in graded stakes races.

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