The summer is upon us, and the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation’s Summer Prop Contest benefiting backstretch support organizations is now open and running for the next eight Saturdays. But on this #FreeDataFriday, we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight more success in the campaign to provide customers with actual free data!
Coming in the form of free programs, complete with past performances, and following the lead of Churchill Downs in their recently completed spring/summer meet where they offered free past performances, Keeneland is doing the same for their one-off summer meet
The Lexington track, which opened its short stand on Wednesday, is publishing a file which contains its full program and another with just the past performances.
To access Keeneland’s programs, CLICK HERE.
The New York Racing Association continues to offer free past performances for races which it broadcasts across nationally across the Fox family of networks. When they are on the air, the races they show will have free past performances available. CLICK HERE to access those.
PennHorseRacing, a coalition of Pennsylvania tracks, is offering occasional free past performances a track in the state. This #FreeDataFriday, it’s Penn National, whose card kicks off at 6PM Eastern. CLICK HERE for those free past performances.
Past performances for the Stronach 5, the $1 minimum, 12% takeout bet across tracks owned by The Stronach Group each Friday are also free, offered in a promotion with the In The Money Players' Podcast. The promo code to access the PPs is "MONEY." CLICK HERE for the link to those.
The quest to open these channels to a greater degree continues.
The original “ask,” from our March 2019 white paper, included the following:
“In this paper, we recommend that Equibase should: provide free, raw data feeds for registered, non-commercial users; provide free, basic past performances on all North American tracks; provide responsive channels to regularly address errors and omissions in the data; partner with universities to study racing data, developing new and advanced metrics for the betterment of the sport.”
Is the state of play on racing’s data situation better now than it was then? Slightly, yes.
There is still a long way to go, and this weekly feature (now into its tenth month) routinely highlights that and other areas where more data provided to racing’s wagering customers – who provide the lifeblood of the sport through such wagers – would benefit increased participation.
We welcome the slight improvement and hope there is far more in the future. Thanks to Keeneland, Churchill Downs, NYRA, PennHorseRacing and others who are starting to offer more data to customers.