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Futures Betting Comes to California Track

"Sure, the races aren't until Oct. 26 at Arlington Park in Chicago, but the NTRA, through Arlington Park, is holding the future book-style betting from today until Sunday at 4 p.m..

"This is the second of four future pools, which are patterned after the Kentucky Derby Future Book pools in the spring. The wagering is parimutuel and not fixed odds.

"…`It's pretty apparent to me after we offered future wagering over the July 4th weekend on the Classic, Sprint and Distaff that the field was going to get support no matter what races you put up,'' said [Mike Watchmaker of the Daily Racing Form] this week on an NTRA teleconference. `Then when you talk about the Turf, the Mile and Filly & Mare Turf where the pictures for these races are even more unclear now than the Classic, Sprint or Distaff, you're going to have support for the field.'

"`There are a lot of nice individual horses in each of these races, but actually determining who may run and who may not run in what races is very, very difficult at this

"…`We've all learned a lesson since the Kentucky Derby Future Wager was established back in 1999,'' he said. `You have to absolutely wait until the very end of the betting period to place your wagers. These are parimutuel wagers. The public's money is going to determine the odds of these horses.

"`You may have a horse run a gigantic race Saturday in Sword Dancer (at Saratoga) that would drive his price down. If that happens then you're going to see prices on other horses go up.

"`To me it's just foolish to bet early, even though the pool opens up (today). You should wait until the end so you have a much better chance to find out what the closing odds will be.''

"Another future book involving the Breeders' Cup Classic, Distaff and Sprint will be held over the Labor Day weekend in September…"

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