Horse Racing : Easy Goer Was No Bargain for Aqueduct

New York racing officials were probably happy to see Easy Goer leave town. The Kentucky Derby favorite didn’t draw any extra people the two times he ran at Aqueduct this month, and, worse, he forced the track to pay out $293,000 to bettors because of minus show pools.

Minus pools are created when there’s so much bet on a horse that there isn’t enough money for a track to pay out the the required minimum, which is a nickel on the dollar. Easy Goer paid $2.10 to show when he won the Gotham and the Wood Memorial. There was a minus pool of $112,000 for the first race and another of $181,000 for the second.

Last Saturday, the Wood drew fewer than 22,000 people, even though the race featured a horse being trumpeted as the best candidate to win the Triple Crown since Spectacular Bid won the Derby and Preakness and was upset in the Belmont in 1979.

There’s a lesson here for California racing leaders, who are just entering an era of off-track betting. New York’s ill-advised off-track betting program is about two decades old and it has done nothing to develop new fans, while giving thousands of regular players a reason to avoid going to the track.

At least Aqueduct took the high road in Easy Goer’s Wood by permitting show betting. In New York stakes races, the host track may suspend any type of betting it wishes, irrespective of the size of the field. Five horses ran against Easy Goer.

Almost 97% of the $894,000 in the Wood’s show pool was bet on Easy Goer. The colt’s payoffs were $2.10 across the board in the Gotham, so bettors figured that as long as that’s all they were going to get in the Wood, they might as well play it safe and bet to show.

“We thought about not having show betting,” said Jerry McKeon, president of the association that runs Aqueduct. “But we never seriously considered it. The guys who put most of that money in the show pool Saturday are the kind who’ll bet $25,000. Guys who bet that much at the track deserve to have a payday. They cashed a bet, and the money will come back to us eventually, because they’re the kind of guys that are here every day.”

The New York tracks--Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga--have long-range problems far more serious than an occasional minus show pool. Buried somewhere in the state’s recently approved budget is an item that will enable the state to withhold 8% in taxes and municipalities to deduct 4% of payoffs on big bets.

Those bites will come on winnings of more than $1,000 at odds of 300 to 1 or greater. Many pick-six payoffs fall into this category. All tracks are already required to withhold 20% on such payoffs for the federal government.

New York’s state withholding begins in July. After that, a $5,000 payoff on a pick six would result in the bettor receiving only $3,400. At off-track betting shops, New York horseplayers have always been saddled with a 5% surcharge on all track prices.

“The guys who told us they weren’t going to let this added withholding happen turned around and let it happen,” McKeon said. “It’s madness. If the state wants to kill horse racing, I wish they’d go ahead and do it right away, instead of just doing it a step at a time.”

As for Easy Goer, he has arrived at Churchill Downs, along with his stablemate, Awe Inspiring, the winner of the Flamingo. Awe Inspiring’s camp may be having second thoughts about running him as an entry in the Derby. Ogden Phipps owns Easy Goer and his son, Dinny, owns Awe Inspiring and both horses are trained by Shug McGaughey.

Before Awe Inspiring left New York, he worked a brilliant half-mile in :46 3/5 at Belmont Park.

Remember Brian Peck, the jockey who suffered a broken wrist when he was thrown from a horse that was struck by a deer during a race at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., last January?

Peck, who has yet to resume riding, was at Keeneland the other day, having driven to Kentucky after a vacation in Florida. Peck insists that this is a true story: Somewhere on an interstate highway in Tennessee, he had to brake hard when four deer ran across the road.

Peck has hired an attorney and is expected to file a lawsuit against Turfway because of the riding accident. Turfway officials say they were unaware that the deer had been in the infield before it darted across the track.

Horse Racing Notes

Flying Continental, although beaten by 11 lengths by Sunday Silence in the Santa Anita Derby and second to Endow in the California Derby, could run in the Kentucky Derby. Jack Kent Cooke, his owner, wants to go. . . . In Las Vegas, where it’s possible to bet on almost anything, there’s an over-and-under bet being offered on the winning time of the Kentucky Derby. You can bet that the time will be either faster or slower than 2:00 1/5, which was the winning time for Spend a Buck in the 1985 Derby and the third fastest in race history. . . . A terrace seat for the Derby costs $463.05, but at least the price includes lunch. The day before the Derby, when Churchill Downs runs the Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies, the same seat is a bargain $198.45. . . . Trick question: Where will the Bay Meadows Futurity for quarter horses be run this year? If Los Alamitos was your second guess, you’re right. It will be run on June 17 at the Orange County track because there’s no more quarter horse racing at Bay Meadows.