|
HEADLINE No math needed to win track voucher game
BYLINE * Tom Wolski
SOURCE The Province
Even if you're not a horse racing fan, barring miserable
weather, Saturday's $400,000 Breeders Classic Day at Fraser Downs should
make for a great way to spend an afternoon.
Aside from seeing some of the best British Columbia
bred standardbred horses compete for huge purse money, management at Fraser
Downs has come up with a real cool promotion called the $25,000
Mystery Voucher giveaway.
What is so unique about this promotion is Fraser Downs
has taken the human element of who wins any money entirely out of the loop.
That gives all fans in attendance who place a wager of any
denomination on a race a legitimate shot at going home a winner.
Ready for this? "Thanks to modern technology, every
10 seconds from noon to five, there will be a mystery voucher won by one
of our customers" on Breeders Classic Day, said Chuck Keeling, general
manager at Fraser Downs.
Those random winning numbers were achieved through
programming of their automated Tote Mutuel Computer System.
"No humans were involved with selecting where and when
winning tickets would be released from the mutuel machines. Here's an example,
if we are giving away 1,000 mystery vouchers, then we would
estimate how many tickets physically would go though the mutuel system
during the day. If 5,000 mutuel tickets are sold at Fraser Downs, we would
then take those 1,000 mystery vouchers and divide that into
the 5,000 mutuel tickets sold. That would mean the computer system would
be programmed to spit out one of those mystery vouchers for every five
tickets purchased on track," said Keeling.
Here's the Mystery Voucher breakdown. Every time a
fan wagers, he or she could receive a winning voucher. At Fraser Downs,
there will be a total of 1,484 vouchers, worth $17,500. In a five-hour
period this would be 297 winning vouchers per hour.
One voucher is worth $5,000, one $1,000 and the rest
from $500 to $5. "What is great about this promotion is there will be plenty
of winners. And hopefully for those who have never attended the races before,
they will like what they see and come back again," added Keeling.
CLASSIC MOMENTS
For years, standardbred owner Myrna Green raced her
horses with son-in-law and perennial leading trainer-driver Bill Davis.
Among horses Davis trained for Green was youngster
Papa's Reflection. Last fall when Davis opted to try racing at Woodbine
in Ontario, Green turned her horse over to her other son-in-law, Dave
Hudon to train and drive.
Saturday, Papa's Reflection races in the $46,681 Breeders
Final for two-year-old fillies against odds-on choice Red Star Sal, trained
and driven by Davis. Guess who Green's favourite son-in-law will be Saturday.
BARGAIN SPECIALS
If past results are any indication, Monday's BCSBS
Horse Sale at the Cloverdale Agriplex at 6:30 p.m. could again be the place
to purchase future young stars of harness racing. In 1998, Tadgee was
bought back for $4,000, then resold for $30,000. Last year, Tadgee
won the Breeders Colt Final and earned $81,885 for the season.
That same year, Mary Jane and Jim Wiggins purchased
Red Star Oscar for $5,400. Currently he is nearing $100,000 in earnings.
Dr. Jim Findlay's Lo Siento was bought back for $6,000,
has $113,020 in earning and is 2-1 odds in Saturday's $103,553 B.C. Breeders
Final for three-year-olds.
Wolski can be reached at www.sportofkingstv.com.
Source: Vancouver
Province
E-mail Tommy Wolski at twolski@home.com
|
Return