Thoughts after 2 months of the Meds meet ?

[NIATROSS]

first off i am happy they are open and the handle is back to decent sizes.if it continues and gets to over $4 million on saturdays it will be like it was when i started playing it.
my problem is the racing is for the most part is what i have not paid attention to over the last 5-10 yrs.the lower classes imo have always been harder for me to cap.i used to be able to toss up to 1/2 the field in practically every race.i am seeing trainers and drivers winning who would have been autotosses in the past.
as a bettor i liked it better when the so called  cheaters were allowed to play because i felt i knew when to play them.
the meds was also the place to see the best horses and drivers on a friday or saturday night.now not so much.
obviously plenty of people like what is going on cuz the handle is growing.
i can adapt to what is going on but i absolutley hate 2nd tier horses in harness racing.
sorry for the long post just felt the need to vent

[RocknRoll]

I've been going to the OTB lately since the Illinois ADW disaster, and I still hardly play here. Back in the day there wasn't a race day where I wanted to miss, and now I look through the programs and make a bet here or there. I miss all the real drivers and trainers. I hate the 12 horse mile and a sixteenth races, and adding another one in the pick 5 and early pick 4 sure isn't going to help me rush to make any bets. Most of the races this year have been much better then the past couple years, where only a couple horses had a chance to win. But there are way too many races where horses are winning I wouldn't even want to use on an all ticket.

[careless hal]

I have stopped playing the Big M.  Just can't make anything on the puny payouts.  If you are betting  $200-$500 exacta boxes, I guess those $7 payouts are OK.  Can't seem to catch the longys there like I did in the past.  Not having ADW here makes it even tougher.  Have to make your bets well in advance, or go and stay at the OTB.  As each week goes by I find my betting activity goes down.  I would say that since the ADW  fiasco, I  am betting 70% less than I did before.

[pezz97]

I absolutely hate the 1 1/16 races with 12 horse fields. It is the lower class, bottom of the barrel horses. There are horses in these races that would have a hard time winning at freehold. All they do is get in the way, and screw up the outer flow. To have this ending the late pick 4 every night, and now adding it to the pick 5 really is a bad idea IMO.

 The payouts there have been incredible this year. Pools are thru the roof for all wagers making those payouts possible. I feel the last few weeks I have been getting a better grasp of it. It has become the Mecca again as far as money wagered, but not the Mecca as far as horses and drivers. I to miss Brennan, and Sears being there. They go to 2 nights a week in a couple of weeks with Chester and Pocono opening. Should be interesting to see how many races and how many horses a night will be there then. They are doing things right to get people to wager more so far, they need to do more( hopefully next year) to have all the best drivers and horses there every night.

[LVGaryD]

I flat hate betting  the Meadowlands, period. I may be in the minority, but I hate mile track betting. give me a half or a 5/8 track any day of the week.

I do like betting certain drivers and trainers at the Big M, but I never hit the gimmicks.

[Jeremy]

I am more of a casual than serious better and I like to go to the track to watch the races as opposed to betting online as I find it harder to concentrate at home.

I like half mile tracks more because I get to see more of the action.  I can see the horses the entire time while at Northfield but mile tracks I feel the action is too far away.

I like being able to catch a 6 horse at a good price or betting inside horses when all the better ones are assigned the outside and people ignore some of the inside horses.  I don't like trailers either because it seems like when I bet them they are never right behind the 1 at the start, but around 4 lengths behind.

[MichiganDale]

I find myself indifferent to the Big M anymore.   No strong opinions on it one way or another.   I believe that indifference is because I, like many posters here, recall its glory days and we know it'll never return to that.   As for mile racing, its fine but not as exciting to watch as 1/2 mile or 5/8 mile tracks.  The 1-1/16 mile events I don't care for.....standardbreds are trained to go the mile and that extra 1/16 can get in their head when shipping elsewhere.   I'll be in a minority I suppose on the question of 12 horse fields.   Back in the day, Sportsman's Park in Illinois specifically carded 12 horse Trifecta/Superfecta races on the final race of the night.   Idea was to create more possible combinations and increase the chances for a larger payoff.   I actually liked it and cashed a number of nice tickets on those races.  If the horse can handle it and not want to run into the horse in front of it, being a trailer really isn't that bad of a thing from my vantage point.

[Gazoo]

I absolutely hate the 1 1/16 races with 12 horse fields. It is the lower class, bottom of the barrel horses. There are horses in these races that would have a hard time winning at freehold. All they do is get in the way, and screw up the outer flow. To have this ending the late pick 4 every night, and now adding it to the pick 5 really is a bad idea IMO.

 The payouts there have been incredible this year. Pools are thru the roof for all wagers making those payouts possible. I feel the last few weeks I have been getting a better grasp of it. It has become the Mecca again as far as money wagered, but not the Mecca as far as horses and drivers. I to miss Brennan, and Sears being there. They go to 2 nights a week in a couple of weeks with Chester and Pocono opening. Should be interesting to see how many races and how many horses a night will be there then. They are doing things right to get people to wager more so far, they need to do more( hopefully next year) to have all the best drivers and horses there every night.

Sooner or later somebody will go down in one of these 12 horse races and it will be ugly.

The pick 5 is a terrible play (imo) even if you hit it your spliting the payout with the people that have 4 of 5 .

Should be interesting to see who will be driving at the Meds on Friday night once Chester opens.

[CyberChamp]

I'm actually liking M1 more and more these days.  It's a far cry from what it once was, but there's enough good money in the pools to make a buck.  Right now, I think it's far better than Wdb because the lack of consistency up there.  M1 has it's share of swings in track bias, however, but it is still somewhat predictable and you can catch a good price from time to time with a "B" driver. 

If it weren't for some of the recent series races, I would probably lose interest in M1.  The quality can be quite poor at times.

I wish they would go to the $0.20 p4, though.  That would cut back on our tax problems.  It seems to work for Canada and I think I recently saw that Wdb had a $114k P4 pool on a Monday night, which is awesome.

The 12 horse fields and the 1-1/16 races suck.  I think they do generate some good payouts on the p4, p3, and supers...and they've taken some getting used to...but I can rarely pick it with confidence.

They should do away with the consolation payout if the p5 is hit.  It doesn't return anything anyway.

I think they should bring back the hi5 in the finale.  Then again, maybe they should add it to the races with a 12-horse field instead.   

[cashman]

My goal is not to pass out from drinking and stay awake for the whole  card. That didn't happen this past Saturday.minstillmenjoy the big m. Mofos

[mo doc n]

 I was surprised the ABC system has worked out for the best and created more of an even field of horses. It has made for some nice pick 4 payouts too. unfortunately
I have been nosed out on 3 pick 4's in the last month so I took a break on Saturday and brewed some Beer ~ Damn O&S 

[RocknRoll]

Right now, I think it's far better than Wdb because the lack of consistency up there.

I can play Woodbine just about every night they race, and for me the consistency there is much higher. You see a lot less $100 horses winning up there and can catch plenty of $18-$30 horses that look pretty good. Plus there are plenty of nice barn angles which are definitely lacking here. Sure you can play all the Burke horses but good luck getting them to pay. I'm sure you probably like M more right now because you've been cashing some big tickets and I definitely can't blame ya for that!

[CyberChamp]

Then again, maybe my methodogy for Woodbine sucks.      

I've noticed some suspicious payouts at M1.  Late double on 2/16 paid $133 for $2 with winners at 7-1 & 27-1.  Late double on 2/9 paid $447 for $2 with 17-1 & 48-1.  One could make the case that the odds were skewed due to heavy favorites, but I would've been upset if I hit either of those doubles (and I didn't).   

[careless hal]

My goal is not to pass out from drinking and stay awake for the whole  card. That didn't happen this past Saturday.minstillmenjoy the big m. Mofos

Many minstillmenjoy the Big M!!!   

[cashman]

Many minstillmenjoy the Big M!!!   

Not sure what I was trying to say. Beer was talking at that point.