I've always said smart/educated and big bettors want and need certain things --- full and competitive fields, large pools to bet into, and ideally, a low takeout! LOL. Now, on one hand, you have plenty of hard-core betters and if you drop a quarter, those bettors as a group, will bet on heads or tails, LOL. On the other hand, for some, perhaps many, there's more to it.
Look at the Meadowlands now. My home track. I've been betting it since the day it opened. Today, you have full fields, large pools, and some may say competitive fields, but IMO it is a piss-poor product with a poor drivers colony as a whole. The Meadowlands was famous throughout the entire sport and industry for it's late closers and attracted horses from all over North America. It's still "hard" racing and it still takes a toll on horses. I can see why top trainers want to educate their young and green horses elsewhere. The betting product? Please. I don't want to see 40% plus winning favorites, coupled with trainers who shoot 10% and drivers who don't shoot much better. Far too unreliable on these variables. I am looking to bet against the favorite, so I want to find a reliable "this is a beaten favorite" horse based upon my knowledge, handicapping, what I see on the track, etc. With all this in the mix, poor product, poor driving colony as a whole, poor competitive aspects, and so on. I am strongly, very strongly, considering shifting my betting focus to Ontario exclusively. The only problem I have is that I am not onsite regularly.
Back in the 80's and 90's, did John Campbell, Billy O'Donnell, etc. "take the winter off" and go to FL? Did they drive elsewhere in the winter? Throw into the mix, no more winter racing at Pompano. The Meadowlands better start acting and behaving like they want to return to be the mecca of harness racing or else they are going to lose their opportunity.
