While attending the Horse Player World Series in February at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas I was fortunate to spend all three days of the event at a table with Ross Gallo, creator of the Ultimate Handicappers Invitational, and Mike Mayo, a Texas-based horseplayer and tournament veteran.
They were just then formulating an idea to band horseplayers together to show the industry that players can and should impact what happens in this business. We have seen a few ideas like this before and they generally take a negative approach, like let’s boycott this or not bet on that for an entire day. Instead, and what is unique about this idea, is that Mike and Ross were taking a positive approach to get industry attention. They decided that doing what they do, which is bet on the horses, would work. The idea was to form a group of players, select one race per week, and wager on that race. Having a large group wagering $20 to $100 on a single race in the middle of the week might be noticed. They started out using tracks such as Will Rogers Downs (which was noticed for sure) and Beulah.
This Saturday they will be wagering on Canterbury’s 8th race.
You can read more about this idea and about Horseplayers Association of North America (HANA) on their website. LINK HERE.
At Canterbury, I have always felt that we respect our players and listen to what they have to say. And that isn’t just the company line. Of course not everything is possible and I am sure that some items that HANA wants to accomplish won’t fit the current business model. But I do believe that they, and I can say without a doubt this includes Ross and Mike, have the best interests of this industry in mind.
This is the best game in the world and we all need to work to keep it that way.
jm
