Santa Anita has become the first track in California to offer fans
both “early” and “final” editions of the morning line. Jon White’s
“early” odds began appearing in the Daily Racing Form this week and may
be different than his “final” odds that appear in the track program and
on the tote boards.
“This is something that’s new for us,” said Rick Hammerle, Santa
Anita’s Racing Secretary and Vice President, Racing. “We’ve listened to
our fans who wanted to see odds in the Racing Form for races at Santa
Anita. Now when a fan is looking at the past performances for Santa
Anita in the Racing Form the day or night before the races, they will
have the ‘early’ odds. I think that will especially be helpful when we
have carryovers.”
Hammerle noted that the reason for having both “early” and “final” odds is scratch time will remain the day before race day.
“We didn’t want to move scratch time up to two days before race
day because this way horses that are scratched the day before race day
won’t be on the program,” Hammerle explained.
“It takes a little juggling in that sometimes it's essentially
the same deadline for both the ‘early’ and ‘final’ odds,” White said. “I
have to get out the ‘early’ line for a Saturday at pretty much the same
time I have get out the ‘final’ line for a Friday. So that can get a
bit tricky.
“I also have to make the ‘early’ odds without all of the
information I ultimately will be able to consider for the ‘final’ odds.
Between the ‘early’ and ‘final’ odds, for instance, I am able to check
all of the Thoro-Graph figures for each horse on the card. Incorporating
Thoro-Graph figures into the line-making process has helped me a lot in
my goal to, as much as possible, avoid having a horse get bet way down
from the morning line.
“Also in the time between the ‘early’ and ‘final’ odds, I am able
to check the selections of a couple of public handicappers I respect,
Bob Ike and Brad Free. Bob Ike’s selections appear in a number of
newspapers. Brad Free’s selections appear in the Racing Form.”