Mahoning Valley opens Monday with new late Pick 5
The first of 100 days of racing through mid-April at Mahoning Valley happens Monday and the Ohio track has added a late Pick 5 to its already-player friendly multi-race wagering menu.
Takeout on Pick 3, Pick 4 and Pick 5 wagers at Mahoning is just 15%. Before this year, the track offered a singular early Pick 5 on the first five races plus a late Pick 4 on the last four races. Now there is a second Pick 5 on the last five races to go with rolling Pick 3s and the aforementioned late Pick 4.
The average payoffs chart above is for the first month of the 2024-2025 meeting. All of the averages are higher than the meet-end average. This is to say, the payouts were more lucrative in the first month of the near-six-month stand.
Here are some other wagering nuggets to keep in mind for the early part of the meeting:
Two other Ohio tracks, Thistledown and Belterra, closed last week. Most horses come from those two tracks and neighboring Presque Isle Downs and Mountaineer. Presque Isle is the best of these, so don't be shy about taking a synthetic-to-dirt runner.
It's not as frequent, but the Horseshoe Indianapolis shippers have been well meant in October the past four seasons, winning five of 16 races with a huge +140% ROI.
Don't be scared off by layoffs. Horses who last started at Mahoning have a flat-bet profit in October across the last four seasons.
There is decent parity among jockeys and trainers, with no one really dominating the early part of the meeting on a consistent basis.
The track plays to speed for sprinters all year but especially so early on. Two-turn races, on the other hand, have no discernible running-style bias. The charts below say "Last ... races" but that only denotes the number of races selected. These charts cover the first 47 sprints and first 46 route races of the meeting last year.
Post time is 12:15 p.m. EDT daily with racing Monday-Wednesday and selected Saturdays and holidays. That includes this Saturday for the Best of Ohio card.
The meeting highlight for horsemen is Steel Valley Sprint day on Monday, Nov. 24, but hopefully there are many meeting highlights for horseplayers.