Turfway Park livestream Thursday: preview, watch it here

Turfway Park opens Thursday night, and bettors are excited.

And why not? The median win price through the first 8 days of the meeting last year was $10.40 with an average win price of $15.69. There were only 5 odds-on horses from 65 races, and the two shortest prices--a 3-to-5 and a 4-to-5--both lost.

Horse Racing Nation is excited, too. In addition to all the great handicapping information we have available in our shop, the leading horse racing fan website for news, commentary, and information will also play host to a live stream handicapping and playing the races opening night. Post time is 6:15 p.m. ET, and the stream can be accessed here or on our YouTube channel.

The 8-race card features no field size smaller than 8 (before scratches), and a chance for up to 4 full fields of 12. Average field size figures to be at least 10--even after scratches.

When handicapping the start of the meeting, I like to look at what happened at the comparable time last year, and the one thing that stuck out to me looking over the 674 horses across 64 races (10.5 horses/race!) is that horses who had come from Churchill Downs did very well, winning 20 races from 181 opportunities for a flat-bet profit of +33%.

Considering Churchill shippers averaged more than 2 starts per race, that they were positive ROI just betting them blindly is a big tell! Of the four horses to pay more than $50 to win during the first 8 days (2 weeks) of the 2020 Turfway Park meeting, all four had last raced at Churchill Downs. Of course, Churchill also had 4 of the 5 shortest prices, 6 of the shortest 8, and 7 of the shortest 10. Of the 11 shortest prices, only one--the Wesely Ward-trained Mr Everyone--had last raced outside the Midwest. 

Mr Everyone also came in and won off the third-longest layoff (139 days). Only two other horses won off longer layoffs--both more than 200 days. Horses off more than a 20-week off layoff were 2-for-21, but they paid $36 and $10.40, so it’s an ROI-positive move. First-time starters were 1-for-34 during the specified time period.

Call this the Gary Palmissano angle: Horses who made 2 starts within the first 2 weeks of the meeting were 4-for-17 in that second start with a more than 100% flat-bet profit. 

We’ll be talking about all this and more on our livestream starting at 6:00 p.m. ET. Come play Turfway Park with Horse Racing Nation!

Ed's GRID for tonight! Learn more about this strategy on the live stream.