At times I find myself on the outside looking in when a carryover pool exists for no other reason than I had no idea it existed. These situations occur for two reasons: 1) the track does a poor job of getting the information out to the customer; 2) the carryover occurs intra-card and there simply isn’t enough time to get the message out or handicap the wager. Recently there was a Pick 5 carryover of over $9,000 that I found out about well after the sequence had started. It really doesn’t matter which track hosted the sequence and I’m not really interested in throwing people under the bus, but if handle is to matter there has to be a better effort made to inform the public. In some instances the poor communication with the public likely comes down to having the wrong person controlling the message while in other cases perhaps that person is simply too swamped with tasks to do the job to its fullest. With social media, email and other options available, certainly informing bettors should be an easy task. As much as the industry shows difficulty at times getting its message to the bettors, there are many tracks that do a wonderful job. Scioto Downs and Hoosier Park in particular do an admirable job via X (Twitter) of alerting potential players when a carryover situation is in the offing. Considering that both tracks offer intra-card carryovers which could occur multiple times a night, someone needs to stay on top of things and they certainly do an admirable job. For the uninitiated, an intra-card carryover occurs when there are no winning tickets in a race or sequence and that money is carried over to the next instance of the bet type regardless of when it occurs. So if there is a Pick 4 carryover after race 6 and the next Pick 4 starts in race 8, the money funnels directly into that wager rather than the following racing day. In theory this isn’t a problem as much as a deterrent when it comes to having enough time to get the message out. If that same carryover money was moved to the next day’s third race Pick 4, wouldn’t there be a better opportunity to draw in new money? Both Scioto and Hoosier have chosen to have the intra-card carryovers rather than keeping the money until the following day and getting a full 24 hours to publicize it. According to Hoosier GM Rick Moore, there is some solid reasoning behind the decision. “I think you can argue the case either way,” said Moore. “I think it creates instant excitement for the latter part of the card and maybe gets people to stick around to look at races they may have ignored.” The Meadowlands is on the other side of the spectrum as every wager on its card carries to the following program if it goes unhit. This includes the Super Hi-5 as well as the Pick 5 and Pick 6 wagers. Track COO/GM Jason Settlemoir said the change was made to provide more time to promote each carryover, which makes sense from my perspective. Gabe Prewitt, who handled the wagering at Pompano Park during its final years and is currently VP of Racing and Sports Wagering at The Red Mile sees both sides of the issue. “I think there is a good argument for either side but I personally prefer the intra-card,” said Prewitt, who admitted to keeping the Scioto signal on in the background just in case an opportunity pops up. “I think it gives people a reason to tune in and rewards those playing that night who created the carryover as opposed to the free world becoming aware the next day.” For tracks that prefer the intra-card method, there are some simple steps that can be taken to increase the power of each carryover. First, don’t card the same multi-race wager in back to back races. Most tracks do a reasonably good job here, though Scioto runs Pick 4s in races three, eight and 13, so that only leaves one race between sequences and maybe 30 minutes to promote. On a 10-race card Woodbine Mohawk Park runs a Pick 5 in race one and six, so there is maybe 20 minutes to promote what can be a gigantic carryover of $50K or more. That isn’t ideal but also can’t be helped if they want two Pick 5s on the same card. Which leads me to a second suggestion… What if tracks texted interested customers when a carryover occurs? Using X to get to your customers is fine but not as effective as sending a text. I see every text almost immediately but tweets require me to be on the app and you have to hope that the algorithm shows it to you in a timely manner. Most tracks already send texts to horsepeople and interested parties to alert of condition sheets, weather issues, or the need for more horses to enter. Why can’t tracks set up a mass text for bettors? Some tracks likely already have a database of players. Just ask them if they want to opt in and make it someone’s task to send a text when there is a worthwhile opportunity. After all, I can’t bet into a carryover pool if I don’t know it exists.