Sport is made for betting

The Horseplayers Association of North America are staging another of their Pool Parties tonight. The idea of this concept is to promote specific races so their members and racing fans who want to see a better deal for punters can show the weight of their money. Let's face it, a boycott is never going to work, there are too many punters who will bet on anything. Tonight's race is Mountaineer Park Race 2, which runs at around 00.25 UK time. Use UK bookmakers who bet directly into the pools so your bets will count - for free formsheets, visit here

It's time to support our American racing friends at Chicago's Arlington Park. Get behind their campaign for more respect from track owners and hopefully reduce the obscene takeout on some of their tote pools. For more details and links to free formguides, visit Horseplayers Association of North America blog site .

Tonight the Horseplayers Association of North America (HANA, the American punters' rights lobby group) is targetting a stakes race at Churchill Downs for their pool party . The Pool Party, or buycott, is designed to make track owners sit up and notice the lobby groups have some power, and that tote punters in the US are sick and tired of high takeout margins. Support the cause, you can bet into the US pools via most UK bookmakers.

Once again, our American punting friends are encouraging action on a specific race, in order to lobby for more respect from racing authorities. The race is Canterbury Park Race 8 - details and free formsheets to be found here . It runs at around 11pm UK time. More power to the punter!

This week the HANA guys have switched attention to a Saturday race, the $100,000 Pretty Jenny Stakes at Hawthorne Park. This time no pool is nominated, so you can take your pick across the board. for free form and more details - visit the HANA site

This time the focus is on Mountaineer Park, the perfecta pool (also known as exacta or forecast depending on where you live). HANA is going to play Race 3 at Mountaineer on Tuesday April 14th. Formsheets etc available later. Came close last week, would prefer they did it on the pools with a bigger chance of a large payout, but I suppose they need to spread it around. Some of the takeout percentages in North American racing - here's a list of just how bad some of them are

Sorry for being so late.. R6 - 1,2,3,4 R7 - 2,3,6 R8 - 1,3,4 Favs and some value in there as well... UPDATE Copped the winner (#3) in the first leg (matched at 100 on Betfair), but unfortunately the fav got flattened in the second leg, so we came 2nd and 3rd in that. 16/1 shot won that, whoever lands this pool will get a massive collect! FINAL UPDATE Got the last leg as well (#4 at 8/1). Pick 3 paid $14971 for a $2 unit. So close, but naturally it would have been about 1/10th of that if we'd got the middle leg. Backed the two winners so can't complain too much. Bring on the next one I say! Fonud out tonight that Stan James and BoyleSports do not offer the exotic pools such as Pick 3, but Ladbrokes do. VCBet also do, but darned if I could get it to work....

Tomorrow the attention turns to Tampa Bay for the racing Buycott on US Racing. Here's the drill from the Horseplayers Association of North America (HANA). If you're in the UK, you can bet with most bookmakers as they bet directly into the American pools. In Australia, you can bet via a UK bookie or via the service from Racingandsports . Take advantage of the free formguides and ratings on the HANA site. Don't bet blind, it's not a donation. And don't just bet into any pool, it's a specific pick 3 (treble) starting from Race 6. With a big pool involved, there could be some decent value pop up. Punters deserve respect from the folks controlling racing and betting. Too often we are pushed and shoved around because most punters are apathetic. Without showing resistance, what is to stop tracks/bookie/totes pushing their margins up and service levels down? This is one time it's actually worth supporting the Yanks! :) I'll have a look at the fields tonight/ear...

On Tuesday April 7, it goes to Tampa Bay Downs, a track which is available to international punters via UK bookies betting into the pools. More details here - HANA Note, it's about betting in a specific pool, not any race or any bet type. But don't just donate randomly, do the form for the race, and make use of the form links from the HANA site nearer the date. Great cause and it does have meaning to people outside the US as well.

Thanks to Cangamble for the tip on this one. In North America, racing punters are getting sick of the raw deal they get from the tracks with poor pools, high takeout rates and companies bickering over who owns what rather than linking together so you can bet on any race meeting in the US or Canada. Earlier today, they (HANA, Horseplayers Assocn of North America) banded together for the POOL ATTACK BUYCOTT (yes, Buycott), encouraging all punters to bet on one chosen race at a remote track to show their strength in numbers. So rather than calling on everyone to boycott a particular track or race (which would probably fail because at least 50% of people wouldn't hear the publicity and others would just bet anyway), they plan to storm the pool by boosting the regular turnover many times over. Will Rogers Downs, the chosen track, is very obscure, a regular race at a Tuesday meeting will hold $10k in the win pool. I hope it works and I hope it makes racing authorities start remembering ...