In 2019 the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Association, along with the Standardbred Breeders Association of PA, debuted Wager Warriors at Pennsylvania’s harness tracks to educate and engage new fans. Throughout the summer, the Wager Warriors roamed the aprons at the tracks to talk to fans, help them read a program, learn how to wager, and would hand out $2 wagering vouchers for fans to make a free bet.
Due to the Coronavirus, Wager Warriors has been drastically changed for 2020. Now with it being expanded to include the three Thoroughbred tracks, Wager Warriors is totally virtual for the time being. The $2 wagering vouchers have been replaced by free weekly Trackmaster race programs on pennhorseracing.com, but the fan education has continued.
One way that the fan education has continued is by Zoom webinars on Facebook Live. With Mike Carter and Mike Bozich of Post Time with Mike and Mike as the hosts, fans are still able to learn and ask questions despite the attendance restrictions placed on the tracks.
Throughout July, August, and September Mike and Mike have been joined by a different guest each week to discuss different wagering topics and to look at some of Pennsylvania’s biggest races. To date, some of the topics discussed have been pedigree handicapping, how to build multi-race tickets, and what the basics are to look for in the program. Through Facebook Live and Zoom, the PHRA has been able to split the screen and display examples of what is being discussed.
Using the comments on the Facebook Live feed, fans can still interact with Mike and Mike and ask questions to be answered live while the Zoom is in progress. This feature has also allowed the PHRA to insert trivia questions in the broadcast. Fans can answer the trivia questions in the comments to win a PHRA prize.
The webinars will be uploaded to the PHRA YouTube channel after their completion so that they can be watched again on both YouTube and Facebook.
The other big change for 2020 is the free past performances. Partnering with Trackmaster, the PHRA has been able to offer free full card past performances for one standardbred and one thoroughbred track each week. This gives fans more free information to help them make educated wagers and is something that all handicappers can benefit from, whether they’re beginners, intermediate, or experts.
Another new Wager Warriors feature for this year is that fans can be Wager Warriors for a day. To do this, anyone interested should go to pennhorseracing.com and click on “Wager Warriors & Free PPs” in the upper right hand corner of the home screen. There they can scroll down and fill out the form. Those who choose to fill out the form will then be able to handicap a race and have their picks posted on the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Association’s social media pages. In addition to having their picks posted, they will also receive a PHRA prize pack.
The guest Wager Warriors picks can be submitted in either a word document or as a video.
Pennhorseracing.com also still offers fan education sections, where people can learn about the types of wagers, how to pick a horse, where to place a bet, and how to read a program. The how to read a program section features an interactive program clip where you can hover over a section of the program and it will explain what that information is.
Wager Warriors will continue throughout the summer and will remain virtual for the foreseeable future. The complete schedule of free past performances can be found in the Wager Warriors section of pennhorseracing.com. The next Zoom webinar is scheduled for Thursday, August 13, 2020 at 7:30pm with Mike Carter, Mike Bozich, and the PTHA’s Dani Gibson. A full schedule can be seen below:
- Thursday, August 13 with Dani Gibson
- Thursday, September 3 with Averie Levanti
- Wednesday, September 23 with Ashley Mailloux
Here is the schedule for the free past performances through August. These are subject to change due to track schedule changes, carryovers, etc.
- Harrah’s Philadelphia – Sunday, August 2
- Parx – Monday, August 3
- The Meadows – Tuesday, August 11
- Penn National – Friday, August 14
- Mohegan Sun Pocono – Sunday, August 16
- Presque Isle Downs – Wednesday, August 19
- Harrah’s Philadelphia – Thursday, August 27
- Penn National – Friday, August 28
- Parx Racing – Monday, September 7
