Columnist Ralph Siraco: Churchill looks to futures with Derby wagers

In the past decade Las Vegas casinos have seen their near-monopoly on gaming disappear, as gaming has appeared everywhere from Indian reservations to dockside riverboat complexes.

Even some race tracks -- once bitter enemies of casino games -- have resorted to slot machines for survival and have enjoyed unprecedented profits from the video villains that provide hefty windfalls for horsemen.

But until recently Las Vegas race books still offered a few "only-in-Vegas" wagering opportunities for horseplayers. The popular "house-Q" quinella bets -- that allowed players to cash in big when the better-paying horse won the race -- have been drastically reduced, with many tracks now offering the bet through pari-mutuel pools which pay the same price no matter which horse wins.

The one "Vegas-only" feature that hadn't been penetrated by pari-mutuels was the futures wagering on the Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup events.

Until now.

As we approach the milestone 125th running of America's most famous horse race, the Kentucky Derby is a pari-mutuel futures wagering maiden no more.

Thanks to its capable custodian, this Kentucky Derby has made history over nine weeks before its participants ever step into the starting gate at Churchill Downs.

While Caesars was bringing a little bit of Vegas to the South, with a riverboat in the shadow of Louisville, Churchill Downs, Inc. was planning to take back a little bit of the Derby from the desert gaming capital.

After years of devising a pari-mutuel formula for futures wagering, taking the concept and passing muster with regulators and software programmers and finally selling the new wager to the public, Churchill Downs officially staked its claim to its Derby futures-book wagering with the new pari-mutuel pool.

And from all the early returns, it looks as if it has the potential to rival -- the traditional fixed-odds offerings here in Las Vegas.

Betting pool No. 1 for the pari-mutuel Kentucky Derby futures book was held over the weekend at Churchill Downs and other Kentucky tracks, plus participating tracks in 12 other states.

The betting session began Thursday at 9 a.m. PST and ended Sunday at 1:30 p.m. PST.

The two glaring contrasts in the typical Vegas Derby futures bets and the new pari-mutuel version offered by Churchill Downs are the fixed odds that a player gets here versus the pools-determined odds there, and the limited number of horses offered there, with a field-bet clumping "all other 3-year- olds" other than 23 specific horses.

So, when the dust cleared from round one -- of three -- in the new pari-mutuel Derby futures, how did they compare to the more traditional Vegas-style fixed- odds?

First, the betting pools started Thursday with a $10,000 wager on the "field" from an unidentified player at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, a bet that drove the price on that proposition to a ridiculous 1-to-5 number. Although that spot covers every other horse born on earth in 1996 that is not represented in the other 23 spots, it is highly unlikely that more than four of them will jam their way into a starting gate reserved for 20 of the best earners of this sophomore class.

Activity, however, was at a Wall Street bull rush by the close of action on Sunday. Of the more than $267,000 finally locked up in the first pool, more than half of that action was taken in the final four hours of play. Saturday's running of the Grade I Fountain of Youth Stakes -- the weekend's pivotal race for Derby aspirants -- may have done more for those on the list who didn't participate than those who did.

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