How do racetracks determine the initial odds?

Question

i know they change based on people betting..but what do they open with?

Answer 1

all tracks have a morning line man...sometimes like at los alamitos it's the track announcer"ed burgart" he is a good handicapper in his own rights and gets to see every horse race....

Answer 2

The "morning line"  odds are determined by the track's Racing Secretary.

Answer 3

By previous races &/or training times.

Answer 4

The morning line odds, which as another poster mentioned are given out by the Racing Secretary's office, are not a reflection of who the track thinks is likely to win, or even what they think the final odds are likely to be.  They reflect the opinion of the racing secretary as to how the public is likely to bet.  

The "morning line" is something of an anachronism, dating back to the days when it wasn't possible for a track to easily compute the odds based on money wagered, much less display that information in "real time."  I know it's hard for us in this age of computers and instant data accessability to know what it used to be like.  Back in the early days of pari-mutuel wagering, it took some real time to compute payoffs and display actual odds; so as a convenience to patrons, the "morning line" odds would be posted to help patrons try to figure out what payoffs might be.  

FWIW, I think the morning line is eventually going to go the way of the dinosaurs.  It's possible now to keep instantaneous track of the odds and advanced betting (as opposed to same-day betting) could be taken on all races, not just stakes races, if the tracks wanted to allow that.  

Racing has a rich heritage that goes back hundreds of years, and sometimes the reasons and ways things are done go back to a time when they actually made sense.  The morning line odds are one of those things.  It's an endearing reminder to those of us who love the sport of a time before things were computerized and automated.

Answer 5

I see lots of partial answers here all having a degree of correctness, some not so correct.  Morning line odds are available in at least a couple of places.  One is the Daily Racing Form and the other the track program.  Each has their own handicapper who generates what he/she thinks a horse's odd should be based on their performance in relationship to the other horses in the race.  The handicapper can be the announcer, racing secretary or a specific handicapper only person.  This is strictly for the bettors to give them an indication of what an "expert" thinks of a horse.  Bettors can then judge if there is value in betting that horse (i.e. a morning line 10-1 is being bet at 6-5).  If the bettor and the handicapper really think this is maybe the 4th or 5th best horse in the race then maybe you really don't think 6-5 is a good value.  It's really one persons opinion of what chance a horse has to win being give as an additional tool for the bettor.

Answer 6

It is how the track handicapper feels the final odds will fall...it is sort of a gauge for the track itself, not so much for the bettors. Once the windows open, the bettors are competing against themselves.

Answer 7

There are no odds until the bets start to come in.

The odds in programs prior to the start of the races is called the "morning line" and is an educated guess as to what the odds may be at the time of post.

Hi Sherry N.