The KRA has announced that 2009 will see a slight reduction in Pari-Mutuel takeout for Quinella bets. The dividend for Quinella, Exacta and Quinella Place will rise 1% from 72% to 73%. Dividends in the win and place pools will remain unchanged at 80%. Although tax is the same at 18% in all the pools, the KRA takes much more commission from the quinella pools.

As an illustration of the kind of money involved, on the last day of racing in 2008 last Sunday, a total of KRW 59,726,125,000 (US$45,185,054.53 at current exchange rates) was gambled on the twelve races at Seoul Race Park alone. The vast majority of this – 90% or more in most races – was on one of the three quinella bets.

The 2009 Korean Racing season will get underway at Busan Race Park next Friday, January 9. As in 2008, Busan will have things to itself each Friday before the action moves to Seoul and Jeju on Saturdays. On Sundays, all three tracks will run cards. There will be racing every week except on the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of January and Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok) in the first week of October. There will also be a one week Mid-Summer break at the end of July. The season finishes on Sunday December 20.

A return to night racing is scheduled from mid-July to mid-August. On these days, cards usually start in mid afternoon and run until 9pm. In 2008, the entire night racing program was cancelled and the races run during the day instead due to record high fuel prices. It was the first time in twenty years that night racing didn’t take place.

FULL 2009 RACING SCHEDULE