2012 Indiana Horse Racing Commission Annual Report

The Indiana Horse Racing Commission has released their 2012 Annual Report, which is the first under new Chairman Bill Diener. Here is the link to the report: http://freepdfhosting.com/bfcf53cea5.pdf.

If you're sharp, and understand basic math, see if you can find the errors on page 5 regarding handle on Indiana races. The same errors have been made in every Annual Report in recent history.

Update: On August 16th, the IHRC updated the 2012 Annual Report to correct some on-going math errors. Here's the link to the corrected report: http://www.in.gov/hrc/files/12_Annual_Report_book.pdf. While we didn't get a response, here's exactly what we said to Chairman Diener last week:

"Chairman Diener, I noticed that the IHRC's 2012 Annual Report has been posted the commission website. Each year, the annual report is one of the few publications, and possibly only publication, that provides a summary of the handle at Indiana's race tracks. In this year's edition, the 'Live Racing at Tracks' is page 5, and each year, the same mathematical error is made on this page.

If you look at the 'Total' column on the page, you'll see simple addition of the Hoosier Park handle numbers to the Indiana Downs handle numbers for each breed. For most of the metrics on this page, simple addition works to create a total. Where simple addition doesn't work is with the averages calculated on this page. More specifically, the average daily handle and average handle per race for quarter horses are being added together. What the annual report does is add the averages together to create a total, yet averages can't be added together as overall averages are a completely separate calculation.

More specifically, the average quarter horse handle per race at Hoosier Park is indicated to be $2,742 with the average at Indiana Downs indicated to be $3,084. The average in the Total column is indicated to be $5,826. Yet, based upon the numbers provided, the overall average is really $2,912. It's mathematically impossible to have an overall average greater than either of the other two averages in the calculation. This same adding-averages-together error is also made on the Simulcast Handle chart on the same page.

For your convenience, here's the link to the current annual report: http://www.in.gov/hrc/files/12_Annual_Report_book.pdf


Thanks,


Jim Hartman"