TABCORP Newest Innovation 16/09/00 TABCORP have unveiled a brand spanking new product on trial at some of its venues. It’s called Trackside and it’s a state of the art, computer generated horse racing game (ooops, that sounded like it was a positive review, actually its just a glorified keno system). What we get is imaginary horses ridden by imaginary jockeys running in imaginary races every 3 minutes. Only problem is - we have to bet real money... Odds are fixed for each runner in each race, and the brave and the foolish can chase quinellas and trifectas as well. For our punting dollar, we get to see the computer generated horses parading in the mounting yard before each race. Actually the animation is quite impressive. The realism is lacking - Turf Deli has yet to see the 3D horse in the mounting yard answering a call of nature, or bucking a jockey and bolting, only to be reigned in by the clerk of the course on the virtual SubZero. Another problem is that it’s a bit hard to assess the condition of your trusty steed from the parade through the mounting yard - maybe we need a virtual Roy Higgins providing feedback from the mounting yard "No. 5 - well pixelated, realistic colour generation, but seems to have a funny action and does tend to move jerkily" Why did we need this product ?? No idea. The TABs (both TABCORP and NSWTAB) seem to have this idea that the only way to increase profit is to race all day, every day. This means packing as many venues as possible into one day to milk the mug punter for all they are worth. They don’t seem to realise that horse racing punters are a different breed from those vacant souls poking aimlessly at a touch screen for hours on end. These punters want time to do the form and consider their bets, they get a buzz out of hearing their winner come home, they stick with horses they like and back against horses they don’t. Which means that no-one, absolutely no-one pays the slightest bit of attention to the new TV screen in the corner with the flashy slogan "Win Real Money on Unreal Horses" . Maybe "Win Real Money from Real Losers" would be more appropriate…