The answer to takeout is tossout...
Not the track, but enough horses so that the playing field is always positive. One great advantage of horse racing. Never a need to bet into a negative playing field.
There's also a flipside to the takeout question. A small track with a higher takeout will not attract as many sharp players. Exotic payouts can be interesting in such places, and also easier to win because the racing is not as competitive. So a 3/2 fave, with two horses in the 4/1 range and the rest of the field in or near double digits sets up nicely for a cold trifecta/superfecta formula. Do that in NY and players are all over it. Not so much at a small track, and it makes the takeout less important.
Anyway, good to see the best thread on the internet is still very much alive. I have a question about the Del Mar surface. If there is one track in the country that disrespects players, in my opinion, it is Del Mar. It seems that each year they change the surface. This time they did it because of the Breeders Cup later in the year, which makes it a pretty big deal to understand what is going on there. Already the news is out that horses with a previous race over the surface have a big advantage. Desormeaux (the trainer) pointed that out. So one question I have is how likely that is to last through the Breeders Cup. The problem is that I haven't been able to identify what exactly has changed. The angle of the slope is much sharper, and they have brought in Santa Anita dirt, but don't tell that to horses that have raced over the SA surface. If this was NY racing the analysts would be all over it, but not so in California. So I'll just start with what I can see, and that is the slope. Does a sharper angle of the slope have an effect on how the horses handle the track? But I would have to tie that into what Desormeaux said, and the observation that the second time over the track the horse has adjusted. What would be the reason for that?