Fewer Race Days In July Lead To Lower Economic Indicators

With 13 fewer races days compared to the same month last year, July saw most of its economic indicators down month over month. Some of the biggest changes occurred in available purses (-4.96%) and U.S. starts (-6.35%) with only average wagering per race day seeing a positive trend (+2.25%). The numbers were much the same when compared year-to-date with wagering (-2.56%), paid purses (-3.65%), race days (-4.19%), total races (-4.39%) and starts (-3.53%) all down while field size (+0.89%), average wagering per race day (+1.70%) and average available purses per race day (+0.78%) all trending positively in 2025. Heat and wet weather have taken their toll on tracks along the East Coast with race days down to 370 in July 2025 from 383 a year ago (-3.39%).