Starts

An increase in race days in April 2026 led to bumps in both wagering and purses across the United States compared to April of 2025. The month saw 2,170 races (+2.99%) across 259 race days (+2.78%) which pushed wagering totals to $898,254,315 (+2.23%). Purses were also up, with paid purses jumping to $95,634,866 (+9.14%). Average wagering per race day dipped slightly to $3,468,163 (-0.53%) while field size also fell to 7.30 (-5.38%) and starts dropped to 15,837 (-2.55%). Year over year, available and paid purses remained in the green at...

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...

July 2024 saw declines across the board compared to the same month last year with only average field size (+0.98%) and average available purses per race day (+3.42%) seeing gains for the month. With race days down to 383 from 423 last year (-9.46%), wagering, available purses, races and starts all saw declines. Race days are down year-to-date (2,173 vs. 2,284) leading to declines in wagering (-3.20%), races (-4.63%) and starts (-3.87%). Available wagering per race day (+1.74%) and average available purses per race day (+8.88 %) both showed gains...