wagering

With 20 days down and 20 days to go for Saratoga 2024, the handle numbers are remarkably close to what NYRA posted in 2023. At the end of Wednesday's last race, $390,617,175 had been wagered on the meet, a 0.4 percent increase from the midway point of the 2023 meet. Last year's racing season was a trying one for NYRA as rain decimated parts of the meet. A total of $799,229,288 was bet on the 40 days of racing, a decline of 9 percent from 2022 figures. The wet weather...

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...

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) has reached a contractual resolution with Churchill Downs, Inc. that allows for TwinSpires customers to regain immediate access to all NYRA content, including pari-mutuel wagering, live video and race replays from the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course, the organization said in a release on Friday. In addition, all Churchill Downs content will be immediately available to NYRA Bets customers. The impasse between the pair was reignited on Wednesday, July 31 when NYRA said that it was cutting off pari-mutuel wagering, live video...

The 150th Spring Meet at Churchill Downs concluded Sunday with a record $708.3 million wagered over the 43-day meet. That broke the 2022 Spring Meet record of $614.8 million by $93.5 million. Just 10 years ago, the Spring Meet betting totaled $368.8 million. All sources handle during the six-day Derby Week (April 27-May 4) rose to $446.6 million--including $320.5 million on Kentucky Derby Day--to eclipse last year's Derby Week record of $412.0 million. The wagering increases continued throughout the final 37 days of the Spring Meet (May 9-June 30) as...

Wagering on U.S. races, plus available and paid purses, all saw increases to varying degrees when compared to a year ago in May, while the number of races declined during the month, according to information released by Equibase on Friday. Total wagering of over $1.4 million on races during the month represented a 0.57% increase over the same period from 2023, while available purses of $124.6 million were up by 2.86%. The figure of over $119.9 million for paid purses in May was up 2.44%. However, the total number of...

Finger Lakes-based jockey Christian J. Navarro has been suspended 30 days and fined $1,000 for alleged violations of a New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) rule that prohibits jockeys from betting on races unless they wager "through the owner of and on the horse that such jockey rides." Beyond stating that Navarro's alleged offenses occurred Nov. 22, 2023, (the closing date of last year's Finger Lakes season) details were scant on the NYSGC's online rulings portal. TDN sent a Monday afternoon email to Brad Maione, the NYSGC's communications director, asking...

Jeff Siegel has been named as the new Morning-Line Maker for Santa Anita, replacing Jon White who announced his retirement earlier this week. In a release sent Friday afternoon, Santa Anita noted that Siegel will begin the positive effective with the beginning of the Autumn meet, Sept. 27. "Jeff is universally respected by his peers, be them horseplayers, horsemen, or his fellow analysts," said Santa Anita's Senior Vice President and General Manager Nate Newby. " We are excited that Jeff will be expanding his role at Santa Anita in taking...

In its second year as an official partner of the Kentucky Derby, FanDuel experienced increases in key metrics across the board on the first Saturday in May. Highlights include: Double digit year-over-year growth for active account holders, a record for the Kentucky Derby and the biggest day of racing ever for FanDuel Group. Peak bets on Saturday were at Super Bowl levels and the wagering platform performed without interruption. More than 700k customers bet the Kentucky Derby with FanDuel Group (last year was ~500k). Estimated over 200k customers bet on...

Wyoming-based Cowboy Racing will partner with 1/ST to boost racing, breeding and wagering opportunities in the state, the organizations announced in a joint statement Monday. The newly-planned Thunder Plains Park, a racing and training facility planned for Cheyenne, will welcome 1/ST as its exclusive racing operator through a planned 16 day live-racing meet. "We are excited to expand upon our success and continued support of racing and HHR in Wyoming to lend 1/ST's industry-leading operational experience and passion to Cowboy Racing as they work to develop a new racing and...

Wagering on U.S. races, available and paid purses and the average field size, all saw increases to varying degrees, while the number of races declined during the month of March, according to information released by Equibase on Friday. Total wagering of over $972 million on races during the month represented a 0.99% increase over the same period from 2022, while available purses of $102.8 million were up by 8.41%. The figure of over $98 million for paid purses in March was up 7.55%. However, the total number of race days...

Several days of cancelled races due to weather, especially along the East Coast, led to over a 10% dip in wagering from January compared to the same time last year according to statistics released by Equibase. Last month saw 217 race days with a total of 1,853 carded races and $779,860,113 wagered (-10.76%), down from 265 days, 2,280 races and $873,842,469 wagered in Jan. '23, leading to drops in purses paid (-14.94%) and totals starts (-17.36%). On the positive side, despite those cancellations, average wagering was up (+8.99%) as was...

According to data released Friday by Equibase, handle in 2023 fell by $447,759,362 for a decline of 3.7 percent. Had handle not rebounded in December, which saw a 6.62% increase, the figures would have looked much worse. Outside of the COVID year of 2020, this was the steepest decline based on percentage of handle since 2011. A total of $11,658,624,859 was wagered in 2023. "I think we got quite a blip coming out of the pandemic when we were the only game in town," said Marshall Gramm, an economics professor,...