Ellis Park topped last year's record-breaking meet when the 2017 totals were tallied, with total wagering on the 31-date session that ended Monday improving by 15%.
“We had quality racing. We had a whole bunch of great trainers bring their horses here. We had a great jockey colony, and we had some exciting races,” said Ron Geary, Ellis' president and majority owner. “Our purse money was up over the previous year. The result is that we think this was our best race meet probably in my 11 years. And I think it's just going to get better and better.”
A record $38,380,549 was wagered on Ellis Park, both on-track and from off-track and online outlets. With the addition of simulcasting numbers, wagering during the meet totaled $41,923,614, up 15 percent over last year's $36,395,093.
Field sizes averaged 8.2 starters per race for 256 races, up slightly from the 8.0 average in 2016 for 259 races. Purses paid out totaled $6,223,300, or about $214,000 per complete card, up about $15,000 a day. The average purse paid out was $24,0310, up about $2,000 per race.
“Our purse structure is now at the point where we can compete with most of the bigger tracks in the country,” said Dan Bork, Ellis Park's racing secretary. “There's always room for improvement. No matter how good we think we're doing, we're not even close to where we should be. Our purse structure is great, but we could do a lot better. We've got a good stakes schedule. It needs to improve there, too. We're already looking forward to a year from now.”
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