wagering

A -1.57% decrease in races and -1.58% in total race days in October lead to declines across the board compared to the same month a year ago.  Wagering totaled $796,468,476, a -2.71% decrease over last year while purses were also down (-1.63% available and -2.44% paid) to match available wagering per race day (-1.16%). Looking at the year to date, while wagering is still down (-2.88%), both available and paid purses are in the green (+0.79% and +0.50% respectively). Race days and total races are both down year over year...

All-sources handle for the 10-race program on the first day of the 41st Breeders' Cup World Championships Nov. 1 at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club was $63,679,944, the second-highest handle for a Breeders' Cup Friday and the fourth consecutive year the Friday handle has topped $60 million. The Future Stars Friday card featured five Breeders' Cup races for 2-year-old horses, the seventh straight year the Breeders' Cup has carded all its juvenile races on the same day since the event expanded to its two-day format in 2007. Friday's on-track attendance...

Saturday marked the final day of Keeneland's 2024 Fall Meet which saw a season-record all-sources wagering total of $210 million boosted by record purse money that attracted full fields featuring the nation's top trainers, jockeys and horses. Jockey Tyler Gaffalione earned the leading rider title, his eighth overall, with 24 total wins while trainer Brad Cox led all trainers with 14 wins including a record six stakes wins during the meet. Godolphin was the meet's leading owner with four wins. "The Fall Meet was exceptional," said Keeneland President and CEO...

The Philadelphia Cup, the second event in a three-part National Thoroughbred League NTL Cup series, attracted a crowd of 4,260 to Parx Racing--doubling original estimates--and wagering of $1.6 million, 50% higher than originally forecast. Julius 'Dr. J.' Erving is a partner of the league and owner of its Philadelphia Stallions and was on hand for an exclusive meet-and-greet with more than a dozen Philadelphia sports legends. "This past weekend epitomizes why we formed the National Thoroughbred League," said Randall Lane, co-founder of the NTL. "Many of us grew up mesmerized...

Golden State Racing (GSR) has reached an agreement with The Stronach Group's (TSG) Xpressbet, allowing punters to be able to wager on Pleasanton through that particular ADW platform when racing resumes this Friday. GSR launched its inaugural 26-day Thoroughbred meet at Pleasanton Saturday, Oct. 19. But punters hoping to wager on its product through Xpressbet and the New York Racing Association's NYRA Bets were shut out--a scenario stemming from a disagreement over the fees that form a key part of a track's purses and revenues. Similarly, Elite Turf Club players...

Golden State Racing launched Saturday its inaugural 26-day Thoroughbred meet at Pleasanton. But punters hoping to wager on its product through two popular ADW platforms are currently shut out--a scenario stemming from a disagreement over the fees that form a key part of a track's purses and revenues. Currently, neither The Stronach Group's (TSG) ADW platform Xpressbet nor the New York Racing Association's NYRA Bets include Pleasanton in their racing menus. Similarly, Elite Turf Club players are also unable to play on the Pleasanton product. Owned by TSG and NYRA,...

The 2024 racing season at Hastings Racecourse wrapped up Oct. 13 with average wagering per race increasing 7.8%. Total wagering for the season of $21,531,203 showed a 4% decline from last year, primarily due to one fewer racing day and 36 fewer races in 2024. "We were quite pleased with some of the increases and progress we saw this year," said Dawn Lupul, Manager of Racing and Communications at BC Racebook. "We made some changes to the schedule with the addition of Friday nights and were on FanDuel TV on...

Calling extreme odds changes the "Achilles heel of pari-mutuel wagering," Michael Fitzsimons, the Hong Kong Jockey Club's executive director of racing products, recently sold the audience at the Asian Racing Conference on a plan to standardize global access to the World Pool by sophisticated computer teams. "For the first time, we are proposing this year to work on the World Pool professional hubs, where we come together with operators to agree to the rules and through our smart contracts technology, we will enforce these rules no matter where the professional...

This year's Woodbine's Turf Champions Day, held Saturday, Sept. 14, saw a 9 percent increase in total wagering from last year. The all-sources handle for the day, which was headlined by the GI Rogers Woodbine Mile and a trio of Breeders' Cup 'Win and You're In' races, was $13,339,206, up from last year's $12.1 million. The $13.3 million handle is also the second highest ever for a Woodbine Mile card. Additionally, wagering in the local Ontario area also saw an 8.9 percent increase from the previous year and a strong...

Kentucky Downs's seven-day meet that ended Wednesday again set records for wagering and purses paid out to horse owners for the 12th straight year. Purses totaled $34,624,472 for 76 races, including $13.6 million from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund available only to registered Kentucky-bred thoroughbreds. That reflects an increase of 38 percent over last year's total purses of $25.06 million paid out for 76 races. Sixteen of the 18 stakes winners were foaled in Kentucky, taking full advantage of the KTDF funding. All-sources wagering totaled $90,181,408, up eight percent over...

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...