wagering

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,...

Team members and racing fans at Horseshoe Indianapolis participated in the third annual Veteran's Day event Nov. 10 to raise proceeds for the Hoosier Veterans and Families, Inc. (HVAF) of Indiana, according to a release by the track Monday. The event featured several ways to raise funding and awareness for veterans including naming each race in honor of a veteran associated in some way to Horseshoe Indianapolis. Special saddle towels were also awarded to veterans and family members honored during the racing program. Additionally, a Veteran's Day Pick 5 Challenge...

Outlandishly high amounts of money that were bet into exotic pools at Thoroughbred and Standardbred tracks across the country during a several-hour time window Wednesday might have been the result of a feeding frenzy of opportunistic gamblers trying to take advantage of an alleged "glitch" in the FanDuel Racing account wagering system that debited only the base cost of a wager from a customer's account instead of correctly pricing multiple-combination bets at much higher amounts. Although both FanDuel executives and state regulators were largely mum on the subject of the...

Late last month, owner Mike Repole announced the formation of the National Thoroughbred Alliance (NTA), an organization charged with providing emergency triage to an industry struggling with fiscal ill-health for quite some time. For executive director of the NTA, Repole tapped Pat Cummings, who previously headed the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation, an organization focused on instituting change for racing's primary customers, the horseplayers and horse owners. At a press conference for the NTA's launch, Repole discussed his intentions in broad over-arching terms that were light on specifics. To put some meat...

Wagering on U.S. races, available and paid purses, as well as the total number of racing days, all saw declines to varying degrees during the month of October, according to information released by Equibase on Monday. Total wagering of $818.9 million on races during the month represented a 9.34% decrease over the same period from 2022, while available purses of $108.5 million were down by 10.43%. The figure of $104.2 million for paid purses in October was down 10.81%, while the total number of race days dropped from 332 to...