Wagering on U.S. races has dipped slightly from $998,331,984 in 2020 to $993,147,243 this season, according to the Thoroughbred Racing Economic Indicators released by Equibase Tuesday. The drop represents a 0.52% change over a year ago. Conversely, wagering rose 0.22% from pre-COVID-19 figures in 2019 when $990,923,384 was wagering during the month of June. In 2021, purses rose 49.17% to $103,624,634 from last year as did race days which increased to 437 from 300 in 2020. Purse figures for the comparable time frame in 2019 were $115,194,83, with 499 race days conducted in June of that year. Also up over last year, 3,413 races were contested in the U.S. (+37.34%) as was number of starts, rising 18.49% to 23,870. Average purse size fell 13.73% to 6.99 last month, while average wagering per race day tumbled 31.71% to $2,272,648. Average purses per race day increased by 2.4% to $237,127.
Generally speaking, the year-to-date figures showed increases, including U.S. wagering rising 24.20% to $6,277, 894,486 and U.S. purses rising 58.85% to $514,950,882. Also showing big gains from 2020 to 2021, U.S. race days rose 44.58% to 1,881 and U.S. race days increasing to 15,792 from 10,906 in 2020. Average field size fell to 7.43 from 8.08, while average wagering per race day also dipped to $3,337,530 from $3,885,109.
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