With bad weather, fewer tracks and cards than prior weeks, and national attention focused particularly on Keeneland, it was a rough weekend for handle in the mid-Atlantic region. According to our latest HandleTrak report, wagering on the region’s live product on Saturday and Sunday fell to just $5.2 million — more than 50 percent below any prior weekend.
Charles Town, Laurel Park, The Meadowlands, Parx Racing and Penn National hosted six racing cards over the weekend. But with just two stakes among them and rough weather in parts of the region, wagering activity averaged less than $900,000 per card.
Delaware and Monmouth completed their seasons prior to the weekend, with Monmouth’s closing, in particular, taking a chomp out of regional wagering. New Jersey racing shifted to The Meadowlands, which ran just a six-race, all-turf card and only on Saturday. That change sliced about $4.5 million out of the region’s wagering coffers.
Parx Racing was the only track in the region to see growth from the prior weekend. Parx had two Saturday stakes, which helped it handle over $970,000 on the day. For the weekend, its total wagering of more than $1.8 million was about 3 percent higher than the prior weekend.
Though its handle declined by 25 percent from the previous weekend, Laurel’s Saturday was the region’s single busiest day. Despite having all turf races moved to the main track, Laurel handled just shy of $1.1 million. Despite just a six-race card, The Meadowlands handled over $1 million on Saturday, the region’s second busiest day.
For the coming weekend, both Laurel — with Maryland Million day — and Charles Town, which hosts West Virginia Breeders Classics, expect to see handle rise.
REGIONAL HANDLE BY WEEKEND
Gee, couldn’t the breeders cards have been held on back-to-back weekends? Nah, that’s too easy for these enterprises. And on a humdrum weekend, couldn’t a little cooperative creativity and marketing boosted the dead handle? Nah, too much effort required for something that may or may not work. You’ve got a gov. candidate like Doug Gansler actively talking about taking a chunk out of horse racing, and the track chooses to sit on its hands and let a sleepy weekend go by. Every weekend open should be an effort – and that goes for Pimlico too, which is a race meet, not just a construction project for Preakness Day. I’m glad you publish these numbers. Thanks.
Thanks for checking in, John, and for sharing your thoughts – these are good questions… somebody should ask them… oh, wait… let’s look into that!