April Purses, Race Days Take Hit From COVID-19

With only a handful of racetracks hosting live racing while many were shuttered because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of the United States' race days, total handle, and total purses in April took a major hit compared with April 2019.

April is normally a busy month for Thoroughbred racing with the Keeneland meet and major Road to the Kentucky Derby races but Keeneland canceled its meet, Santa Anita Park has not raced since March 22, and action at Aqueduct Racetrack was halted March 19. Oaklawn Park and Gulfstream Park were among the few tracks to continue, offering racing without fans in attendance.

Equibase had gone to a quarterly reporting of industry economic indicators, but with the current COVID-19 situation it released figures for April that showed bettors were supporting the tracks that continued racing but that support—limited to wagering through advance-deposit wagering sites—was not able to overcome the decline in race dates.

According to the economic indicators, in April 2019 racetracks across the United States hosted 311 race days for Thoroughbreds, while last month those dates were down 73% to 85 days. The number of races decreased 71% from 2,612 to 746. With limited spots to run horses, average field size increased 21% to 9.13 from 7.55. 

Casinos and historical horse racing machine facilities that generated purse money were temporarily closed to help ensure social distancing measures and help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, leading to some tracks reducing purses for the racing that continued behind closed doors in April. That impact on purses figures to likely continue into next year. Purses last month totaled $17,494,400, an 80% decrease from April 2019's purses of $85,910,830. Purses through the first third of the year compared with 2019 experienced a decrease of 29% to $222,722,051.

April wagering declined 24% this year ($639,399,396 compared with $845,958,246 in April 2019), but the average wagering per race day increased 176% to $7,522,346 as bettors migrated to the remaining tracks. Year to date, the $3,148,569,565 wagered on U.S. races from January-April is only down 6.87%. The average wagered per race card (average wagering per race day), to date, is up 22% to $3,586,070.