Saratoga Tops $700M in All-Sources Handle Again

Back several months ago, when New York Racing Association officials pondered the viability of its annual shift to Saratoga Race Course, there was a slim hope that fans might be allowed inside the Spa before the meet reached its conclusion on Labor Day.

That never materialized. Only a small, limited number of owners were permitted on the historic grounds, creating a disturbing sense of emptiness inside a facility famous for large crowds and a constant swirl of activity.

Yet on the evening of Sept. 7, as a unique and completely bizarre 2020 meet came to an end, the decision to move to Saratoga rather than stay at Belmont Park during the pandemic did indeed payoff for NYRA and its CEO and president David O'Rourke.

After Monday's 40th and final card of the meet, NYRA topped the $700 million mark in all-sources handle for a second year in a row, finishing with a total of $702,535,468. Even without fans on-hand, the figure was a mere $3 million below the record $705.3 million handled in 2019.

"I think the meet went as well as we could have expected. Ultimately, we made the right decision to come up here, though I don't think anyone wants to do it like this again," O'Rourke said. "The racing was good, even with some challenges on that side with Keeneland and Churchill Downs bookending our meet. Field size was down about half a horse from last year (7.4 per race in 2020), yet the power of the brand resonated with the betting public. They supported us."

As much as NYRA thrived through online betting, what was lost during the meet were the 1,056,053 fans who turned out in 2019 and with their hospitality purchases and on-track wagering generated the kind of financial stimulus that has enabled NYRA to become profitable in recent years after a long stretch of being in the red.

"What we saw this year was a one-time event. Saratoga is worth $10 million to $20 million to our bottom line. We have accounted for losing that in our forecasts, but you can't make that up. You just try to mitigate it with reduced operating costs. There's no way to make up lost revenue like that."

O'Rourke said coming to Saratoga was also important in terms of continuity, keeping the Spa in the minds and hearts of fans and stoking their interest in next year's meet.

"Coming up here and racing under the Saratoga brand will help us next year and I appreciate the help we received from the local community. One of the concerns as we deliberated whether we should stay south was that if we don't come up for one year there will be question marks about next year. With the continuity of racing this year, it should give us momentum going into next year," he said. "We've offered people credits toward next year and it was a good indication of how sales might go. We had about 55% of tickets, boxes, anything that is pre-paid, rolled into next year and that's a pretty good sign. It gives us a nice head start toward 2021."

On a highly positive note, NYRA was able to operate safely during its stay at Saratoga. According to spokesperson Pat McKenna, there were no positive COVID-19 test results for any NYRA employee or backstretch worker during the meet and at the moment no one at either Saratoga or Belmont Park is being quarantined due to coronavirus.

"We got through the whole meet without a COVID-19 positive, which is a testament to every stakeholder. Frontside, backside, horsemen, the community health people, the state, and the Gaming Commission, everyone worked together," O'Rourke said. "At first some of the protocols might have seemed rigid, but it paid off."

With no wagering offered on the grounds, the last few months have boosted both NYRA's online wagering platform, NYRA Bets, and the daily television coverage it airs nationally during its "America's Day at the Races" shows on FOX Sports 1 and 2 and MSG networks.

"We've seen growth across all of the internet wagering platforms. I think there's some positives in terms of broadening the audience during the last few months for us and the entire industry," O'Rourke said. "At the beginning of the summer there were no other sports and we gained some momentum with sports fans and we kept that audience as we pushed through the Saratoga meet."

While there were no wagering terminals inside the track, people could bet online and through mobile accounts. To help keep those accounts fluid, NYRA entered into an innovative business relationship with Stewart's Shops—a popular convenience store chain in the Saratoga area—to sell $50 NYRA Bets gift cards. After buying the card, the purchaser could then deposit the $50 into their NYRA Bets account and wager on the races.

McKenna said more than 12,000 cards, at $50 each, were purchased at the meet, generating at least $600,000 in wagering dollars.

Though NYRA could not interact with local residents on its grounds, the organization expressed its gratitude to its neighbors through charitable gestures such as a face mask campaign that raised $20,000 for non-profits in Saratoga Springs and loaning the city's school system 175 of its picnic tables. In addition, the NYRA Cares program turned over $13,380 to the Adirondack Trust Company Community Fund for distribution in the community.

NYRA's renovation of the main track was warmly received by horsemen and produced a safe racing surface that drained and dried far quicker than in the past.

Looking ahead to the Belmont Park fall meet, which will open Sept. 18 and run through Nov. 1, a small number of licensed owners with horses on that day's card will be allowed to attend the races in a departure from the spring/summer meet when all spectators were barred from the facility. Yet in terms of allowing fans at its tracks, O'Rourke says that's unlikely to happen until the 2021 Belmont spring/summer meet.

"We're now entering the budget phase for 2021, so to enter a baseline for fans returning, we've added Belmont spring. We can pivot, but when we're at Aqueduct Racetrack, it's an older facility and I don't think it would comply with the HVAC requirements for malls and casinos. We're thinking Belmont Park, being open air, is a good place to plant a marker for getting fans back, but we'll be ready to pivot if something changes."

The Resorts World Casino New York City at Aqueduct is scheduled to re-open Sept. 9, which will supply a much-needed boost to NYRA's purse account which receives 38% of its funding from casino revenue. Though it's premature to estimate how much money NYRA will receive with the casino operating at 25% capacity, O'Rourke stressed that NYRA will be conducting winter racing this year in a yet to be determined format.

"With the opening of the casinos, it relives some of the pressure for winter racing in terms of the purse account. I think the winter racing schedule will revolve around the available inventory of horses. We'll be running. It's just a matter of how many days a week and how many races a day," O'Rourke said.

In the meantime, as NYRA and its workers and horsemen move back to their downstate homes, the lasting image of the empty seats and a reconfigured racing schedule that saw the Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) moved to Aug. 8 and contested as a prep for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) is one O'Rourke hopes is never seen again.

"Inside the racetrack it was surreal. It was so quiet. You look at the apron every day and no one is there. You find yourself focusing on the television show and for a brief moment you forget what's going on," O'Rourke said. "But the scary thing is you get used to the situation without fans. It becomes normal to see everyone with masks, to keep people apart, to having meetings at a massive table with everyone spread out. I'm sick of Zoom. Like everyone else, I want to get back to normal. I want to wake up one day and go work and see people cheering the horses on and no one is worried about wearing a face mask anymore."

Sadly, as far as Saratoga is concerned, O'Rourke will have to wait until 2021 for that happen.