Despite Challenges, Gulfstream West Steady

Despite a logistical nightmare in terms of the facility and weather-related disruptions, the Gulfstream Park West meet is slightly ahead of last year's pace in total handle.

And after three weeks, the meet run by Gulfstream Park is ahead by bigger margins in handle per race and field size. But thus far, total purses are down compared with 2015. Gulfstream is not commenting on this year's Gulfstream West numbers until later in the meet, which will end Nov. 27. 

A review of Equibase charts shows Gulfstream West this year had average daily all-sources handle of $3.31 million for its first 13 race days, through Oct. 23. Gulfstream West races had daily average all-sources handle of $3.30 million for the comparable 13-day period last year.

Average all-sources handle per race is $355,250 this year. That is an 8.9% increase over the average of $329,806 for the same period last year. The number of races was 130 last year and 122 this year.

Total purses fell 17% for the brief period measured, from about $3 million for 13 days in 2015 to about $2.5 million for 13 days in 2016. On a per-race basis, the decline was 11% from $22,946 to $20,446.

Through this year's first 13 days, there were no stakes races. For the comparable period last year, there were two stakes races with $75,000 purses.

The average starters per race is 8.1 this year, up from 7.8 through this stage in 2015.