Saratoga Handle Rises by 2.5% for First Four Days

Four days into a revamped Saratoga Race Course meet, New York Racing Association president and CEO David O'Rourke has a new twist on an old slogan.

"We're not hiding from the fact that this is 'The August Place to Be,' but it's not so bad in July," he said.

O'Rourke said the first four days of a meet that opened one weekend earlier than in past years "went really well."

All-sources handle from July 11-14 rose by 2.5% from the first four days a year ago. The overall handle checked in at $73,441,101 compared to the all-sources total of $71,671,188 for the first four days of last year's meet Friday, July 20, through Monday, July 23.

The paid attendance of 105,690, helped by a cooler bag giveaway Sunday, dropped 3.3% from 109,395 for the first four days in 2018.

"We added a Thursday and took away a Monday. When you look at it that way, we'll see how it plays out. We didn't anticipate the Thursday opening day would be as busy as a Friday. Opening day should be a bang, but this meet builds until the sales (Aug. 5-6) and you hit a plateau until the Travers (Aug. 24)," O'Rourke said. "There are challenges opening early, but the real challenge was opening the week after Stars and Stripes Week (at Belmont Park) and opening the 1863 Club here on a nine-10 month build-out. I have to give a massive amount of credit to the team here."

This year's starting date was the earliest in the track's modern era, and the numbers for the opener slumped in comparison to the first day last year.

On a rainy day that included a three-horse field in the finale, attendance was off nearly 33% while all-sources handle dipped 22% and on-track handle dropped 42%.

"You can't begin to compare a Thursday opening day to a Friday," said NYRA senior vice president of racing operations Martin Panza. "If you take away the rain and a three-horse field in the last race Thursday, we would have handled $18 million, and that's fine for a Thursday opening day. It was the first time we did it, so for someone to think we'd handle more than $20 million like a Friday is not realistic. A figure of $18 million would have been good, and with a good day we probably would have reached it."

How fans react to the other part of the new schedule will be known in the weeks to come as Saratoga will race Wednesday through Sunday until its closing Labor Day card. Previously, there was racing six days a week on a Wednesday-through-Monday basis.

Field size for the meet stands at 7.9 per race with 325 starters in 41 races. In the meet's six stakes, there have been 42 runners for an average of 7.0 per race.

"Field size has been OK. It's tricky for the whole industry. There are some races that are hard for everyone to fill," Panza said. "There's still a lot of value in winning a race at Saratoga. It's a very special place. I'm not overall concerned. It was a good opening week, and it will get stronger as the meet goes on. If the weather cooperates, it will only help."