Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association
Posted: Nov. 7, 2016
With the Breeders’ Cup World Championships having been run in the same month last year, commingled pari-mutuel handle on U.S. Thoroughbred racing fell 18.54% in October 2016, according to the Thoroughbred Racing Economic Indicators released by Equibase.
This year’s Breeders’ Cup, which generated almost $160 million in common-pool wagering, was held Nov. 4-5 at Santa Anita Park. Total handle last year for the two-day event was $150 million.
Wagering on 3,121 races in October this year totaled $790,090,312, down from $969,918,714 for the same month in 2015. Absent a Breeders’ Cup, purses for the month dropped 17.3% from $123.18 million last year to $101.87 million this year.
The number of races was down 1.86% and the number of race days dropped 1.58%.
For the first 10 months of 2016, commingled wagering on U.S. races totaled $9,180,174,615, down less than 1% from $9,269,551,871 for the same period in 2015. Purses totaled $921.39 million, a drop of 3.49% from 2015.
Race days were down 2.38% to 4,059, while the number of races was off 2.24% to 33,147.
(Photo by Tom LaMarra)