Santa Anita Meet Numbers: Total Handle Down $122.9 Million, or 20.8%

The Santa Anita meet has concluded. Because there are no hard-numbers published, a HANA member who has been compiling betting numbers for various racetracks this year, has them for us. The source is Equibase.

Total handle this year versus last was down (rounded) $122.9 million, or 20.80%.

"Handle Per Race" was down 12.40%.*

Field size although close to even, suffered by 0.17 horses per race.

UPDATE: Golden Gate Numbers will be up within the hour.

Note: Jessica confirms the above total handle losses with her look at the CHRIMS data, and relayed that to her readers earlier today.


Note II - *"Handle Per Race" is an often used figure by some racetracks who cut racedates and suffer handle losses. It tends to be a kinder number than gross handle, and it looks better to stakeholders. If we look at last year's "elite meet" at Monmouth, a race date reduction does not necessarily shrink the pie, and total handle can improve. While racing 49 days at Monmouth instead of 82, handle was still up by about $180 million.