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March Economic Indicators; Wagering And Purses Rise While Number Of Races Decline

Wagering on U.S. races, available and paid purses and the average field size, all saw increases to varying degrees, while the number of races declined during the month of March, according to information released by Equibase on Friday.

Total wagering of over $972 million on races during the month represented a 0.99% increase over the same period from 2022, while available purses of $102.8 million were up by 8.41%. The figure of over $98 million for paid purses in March was up 7.55%. However, the total number of race days dropped from 294 to 284 (3.40%) and the number of U.S. races was down from 2,469 in March 2023 to last month's tally of 2,398.

Average field size in March was up over a year ago, however, and checked in at an average of 7.54 runners, an increase of 0.82%. Average daily wagering was up by 4.54% to $3,422,734 and the average available purse number per race day was up 16.79% to $362,067 from the figure of $310,014 in 2022.

For the first quarter of 2024, wagering on U.S. races declined 4.04% to $2.590 billion. Available purse money was up 0.41%, while the paid purse money was down 0.53%. Average daily wagering of $3.44 million was up by 4.75% while the average available purses per race day increased by 14.11% to $354,826.

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Wagering on U.S. Races Declines in February

Wagering on U.S. races dipped 2.85% in February, with 11 fewer racing dates, in year-to-year comparisons released Tuesday by Equibase, while through two months of 2024, wagering is down 6.83% with 59 fewer race days than the same period in 2023. Wagering in February totaled $838,195,585, compared to $862,782,585 in February, 2023. Through two months, a total of $1,618,055,698 was wagered in U.S. races. That figure was $1,736,625,054 after two months of 2023.

While available purse money increased 6.44% to $86,413,218 in February, that figure year-to-date is down 4.03% to $164,357,301.

There were 252 race days in February, compared to 263 in 2023, bringing the year-to-date total to 469 versus 528 a year ago. There were 4,007 races in January and February, compared to 4,508 during that period in 2023.

Average field size rose slightly during the first two months of the year, from 7.66 in 2023 to 7.77 in 2024.

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Handle Drops by 3.7% in 2023 as Purses Also Take a Slight Dip

According to data released Friday by Equibase, handle in 2023 fell by $447,759,362 for a decline of 3.7 percent. Had handle not rebounded in December, which saw a 6.62% increase, the figures would have looked much worse.

Outside of the COVID year of 2020, this was the steepest decline based on percentage of handle since 2011. A total of $11,658,624,859 was wagered in 2023.

“I think we got quite a blip coming out of the pandemic when we were the only game in town,” said Marshall Gramm, an economics professor, horseplayer and the managing partner of Ten Strike Stable. “Now, I think we are feeling the real competition from sports betting. It's proliferated everywhere and at such a cheaper price point. Then we have small field sizes and the quality of the product is deteriorating. A lot of things have come together. The game is getting ever tougher for the real hardcore weekend warriors who would handle a couple hundred thousand to a million a year. They're finding this market to be a lot tougher. It's shark eats shark out there.”

In a surprising development, U.S. purses fell from $1,309,888,791 to $1,305,772,102, for a decline of .31 percent. With so much money being funneled into purses accounts from alternative forms of gambling, purses rose by 35.8% in 2021, the year after COVID. They were up 10.9 percent in 2022. With the casino market pretty saturated in this country, massive year-over-year increases in purses may be a thing of the past.

There was a reduction of 5.48% in the category of U.S. Race Days and a dip of 3.34 percent in U.S. starts.

In a somewhat encouraging development, the average field size actually showed a slight increase from 7.3 to 7.43.

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Wagering in 2023 Continues Slight Decline Through May

Worldwide commingled wagering on U.S. races fell year-to-date in 2023 by 2.81% from $5,288,282,017 last year to $5,139,620,402 this year when compared to corresponding figures in 2022. Paid-out purses rose by 2.85% as the number of race days fell by 1.87% and the number of races fell slightly from 12,515 in 2022 to 12,353 in 2023. The average available purses per race day experienced the most significant increase, a bump of almost 9% to $331,188 from 2022's $303,894. Average field size also rose from 7.33 starters in 2022 to 7.47 starters in 2023, year-to-date.

Despite record all-sources wagering on Kentucky Derby 149, May figures for 2023 fell by 1.54% from $1,414,453,489 last year to $1,392,723,387 this season and just about everything experienced a downturn with paid-out purses falling 2.69%, race days down 7.27%, number of races run down 6.89%, and the total number of starts down by 2.88% in May 2023. Average field size and available purses per race day were again up by 4.32% and 8.66%, respectively, while average wagering per race day had a bump of 6.18% this season.

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