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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“The Fall Meet was terrific from start to finish, and we are thankful for the strong support of our participants, fans and community,” Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin said. “It was rewarding to see crowds line the rail through the very last race every day, savoring all the excitement this season had to offer. And with the recent announcement of our new Paddock Building and Saddling Paddock enhancements, we look forward to offering even more unique experiences for our guests in the future.”

All-sources wagering (not including whole-card simulcasting at Keeneland) for the 17-day Fall Meet, held Oct. 6-28, totaled $201,739,442, down 3.43% from last year's record Fall Meet of $208,907,655.

On-track wagering of $16,266,007 marked an increase of 5.96% from last year's $15,351,232. Average daily purses of $1,135,604 during the Fall Meet attracted fields that averaged 9.1 starters per race.

Jockeys Tyler Gaffalione and Luis Saez, who finished 1-2 in the rider standings during this year's Spring Meet, also battled for top honors this Fall with Gaffalione securing the lead on closing day for his fourth Fall Meet title and seventh overall.

Trainer Brad Cox earned his fourth consecutive Fall Meet training title and fifth overall while Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's Godolphin and Richard Rigney's Rigney Racing tied for leading owner with four wins each.

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The key indicators to measure the success of a race meet were either up or maintained a lofty level at the FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs, which came to a close Wednesday.

Purses paid out to horse owners were a record for the 12th straight year. Money wagered was another record, increasing 4.3%. Field sizes remained among the highest in the country with an average of 10.42 starters per race.

“Kentucky Downs' ownership led by Ron Winchell and Marc Falcone continually pushes us to present racing in a different way, to look for ways to innovate and improve,” said Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs' Vice President for Racing. “We put a premium on creating a memorable experience for our guests, horsemen and our sponsors. Horse owners put on the show. We want to show our recognition and appreciation for that with our hospitality.”

All-sources wagering on the meet totaled $83,640,261, up from $80,175,928 last year. A total of $25,065,000 was offered in purses for 76 races, including $10,523,750 in purse supplements from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. Of the 11 stakes offering $1 million or more in purses, 10 were won by Kentucky-breds.

Total purses paid out this meet is still being verified but is certain to top last year's $17,863,177 for 73 races. Seventy-two different ownership entities won races.

Damon Thayer, Kentucky's Senate Majority Floor Leader, has seen up close the transformation of Kentucky Downs.

“Yes, the financial success is there with the handle being up,” said Thayer, who attended five of the meet's seven days. “But it also has a cool vibe factor going for it. I also think the prestige of the meet is starting to get baked in across North America. It used to be kind of a quirky, novelty track, and there were some people who wouldn't run here. Now everybody is coming. All the jockeys are here, all the trainers, the big outfits. It exemplifies what's going right with Kentucky racing.”

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With so much money available for purses and with such a short meet, some wonder why Kentucky Downs doesn't add race days? Nicholson said the main reason for not doing so is to make sure the turf course is not overused.

“What's obviously on everybody's mind these days is safety,” Nicholson said. “So, if I added a day, it would have to be a day where it would be almost like a spare day. Because the reality is we run 75 races over a turf course and we have three lanes. That means you're running an average of 25 races on each lane. That's a lot of pounding. I've got the best turf guy in the business with Butch Lehr, who was at Churchill for 45 years. But even Butch would shake his head and say, 'no, I wouldn't do it.' I think we're going to be at seven days for a little while until I can figure out how I can add a fourth lane.”

Kentucky Downs has always been known for having one of the lowest takeouts in the sport, so it came as a surprise when it announced that the takeout was going to be increased by one percent in all pools this year. The horseplayers weren't happy.

“It wasn't an easy decision and it wasn't made in a vacuum,” Nicholson said. “The decision was really a tough one and the reason behind it was that I had to find a way to find some revenue. It's great to have great big purses and we had a record handle last year. But when you're running only for two weeks, you have an inordinate amount of expenses to put on a temporary show. I have a lot of tents, I have a lot of temporary expenses. I have 60 people that live here temporarily, which means I put them up in hotels to pull off this show for two weeks or three. They're here typically for three weeks. So, I have a lot of expenses. They're all going up. Even the people that you see in between the races, those folks that are on the turf and they're tamping down those divots. Those folks used to work for $10 an hour. Now it's $25. So, you can see where my expenses have gone. On top of that, you we got a bill from HISA for $650,000 for a seven-day race meet. Before I was paying the state of Kentucky $48,000 for the same exact thing. Because our expenses have been skyrocketing, I felt like had to go a little higher.”

Will Kentucky Downs ever erect a grandstand? It's unlikely.

“I can't tell you many times people have said to me, 'I love this atmosphere, so don't ever change it,'” Nicholson said. “When it comes to putting up a grandstand, I think would change the genuine feel of of what Kentucky Downs is really all about. I think people love the ability to just pull up and tailgate at the top of the stretch or pull out their folding chairs and set up on the rail. That's the essence of what this place is. We want to try to improve every year, but not lose the real true essence of what this place is all about.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, WinStar Farm, XBTV.com, Stonestreet Farms, Lane's End and https://www.threechimneys.com/ West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Zoe Cadman, Bill Finley and Randy Moss reviewed the Saratoga meet, touching on what went wrong, what went right and the changes that may be coming to the upstate New York track. Those changes include moving the 2024 and 2025 GI Belmont S. to Saratoga while Belmont Park is being rebuilt and installing a synthetic track that would complement the dirt track and the two turf courses. Also, the team looked back at the GI Pacific Classic, won by Arabian Knight (Uncle Mo), as well as the 32-day suspension handed down to Del Mar rider Antonio Fresu for whip violations.

Click here to view the podcast video or here to listen to the audio version.

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In total, more than $60.4 million was wagered at the 24-day Ellis Park meet, $11 million more than 2022. Along with the sizable handle increase, the connections who raced at Ellis Park were rewarded with more than $14.1 million in prize money, an increase of 49% from 2022. (includes funds from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund).

“The racing season at Ellis Park has been a great success,” Ellis Park General Manager Matt Pressley said. “Our team delivered a top-class racing product for our fans on-track and around the country. We're grateful to everyone who competed with us this summer and to the horseplayers who supported us through the windows. Thanks to the continued investments of Churchill Downs Incorporated we can look forward to a thriving future of horse racing at Ellis Park.”

At the close of the summer season, jockey Gerardo Corrales, trainer Brad Cox and Godolphin wrapped up titles in their respective divisions.

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A total of $18,127,049.67 was wagered on Sunday's 13-race King's Plate card, eclipsing the previous record of $18,005,973.60 from the 2019 Queen's Plate. The record handle is also a significant increase from last year's Queen's Plate handle of $13.6 million.

“It's exciting to have ushered in a new era for the Plate in record-breaking fashion,” said Jim Lawson, CEO of Woodbine Entertainment. “We felt good about the buzz surrounding the first King's Plate in over 70 years and that was clearly backed up on Sunday through the energy of our sold-out crowd and the wagering support.”

The King's Plate race, won by Paramount Prince (Society's Chairman), brought in $4,455,176.26 in wagering, including a new record Win Pool of $1,179,172.71. The 17-horse field for the Plate was the largest since 2011.

“Our Racing Team did a great job putting together a competitive and appealing Plate card for horseplayers,” Lawson said. “I'm very proud of our entire team behind the scenes at Woodbine for their efforts. Now we aim to carry this momentum through the remainder of the season and the upcoming major stakes in September and October.”

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Using data from Del Mar, Cummings concluded that CAW players are betting more each year and that the amount of betting from “everyone else” is declining.

“Not only are the sharks growing, but the minnows are declining,” he said. “For the first time in this paper, were able to really separate how the CAW play has grown and how all other customers have in almost every pool shrunk. Total handle figures are often marketed in the industry press releases, they're touted. It looks like on an annual basis that not a whole lot has changed. That's not telling us the accurate picture. For years now, the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation has wanted to really dive into who's betting, how are they betting, how are they participating and how is the market changing? What we're seeing now more clearly than ever before is what's happening with all other customers. We're talking about people that may bet $10 a year or maybe even $2 million a year. They are a smaller percentage of the pools and declining.”

When asked if this could lead to a “doomsday” scenario, whereby the “sharks” have driven all the “minnows” out of the game, Cummings said that is in fact a concern.

“I'd call it a real threat,” he said. “And I would suggest that some of the biggest sharks are eating some of the smaller ones too.”

He estimated that CAW players now account for 33% of the total handle in U.S. racing

Cummings is not in favor of banning CAW players. He recognizes that if they go away overall handle would plummet, which could be catastrophic. The answer he says is to find ways to level the playing field when it comes to the sharks versus the minnows, starting with the takeout.

“Takeout rates have not come down commensurate with all of this money coming in (from CAW players) at low price points and driven by technology,” he said. “That's the opposite experience that investors have had in almost all other areas, where we have seen costs for customers come crashing down. The days of the $35 stock commission are long gone. And yet 50, 60, maybe even 70% of all trading on the stock market now is high-frequency trading. Ordinary investors in 401Ks and IRAs, regular mutual fund holders, exchange traded funds, different products have been created to allow ordinary investors to buy and hold. And their costs have come down from where they were 20 years ago. We have not seen that same evolution in American horse racing wagering, which remains one of the most expensive gambles out there.”

Cummings also called on the industry to end all jackpot bets. He has found that not only do they keep money out of circulation by cutting down on churn, but that the CAW players often come in and take home a disproportionate amount of the pool at the expense of the regular player.

“If you run a parimutuel wagering business and your goal is to keep collecting commissions on parimutuel wagering, then why introduce a bet that limits the number of times that a customer can keep coming back to your window and churning their money?” he said. “You're going in the complete opposite direction to all traditional business logic, which is you should drive customers back into your wagering pools. Yet, tracks continued to persist with these bets. The jackpots need to go as quickly as possible. Tracks need to revert to a traditional play, get that daily payout, get that churn up. The sport needs churn. It's better for every stakeholder along the way.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore,https://lanesend.com/  the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders,  1/st Racing, WinStar Farm, Lane's End, XBTV.com and https://www.threechimneys.com/ West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Bill Finley, Randy Moss and T.D. Thornton, took a look at the win by Two Phil's (Hard Spun) in the GIII Ohio Derby and his subsequent injury and retirement. There was a look back at the Royal Ascot meet, where one of the highlights was the win by the U.S. based 2-year-old filly Crimson Advocate (Nyquist) in the G2 Queen Mary S., and a look ahead at Saturday's GI Stephen Foster S. at Ellis Park. The podcastwrapped up with a discussion on a new proposed rule by the New York Gaming Commission which would require all horses to undergo checks by a veterinarian 72 hours prior to a race or a workout.

Click here to watch the Writers' Room podcast or here for the audio-only version.

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Handle is still down by 3.40% for the year.

The advances reversed a trend that began in October of last year. Handle fell by 4.93% in October and continued to drop over the next four months. From October through February, handle fell by a total of $263,808,165, for a decline of 5.8%.

The decline in handle has not affected purses, which continue to benefit from slot machines, historical horse racing and other non-racing sources. Total purses paid out in March added up to $94,783,996 for an increase of 9.16%. Through the first three months of the year, over $266 million in purses have been paid out, which represents an increase of 8.70%.

The numbers for average field size have kept pace with 2022 figures. The average field size for the year has been 7.59 starters per race, for an increase of 0.48%. And though many tracks have contracted their racing schedules in recent years, 6,977 races were run during the first three months of the year for an increase of 3.09%.

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On-track handle in 2022, which includes New York residents wagering through NYRA Bets, totaled $291,438,542, 9.2% higher than the 2021 total of $266,978,634.

Inclement weather forced the cancellation of six race days in 2022. As a result, NYRA conducted 196 live race days with average daily handle of $11,846,244.

Average field size for the 1,855 races contested in 2022 was 7.48, a 2.6% decrease from 2021.

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For the first time since 2019, Woodbine was able to hold a full season of racing. Over the course of 132 live dates, a total of 1,198 races were staged. The 2020 and 2021 seasons were delayed and interrupted to varying degrees by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We're very happy with the results of our 2022 season, our first full season in a few years,” said Jim Lawson, CEO of Woodbine Entertainment. “At the start of the pandemic, I felt that through determination and resiliency–which is the trademark of this industry–we would emerge stronger and this record all-sources handle is evidence we are on the right track.”

Woodbine officials also announced that the track took in a record $515 in foreign handle, surpassing the previous record of $420 million two years ago. The home market area was responsible for $87.2 million in handle.

An average of $519,016 was handled per race in 2022, higher than any pre-COVID season, while fields size was 8.2 runners per race, above the North American average.

“Our Racing Team did a fantastic job despite challenges in putting together competitive and sizable fields,” said Lawson. “Field size directly impacts our wagering and we're constantly looking at ways to keep our numbers healthy.”

Racing returns to the Toronto-area oval Saturday, Apr. 22, 2023. The King's Plate is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 20.

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