Business ho-hummed rather than hummed

The bloom is off the carnations. Four years after California Chrome’s unsuccessful quest for the Triple Crown shattered handle records and produced stratospheric television ratings, and three years after American Pharoah ended a 37-year Triple Crown drought and was draped with the blanket of carnations awarded to the Belmont Stakes winner, this year’s Triple Crown win by Justify underwhelmed, at least when considering the raw business numbers.

Handle for the Belmont Stakes this year, despite ideal weather, was $3 million less than American Pharoah’s Belmont, and $10.6 million lower than California Chrome’s. Television ratings for the race dipped 33 percent compared with the 2015 broadcast, and dropped 37 percent compared to the 2014 broadcast, according to figures released by NBC, the Triple Crown’s longtime broadcaster.

Added up, the less-than-robust business figures indicate that American Pharoah’s Triple Crown sapped a large measure of anticipation and excitement among the general public to see the feat achieved, with a significant decline in interest from the casual bettors and viewers that contributed to the record-setting figures only three and four years ago.

NBC’s publicity department pointed out on Sunday that the television ratings for the 2007 World Series, won by the Boston Red Sox, took a nearly identical dip as this year’s Belmont when compared with the 2004 World Series. In 2004, the Red Sox ended a championship drought that stretched back to 1918. The comparison seemed apt.

And despite the downward trends, the Belmont Stakes and its supporting card posted healthy numbers when viewed from inside the racing industry.

Total handle for the entire 13-race card was up 1.3 percent compared to the 2015 card, with the other 12 races other than the Belmont making up for the declines in the Belmont itself. The total handle of $137.5 million this year was the secondhighest handle ever for the Belmont card, behind the $150.3 million posted for the 13-race card in 2014 featuring California Chrome. Total handle in American Pharoah’s year was $135.8 million.

The gain in total wagering on this year’s card underscored the generally positive wagering trends in the racing industry over the past six months, a bump that has been attributed in large part to a change in tax rules implemented in the fall of last year. Under the new rules, far fewer payouts in parimutuel wagering qualify for automatic tax reporting and withholding, which has led to large gains in superexotic pools and multi-race wagers at many of the industry’s most popular tracks.

And there is no question that a Triple Crown is good for business. This year’s handle on the Belmont Stakes, $79.7 million, according to charts, was up 68 percent over last year’s Belmont, when no Triple Crown was on the line, and the total handle for the card was up 46.6 percent compared with last year’s card.

Going into the Belmont, handle on both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes set records, despite sloppy conditions for both races. But the Derby has a cachet all its own, and handle for the Preakness Stakes is largely driven by the sport’s most devoted fans. With a Triple Crown on the line in the Belmont, handle gains or losses can be moved by whether casual racing fans show up in larger numbers than the previous Triple Crown bid.

The overnight rating for the Belmont Stakes broadcast was an 8.1, with a 19 share. In 2014, the rating was a 12.7, with a 30 share. In 2015, the rating was a 12.3, with a 27 share. While ratings are numerical measures, share measures the number of televisions in use that are tuned to a specific broadcast. Clearly this year’s Triple Crown bid was not viewed as enthusiastically as the ones prior to it.

Part of that could be due to the abbreviated career of the winning horse this year, Justify, who did not start until he was 3 years old. The Belmont Stakes was Justify’s sixth race of his career, all of them coming within a span of 111 days. California Chrome went into the Belmont with 12 starts, while American Pharoah went into his Triple Crown bid with seven starts, many of them accompanied by superlative accolades regarding the horse’s chances to finally end the Triple Crown drought. Both horses had devoted fan bases, something Justify appeared to lack.

On-track on Saturday, Belmont’s operator, the New York Racing Association, said that attendance was 90,327, slightly above the 90,000 cap that the association implemented beginning in 2015 after several logistical problems marred the 2014 running, which drew more than 100,000 people. On-track handle for the full card was $16.2 million, the association said, with on-track handle on the Belmont itself totaling $6.9 million.

And aside from the weaker television viewing figures, the cameras on Saturday showed a full grandstand and packed apron of cheering fans. While the numbers this year may have indicated that the Triple Crown’s draw is not as strong as it was when it hadn’t been won for decades, the tens of thousands jammed into the track on Saturday showed that the Triple Crown is still a marquee event. Even with the decline, the television rating made the broadcast the highest-rated television program of the weekend.