Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
With Ky. Derby winner out, handle figures dip 5 percent
Betting on Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore was down 5 percent compared to the record wagering on the race last year, according to charts of the races. The decline was most likely due to the absence both of this year’s Kentucky Derby winner and the intense publicity surrounding the second leg of the Triple Crown last year.
Total betting on the Preakness this year, including all multi-leg bets ending in the race, was $65.3 million, according to charts, compared to the record total last year of $68.7 million. Ten days prior to Saturday’s Preakness Rich Strike, the Derby winner, was declared from the race in order to point to the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes.
Pimlico set the wagering record last year despite limiting the on-track crowd to 10,000 due to coronavirus protocols. This year, there were no limits on attendance, but the size of the crowd was certainly impacted by the area’s hot weather. Temperatures reached into the 90s in Baltimore on Saturday as a heat wave affected most of the mid-Atlantic and East Coast. Pimlico did not release attendance figures.
The win pools for the Preakness showed several glaring inefficiencies, most notably on the odds for horses that were listed longest on the morning line. Fenwick, 50-1 on the morning line, went off at 13-1, while Happy Jack, 30-1 on the morning line, went off at 11-1. The inefficiencies could almost certainly be traced to the win by Rich Strike in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago as the longest shot in the race, a result that probably led many casual bettors to place bets on the longest horses listed in the program, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle again.
It was not to be. The Preakness was won by the second choice on the morning line, Early Voting, who went off as the third choice, behind favored Epicenter and the filly Secret Oath. Early Voting paid almost 6-1, after being listed on the morning line at 7-2. Epicenter went off at 6-5, after being 9-5 up until approximately a half-hour prior to post time. Fenwick finished last, with Happy Jack in eighth.
This year’s Preakness had nine horses, compared to 10 last year. Field size is an important factor in wagering totals.
For the entire 14-race card at Pimlico on Saturday, total wagering was $105.5 million, down 7 percent from the record total of $113.4 million last year, according to charts of the races.
In total, there were 110 horses in the 14 races on Saturday, compared to 125 last year, a decline of 12 percent.
Many of the undercard races had much smaller fields than the same races in similar spots last year, including the 10th race, the James W. Murphy Stakes, which had a field of eight, compared to 13 runners in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint last year in the 10th spot. Handle on the James W. Murphy this year was 38.6 percent lower than on the Turf Sprint last year. The 11th race on Saturday’s card had eight horses, compared to 11 in the same spot last year, and handle was down 16.9 percent.
In addition, the last race on the Preakness card this year was a Grade 1 race for Arabian horses, whereas last year Pimlico carded a starter allowance for Thoroughbreds. Handle on the 14th race this year, with eight horses, was down 14.8 percent compared to handle on the last race last year, which had 12 horses.
Ironically, last year’s Preakness benefited from the controversy surrounding the Derby two weeks earlier, when a positive test for a regulated medication by the winner Medina Spirit dominated mainstream news for the week leading up to the second leg of the Triple Crown. Unlike this year’s Derby winner, Medina Spirit was pointed to the Preakness despite the positive test, but he was only allowed to start after Pimlico officials insisted that the horse face additional pre-race testing and security precautions.