Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
TRIPLE CROWN Handle strong on all three races
It was a record-setting Triple Crown, even if two of the records came with asterisks.
Handle records were set for every race in the Triple Crown this year, as well as their undercards, although the records for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes and its undercard were the ones that drew the asterisks. Those records were set for a Belmont in which a Triple Crown was not on the line. Since handle and attendance totals for a Triple Crown try are supercharged and the race struggles to command attention from a mass audience when no Triple Crown is possible, it’s a legitimate record.
For the racing industry, the strength of the wagering totals for the Triple Crown races was welcome news during a hard spring in which the sport came under considerable criticism due to a spate of catastrophic injuries in Southern California. The fatalities have led to calls from critics for racing to be banned outright and to protests at tracks across the country, including one outside the gates of Belmont on Saturday.
Yet the harsh atmosphere enveloping the sport did not translate into reduced wagering totals on the races, underscoring that racing’s core fans remain interested in the sport and that they continue to be especially engaged on racing’s biggest days.
For Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, total handle this year was $53.24 million. While that was a 33.2 percent drop from wagering on the race last year, when Justify won the race at a short price and became the sport’s 13th Triple Crown winner, the figure was 12.2 percent higher than the total for the last time no Triple Crown was possible, in 2017, when betting was $47.46 million. The Belmont this year and last year had a 10-horse field, while the 2017 running had an 11-horse field.
For the 13-race card at Belmont on Saturday, total handle was $102.2 million, according to charts, a decline of 25.7 percent compared to full-card handle last year but a jump of 9 percent compared to handle on the 2017 card and just besting the record set in 2016. The total number of runners in the 13 races this year was 102, compared to 120 last year and 121 in 2017. The total number of runners on the 2016 card was 125.
This year’s Belmont’s field did not include the horse that finished first under the wire in the Kentucky Derby, Maximum Security, but it did include the Preakness winner, War of Will, who went off as the second choice. The field also did not include Country House, who was elevated to first when Maximum Security was disqualified in the Derby. Sir Winston won the Belmont Stakes at 10-1 odds.
The handle total this year was boosted by a new pick six that linked races on the Friday card at Belmont Park with races on the Saturday card. The new pick six attracted $656,139 in bets, at a 20-cent minimum, according to the chart. A similar wager was implemented for the first time this year for the Friday and Saturday cards at Churchill Downs on Derby weekend.
The New York Racing Association, which operates Belmont Park, announced attendance of 56,217 this year, down slightly from announced attendance of 57,729 in 2017. In 2018, attendance was capped at 90,000.
Weather on Saturday was sunny and mild, and the track was labeled fast for the entire card.
The commingled handle totals for the Belmont do not include $4.36 million in separate-pool wagering in Japan, where wagering on the Belmont was allowed this year due to the presence in the field of Master Fencer, a Japanese-based horse. Master Fencer finished fifth.
Japan’s racing authority relaxed rules on allowing for betting on foreign races in 2016, provided a Japan-based horse starts in the foreign race. Shortly thereafter, NYRA implemented a $1 million bonus for any Japan-based horse that wins the Belmont.
The television rating for the Belmont broadcast on NBC was a 3.6 with a share of 9, according to the network, well down from last year’s rating but an improvement over the figure for the broadcast in 2017. The 3.6 rating was less than half of the 8.1 rating generated by the broadcast last year, but up 6 percent over the 3.4 rating posted in 2017.
Although handle was down for early races on Saturday, those declines were largely related to short fields, with bettors saving their bankrolls for later in the day on a card that had eight Grade 1 races. Handle on the later races improved substantially on the 2017 handle figures, with handle on the Met Mile, a much-anticipated race this year, up 16.3 percent compared with 2017, according to charts. Handle on the Manhattan Stakes, which directly preceded the Belmont, was up 9.3 percent compared with the 2017 running.
Like the host tracks of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, NYRA has attempted to make the Belmont Stakes the centerpiece of a two- or threeday racing festival, carding stakes races on the Thursday and Friday cards prior to its Triple Crown race that might otherwise be placed on weekend cards. Handle for the association’s Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, running Thursday through Saturday, was $131.9 million, according to NYRA, with $9.74 million in betting on Thursday and $19.96 million on Friday.