Saratoga Opening Day Handle

[CBedo]

"Opening Day was an unqualified success," --NYRA president

I saw that handle was up quite a bit from last year (which if I remember right was very rainy opening day). I'm glad that they had a good day and everyone is happy, but if you look back to 2007, this year is still down from then, whether you look at on track handle or attendance.

[Java Gold@TFT]

It was down from 2007 but weather is always the big factor at Saratoga. 2007 was perfect and set the opening day records for attendence and handle. 2008 was a disaster as it poured all day. yesterday was a mix. The rain didn't come until about 3:30 but even with the threat of T'storms they still got 25,000 and both the on track and all source handles were pretty good.

Right now the rain has stopped although it did rain hard at times last night and the storms lasted through much of the night. It's supposed to dry out during the day so maybe the later turf races will stay on and the handle can go back up again compared to last year.

[CBedo]

I did find it interesting that if you looked at the per capita on track handle, the number is down lfrom last year, but up from two years ago (when the attendance was higher. I guess that means that the incremental person who comes (or decides to stay home) has less impact on the handle?

[Java Gold@TFT]

I did find it interesting that if you looked at the per capita on track handle, the number is down lfrom last year, but up from two years ago (when the attendance was higher. I guess that means that the incremental person who comes (or decides to stay home) has less impact on the handle?

Per Capita at Saratoga is always a wash with the weather. Nice weather means lots of families in the picnic areas and lots of ladies with their hats. Neither of them bet too much but they inflate the attendence. In the mean time no matter what the weather is you will always find the 1,000 or so who will bet $500-$1000 per race. Those bettors don't go away so as the attendence goes down due to circumstance the per capita will always go up. Still, yesterday was about $150 and on good days it's more like $200 on track. Wait until the week before the Travers if the weather holds up.. That's when the money will start to roll in on track instead of online.

[alhattab]

"Opening Day was an unqualified success," --NYRA president

I saw that handle was up quite a bit from last year (which if I remember right was very rainy opening day). I'm glad that they had a good day and everyone is happy, but if you look back to 2007, this year is still down from then, whether you look at on track handle or attendance.

Also I'm pretty sure opening day was about 1 week later this year and that may have contributed also. If so they are going to pay for it on the back end with Labor Day being so late.

In any event, I think we all hope they have a great meet and that we get to see consistent top notch racing for a change.