Another Record Breaking Season @ Saratoga

[PaceAdvantage]

All-sources handle finished at record $878M with attendance of more than a million.

As another record-breaking 40-day Saratoga Race Course meet came to an end Sept. 5, many of the more than one million visitors to the Victorian-era oasis no doubt had one pertinent question to ask.

Will the construction at Belmont Park encourage the New York Racing Association to expand the 2023 season at Saratoga?

"We're looking at the same schedule for 2023. There's no conversation from our side about changing the structure of the meet," NYRA CEO and president Dave O'Rourke said. "Is it tempting? I'd say no. Forty days has worked well. Five days a week has worked well. Traditionally over the last several years we have met with the Chamber of Commerce up here to get some feedback, and we'll do that again in the fall. There's always talk about the dark days and you hear rumors about more days, but it's an annual rumor."

Read the rest here:

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-rac...on-at-saratoga

[The Arbiter]

For those who didn't click through, they also note the success of Saratoga Live and a strong TV rating this year for the Travers.

[alhattab]

Originally Posted by The Arbiter

For those who didn't click through, they also note the success of Saratoga Live and a strong TV rating this year for the Travers.

I thought the correlation of increasing handle with the increased TV exposure was very interesting. Overall handle was $570m in 2014, $880 2022. Not in the piece but FYI 2020 and 2019 were both a shade over $700M, 2018 was $660M (down from prior year due to weather), 2017 was $676M and 2016 and 2015 were both right around $650M.

[lamboguy]

i noticed that the wps pools looked enormous this year. i wonder if that was because they didn't allow the CAW in those pools after 2 minutes to post. not seeing your horses take big odds hits with the lead around the far turn looked a lot better than most other tracks. it helped keep people betting and not complaining and thinking or knowing they were getting screwed.

[rastajenk]

Our household did its fair share wagering off the Fox broadcasts. Not a lot: some $6 - $12 exacta wheels and some place/show bets from the spouse-unit based on appearance and physicality ( ! ), and some slightly larger tri wheels and pick X's once in a while from me: I got a Form on some of the big Saturdays, other days just went with name familiarity, trainer/jockey combos, etc.

But my point is that Saratoga got almost all of our action this summer; and TVG, with its rapid whip-around to various tracks that I had no interest in, generated almost no handle here.

[Andy Asaro]

What I like about the way handle is reported is that they break it down well like this:

The daily average handle was $21,955,299, the highest in history, and
average attendance was 26,890.

NYRA said Saratoga's on-track handle, which includes New York residents using
NYRA Bets, was up 10.5% to $152,274,728.

A total of 417 races were staged: 218 on the dirt and 199 on turf. The average field size was 7.8 runners, up a tick from the 7.7 last year.



https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.co...ratoga-season/

[pandy]

It was a great meet. I thought the first week was difficult to handicap but then it evened out and the races were competitive but not impossible to pick winners and good value winners (overlays). I haven't been able to find the percentage of winning favorites at the meet. Does anyone know? I don't see them on NYRA's site or Equibase.

I had a strong meet with winning Best Bets that paid $52.00 and $28.40. You never know with Saratoga, the racing is always good but it can be difficult to handicap. This year was a perfect balance, competitive racing but most of the winners were logical. One thing I hate is racing that produces a lot of winners that make no sense whatsoever. Saratoga was not like that.

Flavien Prat is about as good as it gets on turf - masterful.

On turf, posts 1 - 6 were by far the most favorable. If you bet posts 7 or higher, it has to be either a very dominant horse or a big overlay.

[BarchCapper]

Originally Posted by Andy Asaro

NYRA said Saratoga's on-track handle, which includes New York residents using
NYRA Bets, was up 10.5% to $152,274,728.

I'm taking this to mean that out-of-state visitors using NYRA Bets while physically at Saratoga/Belmont/Aqueduct do NOT count as on-track handle?

[westernmassbob]

The weather played a huge role in the record breaking season. Fewer scratches, more races on the turf …it was a “unicorn” season…meaning rare for those that don’t know.

[PaceAdvantage]

Originally Posted by westernmassbob

The weather played a huge role in the record breaking season. Fewer scratches, more races on the turf …it was a “unicorn” season…meaning rare for those that don’t know.

I know. That's why the headline to this story on the Bloodhorse site reads as folows

"NYRA Enjoys Another Record-Breaking Season at Saratoga" (emphasis mine).

They used the word "Another" because it's so rare...you know...like a unicorn.

[westernmassbob]

Originally Posted by PaceAdvantage

I know. That's why the headline to this story on the Bloodhorse site reads as folows

"NYRA Enjoys Another Record-Breaking Season at Saratoga" (emphasis mine).

They used the word "Another" because it's so rare...you know...like a unicorn.

I know ..the weather has nothing to do with it. C’mon. Go back and do some research, even NYRA has pointed out weather played a significant role in Saratoga’s success the last 2 years.

[Pigpen]

Originally Posted by PaceAdvantage

I know. That's why the headline to this story on the Bloodhorse site reads as folows

"NYRA Enjoys Another Record-Breaking Season at Saratoga" (emphasis mine).

They used the word "Another" because it's so rare...you know...like a unicorn.

You guys are like a couple of 6 year old children fighting all the time.

[lamboguy]

Originally Posted by westernmassbob

I know ..the weather has nothing to do with it. C’mon. Go back and do some research, even NYRA has pointed out weather played a significant role in Saratoga’s success the last 2 years.

it was more than weather this year. i pointed out the win pools did better. the fact that the broadcast was not only superb, but they only broadcast 1 track and really reported it as good as i've ever seen including Hong Kong. on a day to day basis, the high definition towered over other broadcasts. the stars of the whole show, THE HORSES, were excellent as well. i don't think anyone has ever seen a meet like Saratoga 2022 where there were so many races where the horse won by an inch or less.

[PaceAdvantage]

Originally Posted by Pigpen

You guys are like a couple of 6 year old children fighting all the time.

I'm not fighting.

I'm bathing in facts. It feels wonderful.

[westernmassbob]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

it was more than weather this year. i pointed out the win pools did better. the fact that the broadcast was not only superb, but they only broadcast 1 track and really reported it as good as i've ever seen including Hong Kong. on a day to day basis, the high definition towered over other broadcasts. the stars of the whole show, THE HORSES, were excellent as well. i don't think anyone has ever seen a meet like Saratoga 2022 where there were so many races where the horse won by an inch or less.

I agree 100%…that’s why I said weather played a role. Of course there we’re other contributing factors but anyone thinking the picture perfect virtually rain free season didn’t have anything to do with it is sadly mistaken.