2020 KY Derby action less than half of prior years

[Half Smoke]

...................................



Kentucky Derby........parimutuel handle................WinPlaceShow Pool




2020.......................................$31,110 ,660


2019........................................$65,37 6,107


2018........................................$62,33 6,448







2020 action less by more than half compared to prior years






*

[KingAnon]

I'm surprised it wasn't worse with no one being there. The vast majority of the people at the Derby don't know anything about racing, but are there for the party.

[dilanesp]

I don't think Churchill has anything to worry about. It was on a different date than everyone is used to, Churchill had no spectators (I know a ton of money is off track, but the more than 100,000 on track every year do bet!), many places where the Derby is simulcast every year are also closed to spectators (for instance, we always get a big Derby handle here in Southern California at Santa Anita (or Hollywood Park back in the day) and that didn't happen this year), etc.

I'd say they did very well considering all the obstacles.

[lamboguy]

i saw races at Will Rodgers and Fonner Park handle $10 million on a tuesday afternoon this year when the government was handing out unemployment and stimulus checks.

no one has had a check now in over a month.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

i saw races at Will Rodgers and Fonner Park handle $10 million on a tuesday afternoon this year when the government was handing out unemployment and stimulus checks.

no one has had a check now in over a month.

That too.

[GMB@BP]

Well there had been this whole narrative that racing was gain new steam with the pandemic, fri and sat numbers kinda blew that apart. It was a false narrative anyway as deeper dives have not supported it. Saratoga for instance the last month has regularly had handles the lowest in a long time.

[PaceAdvantage]

Almost 10% of the country is unemployed...and has been for quite a while. And those that do still have jobs are probably saving as much as they can just to be safe.

There's a reason why people aren't betting on racing...they don't have any disposable income.

Where have you people been living recently? You do realize what is happening out there, right?

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by GMB@BP

Well there had been this whole narrative that racing was gain new steam with the pandemic, fri and sat numbers kinda blew that apart. It was a false narrative anyway as deeper dives have not supported it. Saratoga for instance the last month has regularly had handles the lowest in a long time.

Saratoga, as I said at the time, was a NYRA blunder. They spent all that money moving everyone up there to accomplish... nothing they couldn't have accomplished at Belmont.

[Jeff P]

Not saying the economy didn't have anything to do with it. Obviously, it did.

Just looking at handle numbers for Saturday on Labor Day Weekend last year vs. this year, both Saratoga and Del Mar fared much better percentage-wise than Churchill did with the Derby:

SAR2019 $29.88M   
SAR2020 $23.11M
         -22.66%

DMR2019 $13.73M   
DMR2020 $13.50M
          -1.68%

If the bulk of the fall-off in Derby handle was economy related, I'm thinking both Saratoga and Del Mar would have seen a fall-off in handle similar to the Derby.

Imo, there's more going on here than just the economy.

I'm thinking moving the Derby to Labor Day weekend didn't work out that well for Churchill because:

Churchill's main competition (this year) was Saratoga and Del Mar as opposed to Belmont and a winding down Santa Anita meet. (Imo, much tougher company.)

Also missing this year were 100k plus fans on track at Churchill.

Perhaps more important, there's the tens of thousands of horseplayers across the US and Canada who normally spend Derby Day at a brick and mortar simulcast facility. For a lot of them (myself included) that wasn't an option this year.

For a lot of people, there's something about being there in person (even if 'there' happens to be your local track or otb) that translates to Derby Fever.

Imo, Derby Fever is what makes the Derby a special event.

I don't know about anyone else - but I did not experience much in the way of Derby Fever this year.



-jp

.

[castaway01]

Derby Day is by far the biggest special event day in racing, and the "special event" part was taken away by everything we're all aware of that's going on in the world. I don't see how you can make even an apples-to-bowling balls comparison on the handle numbers.

[oughtoh]

I got fed up with NBC and turned it off until right before the Derby started and quit betting for the rest of the day.

[The_Turf_Monster]

The only way to even get anything out of this is a determination on whether ADW wagering dropped. That’s the only constant still available to all from last year but that’s still apples to oranges when you compare a 15 horse field to a 20 horse field

I still can’t believe they couldn’t fill a 20 horse field with a handful of dreamers looking to try to sneak into the money

[PaceAdvantage]

Originally Posted by Jeff P

Not saying the economy didn't have anything to do with it. Obviously, it did.

Just looking at handle numbers for Saturday on Labor Day Weekend last year vs. this year, both Saratoga and Del Mar fared much better percentage-wise than Churchill did with the Derby:

SAR2019 $29.88M   
SAR2020 $23.11M
         -22.66%

DMR2019 $13.73M   
DMR2020 $13.50M
          -1.68%

If the bulk of the fall-off in Derby handle was economy related, I'm thinking both Saratoga and Del Mar would have seen a fall-off in handle similar to the Derby.

Imo, there's more going on here than just the economy.

I'm thinking moving the Derby to Labor Day weekend didn't work out that well for Churchill because:

Churchill's main competition (this year) was Saratoga and Del Mar as opposed to Belmont and a winding down Santa Anita meet. (Imo, much tougher company.)

Also missing this year were 100k plus fans on track at Churchill.

Perhaps more important, there's the tens of thousands of horseplayers across the US and Canada who normally spend Derby Day at a brick and mortar simulcast facility. For a lot of them (myself included) that wasn't an option this year.

For a lot of people, there's something about being there in person (even if 'there' happens to be your local track or otb) that translates to Derby Fever.

Imo, Derby Fever is what makes the Derby a special event.

I don't know about anyone else - but I did not experience much in the way of Derby Fever this year.



-jp

.

Are you not considering just how much money is bet on the Derby by non-hardcore players? Compare that to percentage of handle bet on Del Mar and Saratoga by non-hardcore players...

And therein will lie at least some (maybe a good portion) of the drop off in Derby handle...a TON more people bet the Derby every year than ever bet a race at Saratoga or Del Mar.

I would venture a guess that the hardcore players who make up a really good chunk of Del Mar and Saratoga handle aren't going to restrict their outlay as much as the everyday person who ONLY bets the Derby but didn't this year because of the economy.

[MJC922]

Yea there's just too much else going on right now to make any sort of comparisons or draw conclusions IMO. Riots are going on every night in my city, horse racing isn't on the radar for casuals. Even with the TVG ads I saw that were nice.

[GMB@BP]

Originally Posted by Jeff P

Not saying the economy didn't have anything to do with it. Obviously, it did.

Just looking at handle numbers for Saturday on Labor Day Weekend last year vs. this year, both Saratoga and Del Mar fared much better percentage-wise than Churchill did with the Derby:

SAR2019 $29.88M   
SAR2020 $23.11M
         -22.66%

DMR2019 $13.73M   
DMR2020 $13.50M
          -1.68%

If the bulk of the fall-off in Derby handle was economy related, I'm thinking both Saratoga and Del Mar would have seen a fall-off in handle similar to the Derby.

Imo, there's more going on here than just the economy.

I'm thinking moving the Derby to Labor Day weekend didn't work out that well for Churchill because:

Churchill's main competition (this year) was Saratoga and Del Mar as opposed to Belmont and a winding down Santa Anita meet. (Imo, much tougher company.)

Also missing this year were 100k plus fans on track at Churchill.

Perhaps more important, there's the tens of thousands of horseplayers across the US and Canada who normally spend Derby Day at a brick and mortar simulcast facility. For a lot of them (myself included) that wasn't an option this year.

For a lot of people, there's something about being there in person (even if 'there' happens to be your local track or otb) that translates to Derby Fever.

Imo, Derby Fever is what makes the Derby a special event.

I don't know about anyone else - but I did not experience much in the way of Derby Fever this year.



-jp

.

I agree with everything you said, the bulk of the downturn in their numbers was the moving of the date, no in person and a very small OTB type presence.

That being said if you look at Saratoga this past month, the way it had been trending year over year, and even back to a few months ago, it was no shock it turned out to be such a bad day.

I have no idea how Del Mar is doing, I have been too busy to follow and have seen less on social media about their numbers. I would expect they are just as bad as everywhere else the past 6 weeks.