{"id":230588,"date":"2022-09-06T23:55:38","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T04:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=230588"},"modified":"2022-09-07T15:27:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T20:27:26","slug":"saratoga-summer-meet-a-smash-878-2m-handle-sets-track-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/saratoga-summer-meet-a-smash-878-2m-handle-sets-track-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Saratoga Summer Meet a Smash, $878.2M Handle Sets Track Record"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Racing Authority (NYRA) wrapped up its summer horse racing season on Labor Day at Saratoga, and by all accounts, it was a highly successful meet at the Upstate New York track.<\/p>\n

\"Olympiad\"<\/a>
Jockey Junior Alvarado guides Olympiad to victory in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Sept. 3. Saratoga concluded its summer meet on Labor Day and reported a record handle of $878.2 million for the 40-day meet. (Image: NYRA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A record $878.2 million was wagered over the course of the 40-day meet, according to a NYRA<\/a> release. That smashed the previous record set a year ago of $815.5 million by nearly 8%. On-track betting, which includes wagers New York residents made through the NYRA Bets advance deposit wagering (ADW) platform, accounted for $152.3 million of the handle, up 10.5% from the $137.8 million wagered on-track last year.<\/p>\n

Nearly 1.1 million fans paid to attend a race day at the historic track in Saratoga Springs, marking the seventh straight year, 2020 excluded, that the track drew a seven-figure attendance total.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis summer\u2019s record handle, incredibly strong attendance, and the highest-ever viewership of Saratoga Live<\/i>\u00a0on FOX Sports demonstrate the enduring and expanding appeal of Saratoga Race Course,\u201d said NYRA President and CEO Dave O\u2019Rourke in a statement.<\/p>\n

The meet included 417 races, of which 218 were run on the dirt track, and the races drew an average field of 7.8 entries. That\u2019s comparable to last year\u2019s totals of 416 overall races and a 7.7 entry average.<\/p>\n

The lone discrepancy was in the number of dirt races. In 2021, 242 races were held on dirt. Inclement weather led to 45 turf races moving to the dirt in 2021, compared to just 16 for that reason this year.<\/p>\n

Epicenter Stars at the Spa<\/h2>\n

The highlight of the meet came on Aug. 27, when Epicenter earned his first Grade 1 stakes win with a convincing 5-1\/4 length victory over a tough field in the Travers Stakes.<\/p>\n

After experiencing a couple gut-wrenching defeats in Triple Crown races, a trip to the Spa was just what trainer Steve Asmussen\u2019s colt needed. The Travers was one of two wins Epicenter posted during the meet. The other came on July 30 in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy.<\/p>\n

The Travers Stakes also broke a record as the handle for the 13-race card<\/a> reached $52.1 million.<\/p>\n

Barring injury, Epicenter is heading for the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic on Nov. 5 in Lexington, KY, where he\u2019ll likely try to give Flightline his first career loss. It\u2019s also possible that Epicenter may run once more before the Breeders\u2019 Cup.<\/p>\n

NYRA Racing Resumes Next Week<\/h2>\n

In New York, racing returns Downstate next week. However, rather than race the traditional fall meet at Belmont, the action will take place at Aqueduct in Queens because of construction underway at NYRA’s Nassau County track.<\/p>\n

Dubbed \u201cBelmont at the Big A,\u201d the 28-day meet will start on Sept. 15 and run through Oct. 30. The meet will feature 41 stakes races, including 23 graded stakes. Purses for those stakes races will total nearly $10 million.<\/p>\n

Among the stakes races on the card is the Oct. 1 Champagne Stakes. The mile race serves as one of the early prep races for the Kentucky Derby. The winner of that race will also earn an automatic entry in the Nov. 4 Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile at Keeneland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Racing Authority (NYRA) wrapped up its summer horse racing season on Labor Day at Saratoga, and by all accounts, it was a highly successful meet at the Upstate New York track. A record $878.2 million was wagered over the course of the 40-day meet, according to a NYRA release. That smashed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":230589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33810,14577],"tags":[81900,34,82418],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSaratoga Summer Meet a Smash, $878.2M Handle Sets Track Record<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Upstate New York horse racing track also drew more than 1 million paid visitors during the 40-day meet that ended on Labor Day\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/saratoga-summer-meet-a-smash-878-2m-handle-sets-track-record\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saratoga Summer Meet a Smash, $878.2M Handle Sets Track Record\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Upstate New York horse racing track also drew more than 1 million paid visitors during the 40-day meet that ended on Labor Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/saratoga-summer-meet-a-smash-878-2m-handle-sets-track-record\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-07T04:55:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-07T20:27:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Olympiad2_JCGC22_810x430.29efef688a4e10b8badbd46eef125a25.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"430\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/saratoga-summer-meet-a-smash-878-2m-handle-sets-track-record\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/saratoga-summer-meet-a-smash-878-2m-handle-sets-track-record\/\",\"name\":\"Saratoga Summer Meet a Smash, $878.2M Handle Sets Track Record\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/saratoga-summer-meet-a-smash-878-2m-handle-sets-track-record\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/saratoga-summer-meet-a-smash-878-2m-handle-sets-track-record\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Olympiad2_JCGC22_810x430.29efef688a4e10b8badbd46eef125a25.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-07T04:55:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-07T20:27:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2\"},\"description\":\"The Upstate New York horse racing track also drew more than 1 million paid visitors during the 40-day meet that ended on Labor Day\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/saratoga-summer-meet-a-smash-878-2m-handle-sets-track-record\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/saratoga-summer-meet-a-smash-878-2m-handle-sets-track-record\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/saratoga-summer-meet-a-smash-878-2m-handle-sets-track-record\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Olympiad2_JCGC22_810x430.29efef688a4e10b8badbd46eef125a25.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Olympiad2_JCGC22_810x430.29efef688a4e10b8badbd46eef125a25.png\",\"width\":810,\"height\":430,\"caption\":\"Jockey Junior Alvarado guides Olympiad to victory in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Sept. 3. 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He also specializes in sports betting and horse racing. Steve is a veteran reporter and brings more than two decades of experience covering sports, business and politics. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Steve has also covered major collegiate and professional sports for the Associated Press and the Louisville Courier-Journal and is frequently featured on local network TV newscasts and podcasts for his horse racing business and legislative expertise. A Reuters contributor, he has also previously served as editor for Government Security News. Steve lives in Louisville, Kentucky -- the epicenter of the US horse racing industry -- with his wife and son. He is also an avid poker player, having learned from his uncle as a wholesome after-school pastime with cookies and milk. 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