Total handle, attendance up at Belmont fall meet

All-sources handle was up while ontrack handle was down at the 2015 Belmont Park fall meet, according to statistics released Friday by the New York Racing Association.

All-sources handle for the 38-day meet, which ran Sept. 11 to Nov. 1, was $315,826,290, a 7.2 percent increase from the $294,710,551 figure for the 38-day fall meet in 2014. Ontrack handle was $39,989,451, a 6.3 percent decrease from $42,697,719.

Total attendance at the Belmont fall meet was 108,246 up, 5.5 percent from the 102,566 reported in 2014.

In 2015, there were 359 races run at the Belmont fall meet, 156 of which were conducted on turf. There were 39 races taken off the turf, 33 of which occurred during a one week period, Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. In 2014, there were 365 races run during the Belmont fall meet, including 152 on turf, with 47 scheduled grass races rained off to the main track.

NYRA reported average field size for the 2015 fall meet as 8.15 (2,927 for 359 races), compared with 7.96 (2,906 over 365 races) in 2014.

NYRA had mixed results on two of its biggest days. Total handle on Jockey Club Gold Day was $15.5 million, down 22 percent from the $19.9 million handled in 2014. Rain did mar this year’s Jockey Club Gold Cup card.

Conversely, handle on New York Showcase Day was $14.2 million, up 10.5 percent compared with $12.9 million handled in 2014.