Belmont Park benefits from longer meet, Triple Crown

An extra week of racing, terrific weather, and the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years helped the New York Racing Association post gains in total handle at the recently concluded Belmont spring-summer meet.

All-sources handle for the 59-day meet was $636,621,791, up 7.5 percent from the mark of $591,988,056 during 2014’s 54-day meet. Ontrack handle on Belmont Park’s races this year was $88,293,037, up 4.3 percent from $84,626,885 last year.

Average all-sources handle on Belmont’s races was $10,790,200, a 1.6 percent decline from the 2014 mark of $10,962,742. Average ontrack handle was $1,496,492, down 4.5 percent from last year’s figure of $1,567,164.

Attendance at Belmont Park in 2015 was 286,432, down 5.3 percent from 302,512 in 2014.

The Belmont Park spring-summer meet ran from April 29-July 19.

NYRA capped attendance for Belmont Stakes Day at 90,000, and that was how many people it said came to watch American Pharoah complete the first Triple Crown in 37 years by winning the Belmont Stakes handily. Last year, NYRA said a crowd of 102,199 witnessed California Chrome’s failed Triple Crown bid.

With 20 fewer betting interests than a year ago, all-sources handle for Belmont Stakes Day 2015 was $135,790,321 – the second-highest Belmont Stakes Day handle – down from last year’s $151,109,373. Ontrack handle for Belmont Day was $16,950,758, down from the 2014 figure of $19,200,102.

In 2015, Belmont ran 553 races (264 on turf) with an average of 7.7 betting interests per race, compared to 509 races (210 on turf) in 2014 with an average of 7.5 betting interests per race. This summer, inclement weather forced only 11 scheduled turf races to the dirt. Last summer, there were 39 races taken off the turf and moved to the main track.