Single-race betting on the Belmont Stakes on Saturday night at Saratoga Racecourse in upstate New York fell 20.9 percent compared to single-race betting on the Belmont last year, according to charts of the races, a striking decline that reflected new policies in place at tracks operated by the New York Racing Association to restrict the play of computer-assisted wagering groups. Single-race bets, which include win, place, show, exacta, trifecta, and superfecta wagers, was $42.5 million, according to Saturday’s chart, an $11.3 million decline from last year’s total of $53.8 million for the single-race pools. This year’s Belmont had nine horses, compared to eight horses in last year’s field. Although post time for the Belmont was pushed up several minutes to avoid looming rainfall in the area, the most likely culprit for the decline is the restrictions that Saratoga’s operator, the New York Racing Association, put in place in February at its tracks to throttle down computer-assisted wagering in all pools with two minutes to post. Late last week, NYRA officials had said that betting by CAW players had dropped nearly 50 percent since the restrictions went into effect, declining from approximately 20-22 percent of all pools at NYRA’s tracks to 12-13 percent of handle. Late odd swings caused in large part by late betting by CAW groups has become a major cause of concern for many horseplayers. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. According to charts of the races on Saturday, betting on many of the races held prior to the Belmont was down by similar percentages, although the comparisons between this year’s card and last year’s card is also complicated by the fact that heavy rainfall led NYRA to run two of the most prominent races on the Belmont Stakes card on Sunday. The rescheduling caused many of the card’s multi-race bets to be canceled, including most of those ending in the Belmont. In total for this year’s Belmont, betting was $50.9 million, according to the chart, compared to $55.7 million last year, when the totals did not include a handful of multi-race bets, such as the pick 3, pick 4, pick 5, and pick 6. Betting on the other two races in the Triple Crown was also down this year, with total commingled wagering on the Kentucky Derby falling 1.8 percent and betting on the Preakness Stakes falling 8.0 percent.  For the entire 14-race card at Saratoga on Saturday, total betting was $116.1 million, up 13.9 percent over the 12-race card held last year. The $101.9 million bet on last year’s card was down 19 percent compared to the 2024 card, when betting was $125.8 million. Because of the heavy rainfall, many of the races on last year’s card had short fields, with 73 horses in total running in the 12 races, for an average field size of 6.1 horses per race. This year, 123 horses ran in the 14 races, for an average field size of 8.8 horses per race. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.