Total wagering on the five Breeders’ Cup races held on Friday at Santa Anita Park in Southern California was down 8.9 percent compared to the record amount of wagering on the five races at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., last year, according to charts of the races. Wagering was down despite the races starting nearly two hours later than last year, and despite the addition of a pick five that ended on the first Breeders’ Cup race. Handle on that pick five was $2.37 million. In total, $44.88 million was bet on the five races, including all multi-race bets that ended in a Breeders’ Cup race, down from $49.27 million last year, according to the charts. A total of 58 horses ran in the five races, compared to 61 in the five races last year. Still, the Breeders’ Cup handle total last year at Keeneland was up 16.4 percent compared to 2021, when the event was held at Del Mar Racetrack in Southern California. Compared to that event, which had $42.3 million in total handle, the Friday handle this year was up 6.1 percent. The Del Mar event did not have an early pick five paying off in the Breeders’ Cup sequence. :: Breeders' Cup Shop: DRF Past Performances available now According to Breeders’ Cup, total handle for the 10-race card was $61.75 million, which would be the second-highest Friday handle for the event, just beating the $61.70 million that was bet at the 2021 event. Only one race in this year’s sequence, the Juvenile Fillies, held as the second Breeders’ Cup race on the 10-race card, generated positive gains in the straight pools and the exacta, trifecta, and superfecta pools. Totals were down in every single one of those pools for the other four races, and the multi-race pools that ended with the last Breeders’ Cup race, the Juvenile Turf, were all down by double digits. The declines are difficult to explain given the competitiveness of the fields and the fact that the slate of races began at 5 p.m. Eastern. Last year, when the races were held in the Eastern time zone, the Breeders’ Cup slate began at 3 p.m., when many people on the East Coast were still at work. The declines in the straight and single-race exotic pools accelerated as the day wore on, a trend that could be explained by the long prices posted in many of the pools. All but one of the exacta and trifecta pools contained horses at odds of longer than 15-1, results that reduced the number of winners in the pari-mutuel pools. That cuts into churn, or the ability of winners to wager their winnings into subsequent races. Only one favorite, Unquestionable, won a Breeders’ Cup race on Friday, but he was followed to the line by Mountain Bear, at 22.30-1. In the Juvenile, the two lowest-priced horses finished second and third, but they were beaten by Fierceness, a 16.50-1 shot who was the sixth choice in the nine-horse field. Attendance for the card was 43,377, according to Breeders’ Cup, a slight gain over the attendance last year of 39,851 at Keeneland, when tickets were capped due to the small footprint of the Keeneland property. The last time the event was held at Santa Anita, in 2019, attendance for the Friday card was 41,243. This year’s event was the first time since the 2019 event that tickets could be bought on a walk-up basis. On-track handle was $6.54 million, according to Breeders’ Cup. Nationwide, handle on U.S. Thoroughbred races has been in decline for the past six months, but that decline has occurred in step with a similarly sized reduction in races. The average handle per race, nationally, has held steady. Racing officials at some tracks have been expressing concerns that the widespread introduction of sports wagering in nearly all U.S. states could cannibalize betting on horse racing, especially in the fall, when the betting markets are dominated by football. The Breeders’ Cup continues on Saturday at Santa Anita, with the first of nine Breeders’ Cup races going off at 11:30 Pacific, or 2:30 Eastern. The Classic will be run as the seventh race in the Breeders’ Cup sequence for the first time this year, rather than the ninth, due to a commitment by NBC Sports, Breeders’ Cup’s broadcast partner, to prime-time college football coverage. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.