Colonial numbers mixed

The total average daily handle increased slightly during the Colonial Downs summer meet, but average attendance and ontrack handle were down significantly, according to figures released by the track.

Colonial closed Tuesday after a 40-day meet, up from 34 days last year, with its total average daily handle up 2 percent, to $1,082,819 a day. Average daily attendance dropped 6 percent to 2,028, while average ontrack handle declined 14 percent to $170,125.

The per-day figures were affected somewhat by a 10 percent decline, from 10.1 to 9.1, in the average number of races run per day because of weather-related cancellations early in two cards during the meet.

Colonial, which runs the vast majority of its races on turf, continued to have one of the strongest average field sizes in the country, at 8.7 horses, identical to last year.

Horacio Karamanos won the riding title with 66 wins and earnings of $1,208,658, both track records. Ferris Allen was the leading trainer, taking his sixth title at the track from nine meets. Allen saddled 24 winners from 138 starters.