Daily handle down 4 percent at Louisiana Downs meet

Louisiana Downs closed its 84-date meet Sept. 26 with a small decline in average daily handle on its races, but a double-digit increase in handle on Super Derby Day.

Louisiana Downs, which puts on seven- and eight-race cards for most of the season, handled an average $768,638 a program, down 4 percent from the corresponding meet in 2017, according to figures provided by officials. The average daily handle on its races offtrack was $725,958, and ontrack, $42,679.

Handle on the Super Derby Day program of 13 races Sept. 2 was $1,943,318, up 12 percent.

Louisiana Downs also reported average handle per race was $109,619, up 3 percent.

“We are encouraged by the increase in our per-race handle and the momentum we saw at the end of the meet, highlighted by a very strong closing-day handle,” Eric Halstrom, director of operations for Louisiana Downs, said in a press release. “It remains difficult to attract horses to Northwest Louisiana, and the reduction in the number of races we ran in 2018 is a reflection of that. We will work hard in the months to come to build momentum with both horsemen and patrons for our 2019 live racing season.”

The number of races was down 7 percent from last year, Halstrom said.